Few surprises in rival tickets

By Princess Dawn H. Felicitas

Saturday, September 22, 2012

TEN days ahead of the filing of the certificate of candidacy (COC), Team Rama of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama announced yesterday their complete slate for the 2013 elections.

The Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) headed by Rep. Tomas Osmeña (Cebu City, south district) also announced yesterday their candidates for the next year’s polls, except for the north district congressional seat.

For Team Rama, former Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan, a lawyer, completed the slate.

The group announced he will be the candidate for the House seat in the south district, while the mayor’s cousin Anabelle Rama will be running in the north district. Batuhan has run for the same position twice before.

Their candidate for vice mayor is Councilor Edgardo Labella.

Team Rama’s slate for city councilors in the north includes former city councilor and current City Traffic Operations Management Board Chairman Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem, former city councilor Edwin Jagmoc, Agsungot Barangay Captain Pastor Alcover II, Sambag I Barangay Captain Jerry Guardo, Busay Barangay Captain Eliodoro Sanchez, Ermita Barangay Councilor Felicisimo Rupinta, Lahug Barangay Councilor Mary Ann Delos Santos, and Bobby Vicente Kintanar, who is the son of former broadcast journalist Jun Kintanar.

Open seat

The group’s slate for the south district councilors include former city councilor Procopio Fernandez, former south district congressman Antonio Cuenco’s son James Cuenco, Basak Pardo Barangay Captain Dave Tumulak, Poblacion Pardo Barangay Councilor Althea Lim, Inayawan Barangay Councilor Lotlot Ignacio, lawyer Hans Abella, businessman Ronald Diola and radio personality Tisha “Inday Tikay” Ylaya.

BOPK, for its part, has not yet decided who to field for the House seat in the north district, as Rep. Rachel “Cutie” Del Mar and her father former congressman Raul del Mar have not yet decided who will run between the two of them in the 2013 elections.

Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa will be the BOPK’s candidate for the south district congressional seat. Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young, for his part, will be seeking reelection.

BOPK made changes in their slate for city councilors after Kasambagan Barangay Councilor Franklin Ong decided to no longer run. Rep. Osmeña said that Ong backed out because of “personal reasons.”

During the 3rd General Assembly of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) yesterday, Osmeña introduced former city councilor Nestor Archival as the replacement of Ong, completing the slate for city councilors in the north district.

He will be joining incumbent City Councilors Lea Japson, Nida Cabrera, Alvin Arcilla, Michael Ralota, Noel Wenceslao, Sisinio Andales, and Alvin Dizon.

Adopted

The slate for the south district is composed of former city councilors Gerry Carillo and Gabby Leyson, Cogon Pardo Barangay Captain Eugenio Gabuya, Labangon Barangay Councilor Zenaida Amores, city councilors Augustus Pe Jr., Roberto Cabarrubias, Richard Osmeña, and Margarita Osmeña.

Regarding Batuhan, Rama said in a news conference yesterday it is the group’s consensus to adopt him and field him as their candidate for the south district.

Rama believes Batuhan is a “perfect candidate” for Congress, considering he is a lawyer and has experience being the undersecretary of the DOTC.

Councilor Jose Daluz III, who was earlier endorsed by former south district congressman Antonio Cuenco to replace him after he withdrew from the congressional race, will be Team Rama’s general campaign manager.

Batuhan, in a separate interview, thanked Team Rama for adopting him.

If elected, Batuhan said he will not compete with City Hall’s executive department in implementing projects, apparently referring to Osmeña’s move to implement several projects in the city without the concurrence of the mayor.

Conflict

He added that he will avoid conflict of interest in line with his duty as a public official, unlike Abellanosa who got involved in a recent controversy because of his participation in the City Government’s scholarship program, whose beneficiaries included students in his school.

Batuhan then challenged Abellanosa to a public debate to discuss advocacies and platforms.

Abellanosa, when sought for comment, said Batuhan is “so shallow and ignorant.”

“Does he really think that public service can be translated into how well you debate and that being a representative of the constituents of the south district is all about rhetorics in a legislative agenda?” he said.

Abellanosa added Batuhan doesn’t know what he has done for the city’s constituents, including the city’s senior citizens and the underprivileged, because Batuhan lives in Manila.

“He is isolating himself from the difficult lives of our people in the south district and comes back only during elections,” he said.

As for his involvement in the scholarship program, Abellanosa said he sees nothing wrong with it.

“How can there be conflict of interest when the parents and their children choose their schools from out of the 20 participants?” he said.

Balance

Abellanosa then said that Batuhan can tell the parents of the scholars enrolled in his school, the Asian College of Technology, that he will be the one to pay for every semester of every scholar the P5,000 to P15,000 balance in tuition, considering that the City only gives them P10,000 each.

Abellanosa said the real conflict of interest is Batuhan’s supposed hiring of a Sun.Star Cebu columnist and his wife’s public relations company. He said the couple’s daughter is also connected with the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and National Union of Students in the Philippines, who have both asked for an investigation on his involvement in the City’s scholarship program.

Columnist Anol Mongaya, the only Sun.Star columnist whose wife owns a public relations firm, said it seems that the councilor is barking up the wrong tree instead of answering the issues against him.

“Bebot should realize that the issue is not me and my family and our opinions. Using squid tactics is not what he should be doing. He should instead answer the issues raised,” he added.

Team Rama and BOPK will be filing their COCs within Oct. 1 to 5, the schedule set by the Commission on Elections.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on September 22, 2012.

Non-Formal Education

Non-Formal Education

 

Learning is not restricted to the time spent in school. It begins at birth and continues all your life.

The present pattern in which we have education at the beginning of our lives, then work in one field until an extended retirement period, is changing. Lifelong learning is becoming part of modern life. This is because rapid technological change and growth in information require ongoing learning. 

Given the importance of learning foundations, currently those who miss out on basic education suffer exclusion. However, ongoing learning throughout life enables people to take advantage of new opportunities that arise as society changes. It also provides opportunities for those who are unemployed to re-enter the workforce.

Every kind of learning that happens outside the traditional school setting can be called non-formal. However, defining non-formal education is not easy, it has been described variously as an educational movement, a setting, a process and a system.

The projects and programmes implemented under the label of 'non-formal education' are very diverse in scope. What they usually have in common is an organised, systematic, educational activity, carried on outside the framework of the formal education system, to provide different types of learning to particular groups in the population, both adults and children.

Thus non-formal education is different from the institutionalised, chronologically graded and hierarchically structured nature of the formal education system However, the boundaries between formal and non-formal education can sometimes be blurred, especially when certification enters into a non-formal education programme.
Radio, television, computers and the Internet are modern delivery tools for education. However, in low-income communities the cost of these tools and the need for skills in installing, using and maintaining these tools poses obstacles to widespread adoption of computers and the Internet.

One solution has been the establishment of Community Learning Centres (CLCs) and Multimedia Community Telecentres. These centres, many of which are run by the communities themselves, aim to enhance basic education, train teachers, develop local businesses, strengthen municipal administration and civil society organisations, and provide health care information for populations in small villages.

By equipping these centres with ICT tools, these centres provide connectivity and communication mechanisms to all. 

A Primer on the New K-12 Philippine Education Curriculum

A Primer on the New K-12 Philippine Education Curriculum

Have a better understanding of our new education system which will be introduced this schoolyear.

By Patricia Tanya Franco-Velasco

 

A major change in our country’s educational landscape is about to take place: the Department of Education (DepEd) is launching the K-12 curriculum this coming June.

According to President Benigno S. Aquino, “We need to add two years to our basic education. Those who can afford pay up to fourteen years of schooling before university. Thus, their children are getting into the best universities and the best jobs after graduation. I want at least 12 years for our public school children to give them an even chance at succeeding.” In line with this, the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that, “The State shall establish, maintain, and support a complete, adequate, and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and the society.“ Such mandate gives justice to the basic rights of every Filipino child: the right to quality education and the right to a quality life.

What is K-12?
 

According to the K to 12 Deped Primer (2011), “K-12 means “Kindergarten and the 12 years of elementary and secondary education.” Kindergarten points to the 5-year old child who undertakes the standardized curriculum for preschoolers. Elementary education refers to 6 years of primary school (Grades 1-6) while secondary education means four years of junior high school (Grades 7-10 or HS Year 1-4). In addition to this, two years are now allotted for senior high school (Grades 11-12 or HS Year 5-6).

Prof. Lorina Calingasan of the College of Education in UP Diliman explains that “K-12 means extending basic education by two years, so instead of having a high school graduate at 16 (years old), we will have high schoolers graduating at 18.”

The DepEd discussion paper (2010) on the enhanced K-12 basic education program explains that this new setup “seeks to provide a quality 12-year basic education program that each Filipino is entitled to” (p.5). Furthermore, the purpose is not simply to add 2 more years of education “but more importantly to enhance the basic education curriculum” (p.5).

What is the rationale for this program?
 

There is an urgent need to enhance the quality of basic education in our country as seen in the education outcomes of Filipino students and the comparative disadvantage of the Philippines with regard to other countries. The following data would support this explanation:

At present, the Philippines is the only country in Asia and among the three remaining countries in the world that uses a 10-year basic education cycle. According to a presentation made by the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO-INNOTECH) on Additional Years in Philippine Basic Education (2010), the comparative data on duration of Basic and Pre-University Education in Asia shows that the Philippines allots 10 years not just for the basic education cycle but also for the pre-university education while all the other countries have either 11 or 12 years in their basic education cycle.    

Achievement scores highlight our students’ poor performance in national examinations. The National Achievement Test (NAT) results for grade 6 in SY 2009-2010 showed only a 69.21% passing rate while the NAT results for high school is at a low 46.38%. Moreover, international tests results in 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science study (TIMSS) show that the Philippines ranked 34th out of 38 countries in HS Math and 43rd out of 46 countries in HS II Science. Moreover, the Philippines ranked the lowest in 2008 even with only the science high schools joining the Advanced Mathematics category.

Making Dreams Happen Through Ladderized Education System

Making Dreams Happen Through Ladderized Education System
(by Ladilene M. Legamia  8/22/2012)

 

 

Filipinos value education more that anything else in this world. Parents believe that education well spent will lead to a brighter future of their children. This explain the reason why most of the parents belonging to low income level leave no stone unturned to earn and save so they could send their children to school. Some parents even send their kids to private institutions of learning for better foundation of education. Earning a degree is considered a key in alleviating their poor economic condition. This is more important than financial or material bequests which they could leave behind to their beloved children.

Nevertheless, education at present is getting too costly, especially at the tertiary level. For the poor families, college education becomes an elusive dream that only few enjoys. Based on DepEd’s information, from 100 children who enter grade one, only 30 finish high school and only 14 complete college education. This clearly shows a very disheartening facet of property. But how can the government put a stop on this off-putting snowball of disillutioned youth who are denied of opportunity to have a bright future because of poverty?

The government now has an answer. It’s the LADERIZED EDUCATION SYSTEM (e.o. 356) that institutionalize a ladderized interface between technical-vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education (HE). This is in conformity with PGMA’s agenda which prioritizes the creation of six to ten million jobs and the expansion of youth opportunities. The system also recognizes the present compartmentalization of technical vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education, which hinders the recognition, and accreditation of competence in technical-vocational skills and vice versa. Hence the partnership of TESDA and CHED came about.

I am fortunate to get hold of a copy of the book entitled “Career Guidance in Ladderized Education for Filipino Empowerment” The book authored by Sec. Augusto Boboy Syjuco is well inscribed and so easy to comprehend. That’s why I easily come to terms with what the programs could offer for the youth, especially the underprivileged ones.

Ladderized education, according to Sec. Syjuco, simply means starting with Technical Vocational courses that are creditable for a College Degree. You start with tech-voc modules, and there after will require much less College courses to earn a College Diploma. Cited as exemplars are some degree courses being ladderized by TESDA and CHED. This include the BS Nursing, where a student will undergo two years of Tech Voc courses embedded to the curriculum of BS Nursing are Caregivers NCII which could be attained within the first semester of the program. The school will then issue an institutional certificate to the student as a graduate of Caregiver course. A National Certificate for Caregiver will be issued by TESDA once the graduate pass the mandatory competency assessment. This will provide her with the opportunity to look for employment, local or abroad, if she encountered financial difficulty to pursue her education. After saving enough money, she can go back to her school to pursue her course. After another semester, she will be granted another Tech-Voc certificate as graduate of Nursing Aide Course and Certificate as graduate of Midwifery course after two years. Thus, the system provide her with multiple exists from the formal education ladder and after completing the BS Nursing will make her competent and experienced graduate.

The same scheme goes to other degree programs. In engineering, it is two years of Tech Voc and three to four years of Engineering proper. In Marine Transportation, it is two or three years of Tech-Voc and one to two years of BSMT Proper. In Information Technology, it is two years of Tech-Voc and two more years of BSIT Proper. In Hotel and Restaurant Management, it is three years of Tech-Voc and one and a half years of HRM Proper. In agriculture and Fisheries, it is two years of Tech-Voc and two years of BS Agricultural Technology proper. In Criminology, it is also two years of Tech-Voc and another two years of Criminology proper. And in Technical Teachers Education, it is two years of Tech-Voc then two years of BTTE Proper.

The ladderized Education System is an improvement of the traditional education system. A student under a traditional system enroll in first year. From there, is become an all or nothing deal for her. If she stops on the way, she fall back to the bottom, where she first started, and treated as Drop-Out with no competency acquired. On the other hand, enrollee in the ladderized degree course provides them with the opportunity to climb on several Job Platforms where a graduate of Tech-Voc course can have better paying job, then continue studying, alternating between work time and study time, or working and studying at the same time. The good thing about this ladder is that you can climb it whenever you choose, at your own time and at your own pace. At the end, the accumulated work experiences gives the graduate of a ladderized program valuable competitive advantage over those who completed their degrees within the traditional, uninterrupted span of four years.

Absolutely, the ladderized education system will provide appreciation by our youth of the value of Tech-Voc courses which are treated with indifference or second rate. With the embedded TVET components in the degree courses that satisfy all competencies of a certain qualification will redound to qualify and skilled technical and professional workforce and will significantly contribute to the national development.

Now, anyone can dream… to dream of a better life through a degree course which were once elusive… that is now within his reach! To the graduating high school students, you must be smart in choosing your course. Carve your future… follow your star… through the Ladderized Education System.

The Philippine-American War (1898 - 1946)

The Philippine-American War(1898 - 1946)(1898 - 1946)

Hostilities broke out on February 4,1899, after  two American  privates on patrol killed three Filipino soldiers in San Juan, a Manila suburb.This incident sparked  the Philippine-American War, which would cost  far more money and took far more lives than the Spanish–American War.

 

Some 126,000 American  soldiers would be committed  to the conflict; 4,234 Americans died, as did 16,000 Filipino soldiers who were part of a nationwide guerrilla movement of indeterminate numbers. At least 34,000 Filipinos lost their lives as a direct result of the war, and as many as 200,000 may have died as a result of the cholera epidemic at the war's end. Atrocities were committed by both sides.

Aguinaldo dissolved the regular army in November 1899 and ordered the establishment of decentralized guerrilla commands in each of several military zones. The revolution was effectively ended with the capture (1901) of Aguinaldo by Gen.Frederick Funston at Palanan, Isabela on March 23, 1901 and was brought to Manila.

Free trade, established by an act of 1909, was expanded in 1913. Influenced of the uselessness of further resistance, he swore allegiance to the United States and issued a proclamation calling on his compatriots to lay down their arms, officially bringing an end to the war. However, sporadic insurgent resistance continued in various parts of the Philippines, especially in the Muslim south,until 1913.

U.S. colony

 Civil government was established by the Americans in 1901, with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor-General of the Philippines. English was declared the official language. Six hundred American teachers were imported aboard the USS Thomas. Also, the Catholic Church was disestablished, and a substantial amount of church land was purchased and redistributed. Some measures of Filipino self-rule were allowed, however. An elected Filipino legislature was established in 1907.

Consequences of the American  colonial  rule

During the Spanish period the Spaniards had given enormous land properties to the Catholic church.One of the first things the Americans did was to take care for the redistribution of these land properties. To do so they first had to pay an amount of US $7.2million to the Vatican in 1904. The small farmers or tenants didn't get any land however. The land became property of some large landowners. Most of the small farmers couldn't pay the asked price or couldn't prove that they were the former owners of the land.