Think about it
PSU Alaminos’ suspicious mandate
By Jun Velasco
“Our men’s sins are before our eyes; our own are behind our back.” — Seneca
CONGRATS, Mel Velasco, newly inducted president of Rotary Club of Cubao West. No, not just that, but his successful production and launching of a milestone of a coffee table book, “Embrace: the Heart of Service,” which documented landmark activities, projects and programs of Rotary Clubs in District 3780 in Quezon City.
His boss, the inimitable FVR was guest of honor at the book launch.
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We were surprised to see our name among brother scribes in the province as denouncing provincial board members in cahoots with jueteng operators.
Not accurate. Our stand was — and still is — not to single out the provincial board but all in government having dalliances with the illegal establishment, especially gambling.
It’s bad enough that a board member — if Mortz Ortigoza quoted Board Member Danilo Uy correctly — has lambasted his colleagues whose hands are stained by the jueteng payola.
We want to see the Loterya ng Bayan, a legal maneuver to kick out jueteng, succeed. Gambling per see, so long as it’s legal, is okay. But we doubt if Loterya will reach first base. As they say, we are fighting tradition, deep-seated culture which works like a second nature to man’s corrupt side.
Let’s see if Sendong and Company can make miracles.
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We came across a news item in the Inquirer Friday that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) now allows the Alaminos City branch of the Pangasinan State University to offer courses that used to be reserved for private schools. They are Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, Information Technology, Hospitality Management among others.
That feat is jointly shared by the partnership of Mayor Nani Braganza and PSU president Victorino Estira who was recently reelected by “his” board of regents after a circuitous campaign.
This hard-earned victory by the sleek Estira is a slap on the stalwarts of private education in the province led by Dr. Ruben Morante, president of the Alaminos-based Pangasinan Accountancy and Sciences School (PASS) and lawyer Dr. Gonzalo Duque, past president of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU), who find it absurd that a government-subsidized school would be allowed by the Ched to invade the territory of private education “in the name of fairness.” Ah yes, we factor in Board Member Ranjit Shahani’s opposition to the re-election of Estira.
We smell there’s a need to take a Sherlock Holmes’ look at the real mandate of education in the country, how to fairly juxtapose the public, that’s subsidized by public funds, and the private which has to eke out a living while fulfilling a mission for the young.
In Dagupan City, the “privates” are already crying against the business tax imposition by the city. Their angst should show their tight fix, while the state schools are making hay with attractive tuition fees.
Discerning observers see a fast hand in CHED’s sudden change of heart for the state universities who, by law, should be concentrating on agriculture and the science courses. Where’s daang matuwid? they ask. .
Earlier, a group of reform-oriented PSU faculty led by Dr. Lorna Urbiztondo filed a case against Estira with the Ombudsman on corruption charges. Whatever happened to that?
Obviously, the opposition can’t match the winning arsenal and ammunition of President Estira.
Even in his first term as PSU president, Estira failed the evaluation test, which was topped by our friend Dr. Prospero “Popoy” de Vera, now vice president of the University of the Philippines-Dilliman.
It’s common knowledge that lucky ones are not necessarily the fittest. Only in the Philippines? You can say that again.
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