Think about it
A visit to Binalatongan’s village schools
By Jun Velasco
TUESDAY morning, we acted as unofficial driver to Dr, Cathy Velasco on the Binalatongan Community College’s feeding program in at least three remote barangay schools in San Carlos City.
We expected to see a “normal” sight in barangays Bolingit, Inerengan and Doyong of dilapidated schools.
We saw a new story.
Out there were small but dynamic pockets of education beating to the drums of the 2lst century. No, we are not making high falutin phrases. What we saw were serious government efforts to beat ignorance, poverty, and other forces that make it hard for people in the hinterlands to cope with life in the 2lst century.
When we asked Barangay Inerangan Captain Frias what a group of laborers were doing in front of a primary school, his reply was enthusiastic, “Gov. Espino, Congresswoman Rachel and Mayor Ayoy have joined hands for a common fund to build a new building for higher classes.”
We hate to be swayed by propaganda especially during the election period, but what we saw were genuine testimonies to what our officials are doing to uplift the plight of the poor.
We next asked the teachers of the village schools what they were feeding the little tots, and what we got confirmed what Dr. Velasco told us about bringing proper nutrition to the “future leaders of the community.”
During the governorship of Victor’s father, the late Aguedo Agbayani, we had our fill of his diskursos in the villages translated in the dialect that were meant to connect academic performance with proper diet.
“You are what you eat,” goes a popular dictum on proper nutrition as a passport to a robust future. The village scene that we saw in San Carlos City reflected it.
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As the May l0 elections draw closer, we get a lot of partisan propaganda that blur our voters’ capacity to evaluate their choices of new leaders.
Democracy as a tool or instrument of governance is a two-headed animal. In the first, we delight in its provision of untrammeled access to information which, in the minds of social thinkers advocating it, would best guide the people to choose well the kind of government they want.
Its anti thesis points to the abuse of the democratic ideal, which hurts our eyes during elections amidst black propaganda being hurled here and there. It’s almost impossible to get to know the real amidst misleading info bombardment.
The few who don’t give up in their zealous advocacy of what’s best for the country could only rely on man’s innate goodness so as not be swayed by propaganda bombardment so that the citizens can choose unintelligently.
To us who don’t lose faith in divine intervention refer to that small voice in every man that can’t be swayed by partisan propaganda.
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Prof. Nick Melecio, a professional environmentalist, is aghast at the speed with which the right side (coming from Barangay Bonuan) of the river at the De Venecia Diversion road is being land-filled.
That surely is the best formula for causing flood in the city’s poblacion when we get our normal dosage of continuous rains, he wryly commented.
We refuse to learn.
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