Storm Ondoy Lashes at Metro Manila, Rest of Luzon, Classes Suspended in FEU and PUP, Major Disaster Looms, September 26 2009

26 September 2009

Very strong rains spawned by tropical storm Ondoy has placed many areas of Metro-Manila and Rizal province under flood waters.

DZMM says that FEU and PUP have suspended their classes.  

But DZMM is flashing the news that CHED is leaving it to school authorities to decide on whether to suspend classes or not ("CHED: school admin, bahala na sa suspensyon ng klase"). Meron pa bang malasakit itong mga taga CHED?  Common sense tells us that in this kind of stormy weather, the easiest thing for the CHED to do is to order the suspension of classes instead of exposing students to unnecessary risks.  If I were you, I'll stay at home no matter what the CHED says.  It's really dangerous out there right now.

DZMM (and I'm sure other radio stations as well) is swamped with messages from people many of them literally in the roofs of their houses asking to be rescued from the widespread flooding.  I don't think I've seen this kind of an emerging disaster in my lifetime.  

Quirino, Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya are under signal no. 2. Metro Manila and Cavite are under signal no. 1. Mayor Mon Ilagan of Cainta speaking with David Oro of DZMM Teleradyo has reported that 90 percent of his town is under water.  

These are some of the news items being flashed by DZMM Teleradyo:

ER ng UST hospital, pinasok na ng baha

Water level sa Angat Dam, umabot na sa 'spilling level'

East Avenue hanggang Kamias Road sa QC, di na madaanan

6 munisipalidad sa Batangas, walang kuryente

3 bata, nalunod sa Muntinlupa

2, patay sa pagguho ng pader sa MIA Road

These are the related reports courtesy of GMA News:

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

UPDATE

26 September 2009  (1:50pm)

ABS-CBN's Wowowee is flashing the following storm signals and flooded areas (2:00pm):

Signal no. 2  Aurora, Quirino Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Zambales, Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, Northern Quezon, Polillo Island 

Signal No. 1: Isabela, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Benguet, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Rest of Quezon Province, Mindoro Provinces, Lubang Island, Marinduque, Camarines Norte, Bataan, Metro Manila 

Flooded areas: Marikina access loop to Marcos Bridge  from Marcos Highway to C5, C5 Eagle St. in front of Tiendesitas, Nichols East and West Service Road, Quezon Ave. along Biak-na-Bato east and west-bound, Quezon Avenue to D. Tuazon, Commonwealth Fairview Market, NLEX Cloverleaf Area, Ortigas Eastbound, España from Antipolo to Blumentritt, Malugay St. in Makati, SLEX to Ayala Avenue, Metropolitan South Avenue, Pasong Tamo to J. P. Rizal to Davila St.

These are the hotline nos. of NDCC: 9115061,  9125668,  9120984

Ingat po kayong lahat.  God bless po!

UPDATE

29 September 2009 11:37am

This is my latest post on class suspension:

Classes Suspended in College Up to Friday, Oct 2 2009 in Metro Manila, Other Calamity Areas, NDCC Meeting 29 September 2009

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CHED Moves Opening of College Classes to June 15

6 June 2009

CHED Chairman Emmanuel Angeles has announced that the opening of college classes will be moved to June 15.

In an interview with Pia Arcangel at QTV's Balitanghali, Angeles cited the following reasons for the postponement:  1) it will give students coming back home from H1N1-affected countries to do self-quarantine; 2) to help students avoid encountering the expected inclement weather this coming week;  3) to give more time for parents to get ready with school expenses; and, 4) numerous requests from various colleges and universities to postpone school opening.

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

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An Open Letter on the Nightmare of Tuition Fee Increases to PGMA, Deped Secretary Jesli Lapus, CHED Chairman Angeles and the Entire Filipino Nation

27 April 2009

Together with a fellow parent, I visited the DepEd NCR last Friday, 24 April, to find out if the school where my youngest child is studying (high school) has filed an application for tuition fee increase.  

I enrolled my daughter as early as 1 April 2009 and the tuition fee increase WAS ALREADY IN EFFECT!  NO VALID CONSULTATION WAS HELD BECAUSE ONLY A HANDFUL OF PTA OFFICERS, AMONG MORE THAN A THOUSAND ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS, WERE INVITED. 

AND THE COLLEGE DEAN WHO CO-PRESIDED OVER THE MEETING WITH THE ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL, SPEAKING OF THE TUITION FEE INCREASE, TOLD THOSE PRESENT, "WE DON'T NEED YOUR APPROVAL, WE'RE JUST INFORMING YOU."

To make the long story short, this is what happened at the DepEd NCR:

1)  Miss Gloria Alday, a high school education supervisor and DepEd NCR OIC at that time (since Director Teresita Domalanta and her deputies were not around), confirmed that they have recently received such an application, April 22 if I was not mistaken.

2) While Miss Alday was talking to us, Dr. Namoro, another education supervisor, left the room and came back shortly afterwards to tell us that one of the people in the DepEd NCR Legal Department headed by Atty. Joylyn Dulnuan told her that copies of the application for tuition fee increases could not be released to us since it was not yet a "public document" as they still have to process it. Na-receive na ng isang public office pero hindi pa rin public document? 

Nakakatuwa po ba so far?  Ano pang credibility mayroon ang proseso kung ganyan ang asal ng mga tauhan ng Deped?  Imbes na matuwa sila dahil gumugol ka ng pera at panahon upang puntahan ang kanilang opisina sa kagustuhan mong tumalima sa panawagan ni Secretary Lapus para magkaroon ng moratorium on tuition fee increases this school year ay kabaligtaran ang isasalubong sa 'yo!

I'll leave it here for now ... I just need to post this to warn you about what's going and what we can all do to stop this menace of heartless tuition fee increases and the way the DepEd and the CHED are not doing all they can to help and protect us Filipino parents who send our children to private schools.

This is a work in progress partly because I have to run for work now and partly because I would like to give you, my fellow Filipino parents, the opportunity to think more deeply about the problem of tuition fee increases and the solutions to it.  As I write, hundreds of thousands of pre-need planholders are scratching their heads thinking how they can enroll their children this school year.  Many more parents have actually moved their children to public schools which, unfortunately, year after year are becoming more congested.  Other children have simply dropped out of school.  This is a developing nightmare and we'd better wake up now before it's too late! 

Yes, we Filipinos can do something to stop unreasonable and untimely tuition fee increases.  If we join hands and ask God to lead us in this battle for our children's future, we can do something!  And the future will be brighter for our children!

To God be the glory!

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A "Spartan" Graduation Rites Message from PGMA

26 March 2009

In an exception to the rule. this blog now gives way to to an important message from PGMA to DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus and to CHED Chairman Angeles:

To: Sec. Lapus, Chairman Angeles

Re: No Frills Graduation Rites

Date: 20 February 2009

In time for the graduation season, the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education should issue reminders to schools that graduation rites should be lean on cost and long in the imparting of valuable messages.

It has become a habit for lavish and excessive graduation ceremonies to be paid for by collections from students.  Schools at all levels should desist from such practices.

We should usher in a paradigm shift.  Graduation rites should not be exercises in splurging and display of pomp and pageantry but should be Spartan affairs that exhort civic duties, sense of community and personal responsibilities.

School administrators should be reminded that it is their duty to curb excess in every form and guise, especially with the cost being borne by others.

Curbing excess also makes economic sense.  Money saved from tempering excess in graduation rites can be used to fund the cost of an elementary student going to high school, a secondary student going to college and a college graduate moving to graduate school.

Across the globe, citizens are more aware now of their civic duty to curb excess and immoderation in their lifestyles.

That the global economic meltdown was partly driven by Gilded Age lifestyles -- with excess and intemperance overridding good economic decisions -- has pushed the citizens and leaders further into the realm of prudence and responsibility and away from irresponsibility.

We are lock-step with the global movement.  In that light, the curbing of excess should start at the basic level.  That includes graduation ceremonies.

Graduation rites can be memorable, exciting and animated without the baggage of extra cost and excessive spending.

I would like to thank Mrs. Corazon Gonzales, Asst. Superintendent/OIC of the DepEd Division Office in Caloocan City for giving me a copy of this memorandum from PGMA.  

This is a seminal message loaded with recurring appeals to "curb excess in every form and guise."  The paradigm shift has began, from an unexpected quarter, and we should sustain it--  because it will benefit not only this generation of Filipinos but also future ones -- to include not only excessive graduation fees and other expenses but also to place a moratorium on increases in tuition and other school fees.  It's about time!

 

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The DepEd, the CHED and Tuition Fees, Part 1 - Hanggang Pakiusapan Na Lang Ba?

22 February 2009

Today's headline in the Manila Bulletin reads: Tuition hike moratorium urged  The sub-head reads: DepEd chief says new burden untimely in crisis 

The article quotes DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus as saying:

"Lapus said it would also be for the good of private schools if they would enforce a moratorium on tuition increase as such would prevent the exodus of their students to public schools."

At first glance, it seems like good news, and it is! After all, it is not everyday that the Secretary of Education urges private elementary and high schools to refrain from raising tuition fees.  However, if you look at the news article more closely, some problems start to surface.

This is what the article reports the Secretary to have said:

1.  "Lapus, however, said that if private schools really find it necessary to impose higher tuition, they must ensure that the increase is reasonable and that the parents are properly consulted."
2.  "Lapus also admitted that the government hands are actually tied on the issue considering that tuition increase is already deregulated."
3. "All that the government can do is to make an appeal and make sure that the increases are reasonable."

In short, what Secretary Lapus is saying is that tuition fees have been deregulated and all that government can do is to make an appeal or request, or "pakiusap."

The bottom line?  At least for now:

1. We should all support Secretary Lapus and see to it that he does not backtrack from his minimal call for a moratorium but instead improve on it.  My own reading is that it is not exactly true that tuition fees have been "deregulated."  The Secretary of Education can do a lot more than simply make an appeal or pakiusap to private schools when it comes to the issue of tuition fee increases. 
2. As parents, students and stakeholders in the educational system, we should stop thinking that we cannot do anything on the issue of rampaging tuition fee hikes.  There is always something that we can do.  Learning more about the process of raising tuition fees and how to oppose it is a good start.  Practising what we've learned is even better.  (More on this later.)
   
3. If you have time, look up Republic Act No. 6728, "An Act Providing Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education,  And Appropriating Funds Therefor." It says in Section 10 thereof, "Consultation. In any proposed increase in the rate of tuition fee, there shall be appropriate consultations conducted by the school administration with the duly organized parents and teachers associations and teachers associations and faculty associations with respect to secondary schools, and with students governments or councils, alumni and faculty associations with respect to colleges. For this purpose, audited financial statements shall be made available to authorized representatives of these sectors."  
4. The questions at this point, 1) how many of us know that this law even exists, especially this particular provision wherein it says that schools are supposed to make available audited financial statements to the various sectors with whom they hold consultation?; 2) As parents, or students, how many of us have attended these consultation meetings or have shown an interest to do so?; 3) How many schools have faithfully complied with the requirement to call these consultation meetings and conduct them properly? 4)  How many among us can recognize a financial statement let alone understand how to read it so that we can intelligently participate in the discussion in the remote event that we are afforded a chance to sit down in a tuition fee consultation meeting?  
5. Have you ever heard the DepEd inviting parents and students to a seminar where they teach us about  the process of raising tuition fees so that we can better protect our own interests?  The DepEd spends considerable amounts training its own personnel in expensive locales but there's not even a pittance for parents.  Parents who send their children to private schools help shoulder a burden which belongs to government but this government seems unmindful of that fact.  In this country, parents in private schools are parents without rights! Tragic but true so we need to join hands and do something about it if we want to win back our rights and gain some respect!     
6. Again, if you have the opportunity, check out the Supreme Court's 1993 decision in Lina vs. Cariño (the pertinent links do not appear to be working at the moment).  That ruling had much to say about the power of the DECS (the then Department of Education, Culture and Sports) regarding tuition fee increases, power which carries over to the DepEd and the CHED today.
7. We should press our local authorities (as in City Mayor, Councilors, etc.) to provide greater funding for health and education. Unless funds are allocated in the budget for public health and public education, taxpayers' money will simply go to corruption and wasteful spending.  I know that this is easier said than done but this is something that we simply have to do.  Without competition from well-funded, well-run public schools, private schools will always have a heyday imposing their will to all of us on the issue of tuition fees. 

This issue is broad and deep and there is much to discuss.  Much of what there is to say about the DepEd also applies to the CHED (Commission on Higher Education).  Tuition fees and other school fees that are charged by these private schools are part of the bigger issue of consumerism.  If they're not, they should be!  

The paradigm needs to change.  It's not only private schools that are private!  The pockets of parents in private schools are private pockets!  Can you pick a private pocket without committing a crime? 

How about picking millions of private pockets of parents in private schools every semester or trimester?  How big and terrible a crime is that?!!!

From now on, this government should look at it that way. It has to be fair in protecting private property no matter how big or how little those involved.     

We're only skimming the surface at this point. As we shall see later, this is an issue that reaches all the way up to the United Nations.   

See you in the succeeding installments.  In the meantime, I'll appreciate hearing about your own thoughts and experiences on this matter which veritably affects the future of millions of young Filipinos.  

 

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