Spare the Bayambang pupils

IF there is one Public Private Partnership project that has evidently gone awry, it is the project that involved the transfer of the Bayambang Central School to a new site.

While the local government, the private partner and the Department of Education sort out their differences, the fate of the more than 2,000 pupils of the school suddenly hangs in the balance. The pupils and their teachers now face the prospect of being evicted all because commercial and political interests suddenly became irreconcilable owing to legal complications that had risen, and has required judicial intervention.

The decision of Mr. William Chua, the private investor, to issue an ultimatum to the Bayambang government may very well be considered fair if one considers the context of the agreement he entered into. However, to make the defenseless pupils and their parents and teachers as his hostages makes his tact virtually terroristic. For Mr. Chua to demand the immediate eviction of the pupils who had no part in the agreement is both contemptible and condemnable, to say the least.

Mr. Chua, who willingly entered into the agreement with the local government, should direct the consequences or penalties for the default solely to the latter. In this case, he can opt to file damages against the government equivalent to his investment or compel the government to pay monthly rental over a mutually agreed period but to evict the pupils outright will justify a violent outrage by the communities not only in Bayambang but in the whole province.

Make the PPP work but spare the intended beneficiaries. They had nothing to do with it.

 

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The debate

IT is foolish enough for Jojo Binay to continuously ignore invites to attend the ongoing Senate probe on alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall parking building while he was mayor of Makati.  In his absence, he gets to be bashed in wild abandon. And then this, Binay challenging Sen. Trillanes to a debate.  Obviously, Binay is piqued as Trillanes, part of the three-man Blue Ribbon Sub-Committee together with Senators Cayetano and Pimentel investigating Binay’s alleged ill-gotten wealth, seems harshest on zeroing in on Binay’s alleged luxurious farm in Rosario, Batangas.  Trillanes, a soldier and a jailed coup plotter a decade back, accepted Binay’s challenge.

But what good will the debate do to Binay?  Save his ass from flak all over?  We doubt.  And will it quench the people’s thirst for truth?  The main issue, lest we forget, is did Binay commit corruption?  The Senate probe can provide the answer, not the debate.  Never.

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