Think about it
PHINMA head defines role of education in development
By Jun Velasco
WOW! It may be ordinary for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to come to her home province often, but to hold her cabinet meeting at the residence of PASG chief Usec Bebot Villar in Sto. Tomas town is something.
Not really unusual because it’s her way of feting loyal friend Bebot who marked his birthday last Tuesday, March 24.
Happy Birthday, Bebot, our steadfast friendof 40 years (matanda na kami ano?). His late erpat, former Rep. Toning Villar, was our boss in Congress in the early 70’s.
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With diminutive Pangulo’s frequent visits of the province, there should be a sense to Gen. Pol Bataoil’s coining the Philippine National Police as “Pangasinan National Police of the Re public of the Pangasinan.”
Basis of Pol’s lexicon was his promotion to the newly created post of PNP director for Northern Luzon, and so with Gen. Boysie Rosales to NCRPO, and Gen. Ely Alarcio to director of South Luzon — all bright boys of Gen. Jess Verzosa, PNP director general who comes from Dasol, Pangasinan.
Factor in LTO chief Gen. Art Lomibao and PMS chief Gen. Hermie Esperon & ISAF chief Gen. Bong Cabuay, and we’d be left with the question, is Pangasinan under Martial Law?
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Dispel the rumors about the new owners of the University of Pangasinan. No, it’s not Lucio Tan or Henry Sy who has acquired UPang. We met the real McCoy, Ramon del Rosario who was guest speaker at the Rotary District 3780 conference at the Manila Hotel last Saturday, March 2l.
Del Rosario, president of Philippine Investment Management (PHINMA), wants to make UPang step radically into a global learning institution “to save the marginal in society and the disadvantaged Filipino children.”
PHINMA’s target, he says, are “the Lower C & D markets, but we cannot rely on increasing our tuition fees from revenue growth.”
Del Rosario said: “Since access and affordability are key goals, we have reduced education down to its most important, essential elements, the right facilities and learning material, a proper classroom, and a great teacher – nothing less, nothing more.
To control our costs, we have centralized backroom services such as accounting and human resource management. We are not spending heavily on administration – choosing instead to use the same people, systems, and processes across the system.
Moreover, maximizing information technology, we have cut down on non-teaching personnel focusing resources on those at the frontlines, the faculty.
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At the groundbreaking of the Dawel-Pantal-Lucao Diversion Road in 2006, then Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. and Mayor Al Fernandez foresaw the growth of the city. That new section of the city will burst in splendor, says Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, on Bangus fest on April 30, as if to herald the advent of a new Dagupan metropolis. The quickening of growth in the city has completely impressed balikbayan Jimmy Maramba, former FBI executive in Washington DC, who has decided to re-settle here soon due its remarkable peace and order amidst accelerated growth.
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The province is lucky to have a self-effacing and hardworking irrigation czar, Engr. Rey Mencias, who is overseeing the province’s 34,450-hectare riceland so that the vast parched lands would be productive for the benefit of some 28,207 farm families.
The program, Agno River Irrigation System, follows a modern method that will surely increase crop yield a hundredfold and boost farmer’s income and quality of life.
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FLASH! As we go to press, fellow Rotarian Eloy Padua, son of former Pangasinan board member and Sison mayor Arturo Padua, called up to say that his father died Friday.
A prize journalist, Art was a columnist of the defunct Weekly Nation and press attaché of California during the Marcos years. Let’s pray for the repose of his soul.
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