A Nagueño in the Blogosphere

Pagtaong lalawgon sa kontemporanyong literatura and sosyedad kan Kabikolan

2011-06-05T21:40:00.007+08:00

Repaso kan librong "Sinaraysay – Halo-halong Blog nin Buhay" ninda H. Francisco V. Peñones Jr., Rizaldy M. Manrique asin Judith Balares-Salamat durante kan pagbongsod kaini kan Sabado, Hunyo 4, 2011, sa STA Auditorium kan Naga College Foundation.

SARONG dakulang orgolyo para sa sakuya an matawan oportunidad na magtaong repaso sa “Sinaraysay – Halo-halong Blog nin Buhay.” An poco mas o menus 200-pahinang librong ini kompuesto kan pigtiripon na mga kolum sa Bikol Reporter kan tolong parasurat.

Proud to be Rinconada
Dakula ining orgolyo ta an tolo kapwa kaamistades asin kasabat-sabat sa buhay.

Si Frankie pareho ko nagin International Ford Fellow, maski ngani naenot ako saiya asin iba an dalan na piglakawan. Kan tawan oportunidad na magklase, pinili niyang magpa-San Jose, California asin duman orog na pinatarom asin pinabaskog an saiyang saiyang kakayahan bilang parasurat.

Si Aldy kapareho ko UNCean. Haros pareho an dalan na samong piglakawan sa hayskul, nagin editor asin parasurat sa The Trailblazer, an dyaryo kan UNC High, asin nag-agi sa kamot kan samong adviser, si Ma’am Rose Virtuz.

Si Judith man matua sako, kun dai ako nasasala nin saro o labi pang taon, asin pareho kami nagtapos nin elementarya sa Anayan-Sagrada Elementary School sa Pili. Kun dai nindo naikokolokar, an samong eskwelahan yaon duman sa kataid kan pigsangahan kan Diversion Road sa Anayan, harani sa may tulay. Dakol akong agi-agi sa eskwelahan na idto, na pano nin maogmang memorya kan nakaagi.

An saro pang “common denominator” mi iyo na kami gabos gikan sa Rincodana. “Ngamin tataong magsarita sa Rinconada.” Si Frankie gikan sa Libmanan (na sarong banwa na harani man sa sakong puso), alagad nagdakula asin nagtrabaho sa gobyerno lokal kan Iriga. Si Aldy namundag sa Iriga, nag-elementarya sa Iriga Central School, asin sa presente nagpapadalagan kan sarong escuelahan duman. Si Judith siertong tatao man: an Anayan-Sagrada, maski ngani nasa Pili asin luas sa Rincodana proper, nasa boundary asin igwa nin dakulang populasyon nin mga taga-Rinconada. An sakong mga magurang galin kin Bula/Nabua sa father side asin Iriga sa mother side.

Kaya kan hapitan ako ni Aldy sa opisina 10 days ago bago kami nagpa-Singapore ni Mayor John asin Vice Mayor Gabby, dai lamang ako makadai.

Duang obheto
Sa blurb kan libro, igwa ining duang obheto: enot, magtao nin alternatibong istorya (“pagsaysay”) manongnod sa kontemporanyong Bikolandia, asin ikadua, irokyaw asin iselebrar an nagdadanay, asin sa pagtubod ko, orog na nagtatalubong kultura asin literaturang Bikolnon. Igdi sa mga obhetong ini mabirik an sakong pagrepaso kan libro.

Daing dua-dua, matriumpong naotob kan tolong parasurat an enot na obheto. Kun satuyang sisiyasaton an presenteng estado kan industriya nin peryodismo sa satong rona, an komentaryo parateng dominado nin pulitika, na sa kadaklan short-sighted huli sa naturalesa kaini. (Kada tolong taon baga, naeleksyon huling natatapos tulos an turno kan satong mga elehidong opisyal.) An lataw na narrative susog pa man giraray sa estoryang kontrolado asin minaitok sa “dakulang tawo” sa satuyang sosyedad, sarong framework na may sarong siglo na an edad.

Sa ibong na kampi, nakakarepreskong basahon an mga artikulo ninda Frank, Aldy asin Judith kun haen bit players an mga pulitiko, asin bida an ordinaryong tawo – poon mga tiyohon, tiahon asin mga partidaryo ni Frankie sa Iriga, asin mga kapwa parasurat sa Bikolandia asin sa nasyon; sa pamilya, maestra, kaamigo, kakontemporanyo asin kabisto ni Aldy; sagkod sa ina, agom, aki, mga katrabaho, estudyante, mga kakawat sa Anayan, kaklase sa Anayan-Sagrada, OFW students sa New South Wales ni Judith; asin sa mga indibidwal (tunay man o kathang-isip) na saindang pigbibiliban asin pigtitingkalag. Siempre, yaon man an Ruben Babar, sarong institusyon sa lokal na media, na iyong nagbukas kan dalan tanganing magin libro an mga obra kan saiyang tolong kolumnista.

Dugang pa, an komentaryo bakong short-sighted kundi nagtatao kan pig-aapod sa Ingles na “long view” – mas mahiwas an pagtanaw, almost timeless sabi ngani kaiyan, asin huli kaini mas mapuwersa asin may pakinabang huling padagos na napapanahon an mensahe asin argumento maski isinurat sa konteksto kan nakaaging dekada.

Asin daing dua-dua, huli sa pagtaong lalawgon igdi, an “Sinaraysay” sarong selebrasyon kan kultura asin literaturang Bikolnon. An desinyo asin istruktura kan libro nakakaogmamg pagbasahon huli sa tolong laen-laen na boses an nagtataram.

Dai ko isi kun angay ini, pero para sako, si Frankie sa tolo iyo an kuenta Randy David – mayong kasiertohan na magugustohan mo an panurat, alagad aram mong pinapanindugan an pagtubod asin an obligasyon na isabi an katotoohan, maski malanit sa ginhawa.

Si Aldy iyo an personipikasyon kan kasabihan na journalism bilang “first draft of history” o “history written in a hurry.” Garo siya si Michael Tan, pero Bikoliana imbes na salud an pigsusurat. Halimbawa, an saiyang artikulo manongod sa Bagyong Reming kapwa nagpapagiromdom satuya kan destrosong dara kan kalamidad na idto – na kun minsan madaling malingawan huling medyo haloy na kitang dai linalamasa nin makosog na bagyo – asin kan kakayahan kan mga Bikolanong padagos na bumangon pagkatapos. Na nagpagirumdom sako kan mga saray-saray kong video kan Reming kun haen literal na pinakit kan bagyo an atop kan samong dating multipurpose center sa Grandview, Pacol.

Si Judith puede kong sabihon na iyo an Rina Jimenez David sa tolo, asin labi pa. An saiyang eksperyensia bilang ina/agom, parasurat, paratokdo asin akademiko nagtatao nin kakaibang perspektibo sa mga isyung inaatubang kan satong sosyedad. Asin ini garo hinghing nakakapagirumdom asin nakakakodot sa puso, nangorogna manongod sa literal asin metaporikal na aplikasyon kan pagluto – huling an mga magurang ko sa Sagrada matibay man na mga kusinero. Kun may paaso-aso sa kasal nin partidaryo o kamidbid, an ama ko parateng inoosipan na magtabang sa pagluto nin mga gisong sa kasal-Rinconada ko sana nananamitan. Kaya ngani suro-semana nauli ta nauli kami sa Sagrada, ta parte kan semanal na ritwal iyo an pangodtohan kaiba kan mga magurang, tugang asin makuapong yaon sana igdi sa palibot.

Sarong agyat
Boot kong tapuson an repasong ini tanganing komendaran an tolong parasurat sa pagkakaigwa nin kosog nin boot tanganing pangyarihon an sarong ideya na magin realidad. Naoogma ako maski paropano, an sadol ko ki Aldy na dai na pagparahalaton an gobyerno nganing magin totoo an sarong plano nakatabang na itulod an ideyang ini. Mala, an okasyon na ini selebrasyon kan pwersa asin kapangyarihan kan pagmawot asin dedikasyon sa sarong katuyohan asin kawsa.

Siring man, boot kong iwalat an sarong agyat. Para sako, bakong igo na kitang yaon igdi magbakal nin kopya asin magbasa kan libro. Subago, nanotaran na garo dikit sana an yaon ngonyan asin nagpaheling nin interes sa okasyon na ini. An angat sato iyo na ipaabot an librong ini, asin iba pang obra kan literaturang Bikolnon, sa mas mahiwas na audience. I certainly commisserate with our young people today – at least kan high school ako, igwa kaming subject na “Readings in Bicol Culture.” Makamomondo na ngonyan mayo na.

Pero an pagkaaram ko, an kurikulum kan DepEd minatugot na magdagdag nin subject, basta dai sana bawasan kun ano an yaon na. Siguro, saro ining bagay na dapat turukawan asin pag-olayan kan satong mga nanunungdan, sa pangengenot ni Vice Mayor Gabby Bordado asin Konsehal Nathan Sergio na yaon ngonyan. Madali ining sabihon, pero may kadepisilan gibohon ta igwa nin logistical asin resource implications an siring kaining desisyon. Baka dai pa andam an mga teacher kan DepEd-Naga na gamiton an mga materyal na ini sa eskwelahan. Pero saro ining oportunidad para sa mga parasurat asin nagmamakolog sa literaturang Bikolnon na pagtarabangan hanapan solusyon an problemang ini.

Sa giraray, congratulations sa saindong tolo. And may our tribe increase!

May Pag-asa o wala? You be the judge

2011-05-26T06:32:00.003+08:00

BELOW is the tracking taken from Pagasa's 5 AM weather bulletin:

PAGASA

Now compare that with the trackings below prepared by Mike Padua's Typhoon2000.ph, the US Joint Warning Center (JTWC) and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), respectively:

Typhoon2000.ph

JTWC

JMA

I think the national weather bureau does not inspire confidence.

A homecoming — for someone who never left

2011-03-26T06:44:00.009+08:00

Commencement Speech, 63rd Commencement Exercises, UNC High School, March 26, 2011.

I’M HONORED to address the 2011 Graduating Class of the University of Nueva Caceres in this most important occasion in your student life. I can certainly say I understand the mixed feelings that go with the occasion, having been in your shoes 25 years ago.

Which is quite something, isn’t it? After all, our batch, UNC High School Batch ’85, was the last of the so-called “Marcos babies”: in bidding goodbye to high school life on March 30, 1985, we were the last of our kind to graduate with the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos as sitting president.

Less than a year later, a snap election would be held on February 7, 1986, pitting Marcos against Cory Aquino, the widow of opposition Sen. Benigno Aquino, Jr. who was assassinated two years back in August 1983 — when we were still in third year high school, in our classroom there in the Engineering Building. It would be the beginning of the end. In two weeks time, the People Power Revolution would take place in Edsa and sweep the Marcoses out of power. And the rest is history.

Yet, all these would probably be unimportant to you, as a generation who grew up on gadgets like the ubiquitous cellphone that cannot be separated from your body, or social networking technologies like Facebook and Twitter that bind groups and communities together. I will not be surprised if for most of you, the Edsa Revolution of 1986 — whose 25th anniversary the country celebrated this year — is only stuff of textbooks, a boring but required reading to get you through school. (Although nowadays, you can also google it on the internet and download commemorative video clips on Youtube, something we didn’t have back in our days.)

But boy, were they tumultuous years for our generation, those four we spent at UNC High! Looking back from hindsight two and a half decades later, I still cannot figure out how my parents, an ordinary farmer and a plain housewife from Sagrada, Pili, were actually able to send me and my brother (who is two years my junior) to UNC. Most probably it was because they’re into farming that our family livelihood was mostly shielded from the tremendous economic difficulties of the time. Moreover, many farmers have no choice but to continue farming, because they actually don’t have any other option available.

Nonetheless, this singular opportunity to speak before you, as a “young once,” I therefore owe them. In the same manner that your presence here must have been made possible by having parents, guardians or benefactors by your side. But that is not what I want to dwell on today.

Nowadays, it’s easy to lose hope, especially in these difficult times. For someone who has practically seen our country swing from the extremes — from a repressive regime under Marcos to a restored democracy under Cory, from the dull but gung-ho days of Ramos and his technocrats to the false populism of Erap and his midnight cabinet, followed by yet another People Power uprising in 2001 (and a planned coup d’etat by military backers, just in case) that installed Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her regime of broken promises, which left in its wake equally broken democratic institutions, and now another Aquino back in Malacanang, propelled by the Biblical metaphor of “tuwid na daan” — I would like to think I’ve seen it all.

It’s as if the country has just wasted a quarter of a century hurtling from one crisis to another, fighting and containing fires of our own making, so much so that 25 years later, our democracy project remains a largely unfulfilled promise. Meanwhile, our neighboring countries in Southeast Asia have gotten their act together, moved on and sped ahead — iwinalat na kita sa baybayon.

It pains me because I am reminded of, and now feel chastised by that vigorous debate I had with a lovely lady at the Provincial Capitol, where, fresh out of college, I worked from 1989 to 1991. It came during the time Gringo Honasan and his RAM cohorts have just launched another coup against Cory Aquino — I think it was the one that almost killed Noynoy. The Capitol lady, clearly talking from experience, opined that she doesn’t anymore care if Cory is ousted; it’s all about power, and whoever wins, it’s the country that actually loses. I, on the other hand, passionately argued that the newly restored democracy will weather these challenges and a better future awaits us because we will have learned from the lessons of history.

It turns out I am both right and wrong. Right that Cory would survive the coups, and eventually exited the presidency with the grace and goodwill her successors never had. But I was terribly wrong about the more important thing — we cannot seem to learn from history.

And she was right on what really matters most — it is the country that loses. Filipinos do not seem to have what it takes to succeed as a nation. Other countries have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and bounced back when they fall down. We, on the other hand, don’t seem to know how to win, which starts with getting our act together under a president who can inspire and draw the best from every Filipino. We instead revel in our infinite capacity to laugh at our own misfortunes, mistaking it for the legendary resiliency of the bamboo. But repeated many times over without ever learning, these are really failings that bite, very much like that ancient Bee Gees song called “I Started a Joke” that is probably alien to your Lady Gaga-Taylor Swift-and-Justin Bieber generation. Even then, these failings are no longer funny — because mothers are dying during childbirth; children are growing hungry and stunted, eventually dropping out of school; our population is exploding; and poverty continues to prey on our benighted land.

But there is hope, because there is a better way. What our batch did is probably instructive — we simply ignored the national government and moved on with our lives. Like many Filipinos today, a number chose to vote with their feet and went abroad. Many of them are doing well. In a decade or so, they should be coming home and contribute more directly to community building. Others chose to leave and try their luck in other places of the country, including Metro Manila. But most opted to stay in Bicol, particularly in Naga, like myself and many others who have built their family, career and living in this city we call “maogmang lugar.”

The bottomline is this: We have cut off the static and the crap that came from a central government and its parade of post-Edsa administrations that have failed miserably, and upon which we have very little influence — and decided to rechannel our energies to more productive pursuits.

This process is called re-centering. Here, I take a leaf from literature, by way of the experience of Merlie Alunan of Leyte and Abdon Balde, Jr. of Oas, Albay as described in an article entitled “Center away from the center” which appeared in the March 12, 2011 issue of Manila Bulletin.

Balde, one of the most outstanding Bikolano artists awarded by the city government in 2009, especially came out with this gem: “Centers are not permanent places. I suppose I am just like any writer who creates his own center, and it doesn't matter whether it is in the center or in the margins. What matters is that I am comfortable in my own center.”

By pretending as if the national government did not exist, our batch effectively created their own centers and became comfortable with it. These centers are not constrained by geography — for some, it was Hong Kong or Singapore or Malaysia in Southeast Asia; Dubai, Saudi or Qatar in the Middle East; UK, Austria or the other countries in continental Europe; Australia down under; and of course the good ol’ US of A in North America. For our seamen, it can even be the seven seas of Sindbad, or wherever their ships would bring them.

But for the less audacious ones like myself, who by force of choice or circumstance decided to stay, Naga became our center. And for the past two decades, I had the opportunity to contribute to its growth, its development, its continuing effort to be the “maogmang lugar” its citizens dream about — in the best way that I can.

But more importantly, our batch never forgot we are all connected — that once upon a time, we spent together four colorful years of high school life within the walls of this university, making it our veritable second home.

Which why I am both honored and happy to be here to refresh the landscape of our memories. It is during times like this that we yearn for things that were, and those that never were and didn’t come to pass. Seeing you today reminds me of the very things that make high school that unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Like many of you for sure, it was in high school when we fell in love for the first time, so much so that some of our “love teams” survived both the juvenile traps and the temptations of college life and actually ended for real and for keeps. Most others weren’t so lucky, and I’d like to believe it was because they would eventually find someone better. Others chose to be on the safe side and decided to keep the feeling to themselves, and had all the pimples to show for it. Still others would bide their time, and like Ramon Fernandez, my hardcourt hero from the fabled Toyota Corollas, or his counterparts from the much-hated Crispa Redmanizers, would opt to launch their attempt in the closing seconds of the game. But the better ones would cast their net wider, choosing either someone younger or older, depending on their taste and skills.

So, thank you for indulging me and my juvenile reminiscences in this homecoming of sorts — for someone who never really left. You see, I was supposed to be here last December 29, 2010 when Batch ‘85 hosted the traditional alumni homecoming of the university. That was until a virulent illness felled me five days before the big event, and kept me under house arrest for the next three weeks.

Three months later, I am finally home and thoroughly enjoying your company.

And a decade or so from now, my batchmates with hairs graying like mine will come home too, for good — because at the end of the day, there is no place quite like it. And we will have this little big university to thank for, not only for the cherished memories of youth but for a life well lived. And it will be for the greater glory of Naga, and in the best interest of our beloved Bicolandia, that these centers will converge — for good and for keeps.

But enough of the melodrama! Again, thank you and may Jehovah God bless wherever your feet will carry you, and choose to create your own centers.

Peripheral yet Central: Notes from a 20-Year and Going Urban Democracy Project in the Philippines

2010-11-06T05:58:00.005+08:00

Presented on October 5, 2010 during the Second General Assembly of the IFP Philippines Alumni Association (IFPPAA) at the MMLDC, Antipolo City.

WHEN we were about to get our degree from the Department of Land Economy in Cambridge in 2004, a Cypriot classmate, who is an expert in real estate finance, asked me what my plans are after graduation.

I asked: How about you?

He said he will probably work for one of the leading London-based property conglomerates. At that time, I really had no doubt he will succeed. An indication that it came to pass is the fact that he used to sponsor one of the annual student awards at the Department in honor of her grandparents.

For my part, I said then I will go back to my native city, where I think I stand a better chance of making a difference.

Looking back at that brief conversation, I think that on the whole, my decision to go back to the city government of Naga after completing my IFP fellowship turned out to be a good decision. But to say that the outcomes of that decision was a clear example of an either-or proposition – economists like Assad Baunto would love to call it a zero-sum game – totally misses the point. Which should nicely lead me to a discussion on the dilemmas we face as IFP alumni.

A Good Decision
But before I do so, allow me to explain why I believe it was a good decision. I will highlight three points:

1. Professionally, going back to Naga enabled me to make good use of my schooling. My graduate work at the Department of Land Economy focused on planning, growth and regeneration. Today, my work as head of the city’s planning and development unit enables me to apply the theories and principles on urban planning to Naga’s development.

For instance, the way Philippine local governments today conduct their planning has been revolutionized and rationalized, aided by a study conducted by UP SURP and enshrined in a joint memorandum circular issued by the DILG, DBM, NEDA and DOF issued in 2007. While we are taking measured steps towards delivering these documents, I can fairly say that we have a better handle of the process, thanks to stuff I learned from my Cambridge professors and the English experience with the so-called “urban planning machinery” that drives housing and urban development.

Almost a month ago, I was gratified to hear a high-ranking functionary of the DILG speak about the need for greater civil society participation in generating baseline LGU performance indicators in its flagship Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS).

This was precisely our experience and realization several weeks back during our planning workshop in crafting Naga’s comprehensive development plan that used LGPMS data. Essentially, it boils down to the fundamental weakness of the system – which has to do with its self-rating nature. Without outsiders actively engaged in the process, there is that temptation to window-dress data driven by the urge to make one’s locality look good. But this of course comes at the expense of truth telling, which is a basic requirement of good planning.

2. Personally, going back to Naga enabled me to raise my family, and see my children grow before my very eyes in the same city where I work. This was the single biggest problem I faced when doing graduate work in Cambridge: a Ph.D title appended to my name would have sounded fine, but the best university in the world (according to the 2010 QS World University rankings) was simply not the best place for a homesick father of five (at the time) and faithful husband to his wife.

As an IFP fellow exposed to the comforts and opportunities of a First World society, I must admit staying put in the UK – regardless of what the PSSC and the Ford Foundation will say – crossed my mind. I am sure all of us, one way or another, had to face this temptation. But every time, the family card would trump all possible permutations where benefits outweigh the cost of leaving them behind.

So for me, it matters less that I am earning Philippine pesos and not British pounds; what matters more is that when I rise every morning, I get to wake up beside my best friend of 18 years, cook for and eat breakfast with my children, and drive them to school before I go to work. Yes, it is definitely a challenge to make the most out of a government worker’s salary, which often requires foregoing many comforts and luxuries that come quite easy for OFW families in our neighborhood; but these are tradeoffs I have learned to accept in exchange for the sheer pleasure of growing up with my children.

3. Psychologically, staying in the City Government of Naga actually brought me immense self-satisfaction. In my own little ways, I am making a difference.

For instance, the quality of local decision-making has improved because of my department’s newly acquired capability to do evidence-based policy analysis. Take for instance the currently raging issue of whether City Hall should raise rental rates at our newly rehabilitated public market. The study we did, in response to a directive from the Sangguniang Panglungsod committee on market affairs, has crystallized the available policy options to both the executive and the legislative. And to a great extent, the numbers behind those options have shaped the ongoing debate, in the process tamping down heated passion that used to carry the day.

Then, there’s also our enhanced capability to come up with trailblazing local initiatives. Just two days ago, we formally launched the Naga River Revitalization Project, a multisectoral effort that seeks to finally reverse the decline and degration of the city’s major waterway. In May, when I submitted it to a pioneering training program for local governments jointly sponsored by the World Bank and the Singaporean government, even my city hall colleagues were not convinced, thinking there were other more urgent matters that the city government should respond to.

But after a highly successful 10-day stint at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore last July, where we developed an action plan to implement the Naga River project under the supervision of WBI and LKY faculty, the World Bank has apparently decided to adopt riverfront development as the overarching theme for its second round of training. If things hold up, we will most probably be invited back to share our experience to the next batch of Asian cities chosen to participate in that event in July 2011.

There’s also that ongoing effort the come up with a new joint memorandum circular to govern the use of the Special Education Fund (SEF) by Philippine local governments, which is central to my work on and abiding interest in Local School Boards. Of course, it helps that my former mayor is now the acting secretary of the DILG (for how long, I don’t know). But I find it truly fulfilling to have been invited to actively comment on the several drafts of the JMC, and with some of my recommendations actually being adopted – at least in the most recent version I saw. With all the mishaps and missteps attending P-Noy’s young administration, I am not sure whether that JMC will actually see the light of day – and I really pray that it does. But whatever happens, my experience shows that it is entirely possible to do good work in the periphery sufficient enough to impact central policymaking.

Finally, there’s of course the 2009 Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award accorded to our Public Service Excellence Program (PSEP) Team, of which I am the deputy team leader, at the Naga City government. Our team is primarily responsible for bringing about three editions of the Naga City Citizen’s Charter, the pioneering effort of the Naga City Government to empower its citizenry by promoting transparency and accountability in service delivery. England, by the way, has a long tradition of promoting services charters.

Naga’s Citizen’s Charter, the first of its kind in the country, predates by seven years Republic Act No. 9485, more popularly known as the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007” that requires all national and local government agencies to come up with their own service charters. RA 9485 only came into effect when it was signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on June 2, 2007.

In recognition of this, the Civil Service Commission accorded to us that award, the highest recognition “conferred on an individual or group of individuals for exceptional or extraordinary contributions resulting from an idea or performance that had nationwide impact on public interest, security and patrimony.”

Dilemmas
But coming home to one’s country armed with a degree made possible by our fellowship, which should make Mareng Winnie Monsod proud even if we are not her students at the UP School of Economics, is not all bed of roses. Truth of the matter is, we are faced with two formidable dilemmas:

One, was it worth my while? Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I sense from our Yahoo e-group, a good number are having difficulty finding jobs that pay well, not so much psychologically but financially. This, to me, is a gut issue, and we don’t have to invoke Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to make it so.

Compounding the problem are the raised expectations that come with completing that fellowship, both from our end and from others. From our end, the fellowship is the nearest thing to being an OFW: in my case, I am able to set aside some money that I regularly send home to support my family. But it was only as good as it lasted; homecoming meant going back to the real world, warts and all. And then there’s the unwarranted expectation from others, especially from relatives, that having a degree from a university abroad is the “Open Sesame” that automatically unlocks the door to fabulous riches described in the stories of the Arabian nights.

Secondly, with the uncertainties of the future, did I really do the right thing? Doubts about the wisdom of coming back to the country starts to creep in when our current realities – that is, the opportunities supposed to come with our schooling – do not match up with expectations. This is exacerbated when one begins to compare himself with better-off OFWs who are actually doing well financially, and they did not have to go through the rigors of what we went through, starting from the pre-academic trainings mandated by PSSC down to the thesis and dissertations we had to submit as requirements of the our degree!

A Way Forward
While these dilemmas can be very unsettling at times, I never fail to derive inspiration from one movie I recently saw and enjoyed with my family, so much so that my children would watch it over and over again.

I am referring to the 2009 Bollywood hit entitled “3 Idiots,” a highly engaging 2-hour 44-minute comedy – which incidentally illustrates the huge gulf separating Indian and Philippine cinema.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website describes the movie’s storyline as follows: “Two friends embark on a quest for a lost buddy. On this journey, they encounter a long forgotten bet, a wedding they must crash, and a funeral that goes impossibly out of control.” This, of course, does no justice at all to that movie, so I suggest that you take time downloading a copy on your favorite bittorrent application and watch it yourself.

There are, however, two memorable quotes from IMDb that I would want to share:

“Today my respect for that idiot shot up. Most of us went to college just for a degree. No degree meant no plum job, no pretty wife, no credit card, no social status. But none of this mattered to him, he was in college for the joy of learning, he never cared if he was first or last.” – Farhan Qureshi

This, I think, goes at the very heart of our motivation for pursuing higher education. The typical perspective, represented by Farhan’s, is that getting a degree is merely a means to achieving higher ends – a good job, financial security, a happy family, a higher standing in society.

But there is that other perspective represented by Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad aka “Rancho” – the joy of learning is by itself a worthy end, and everything else is secondary: the icing on our cake, the gravy to our chicken.

“Pursue excellence, and success will follow, pants down.” – Rancho

This second quote, I think, is the movie’s central message. To me, this is a powerful response to problems created by the two dilemmas I outlined above. Its effectiveness in resolving these issues in our own individuals lives will pretty much depend on ourselves.

And my little experience of staying put in Naga shows that one can choose to wage his battle even in the periphery, outside of the power center that is Imperial Manila; yet by pursuing excellence with passion, he can do enough good work as to impact society at various levels, from the grassroots to a town or city, from a province to a region and even the nation itself – and make a difference.

Post-mortem to the Manila hostage crisis

2010-09-01T09:21:00.007+08:00

TODAY'S headline story at the ABS-CBN News website confirms what I have believed all along: my former boss and now DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo could not have been on top of that bungled Manila hostage crisis.

Immediately after the incident, Vice Mayor Gabby Bordado told me his cellphone was flooded by text messages: Where on earth was Secretary Robredo while Rolando Mendoza's caper was happening? The bottomline: this was not the Jesse Robredo we knew. Knowing the guy up close, what just happened was very un-Jesse.

Our former mayor became equally famous, not only for his being a legendary spendthrift (the close-fisted "boksingero" in local parlance, as opposed to the open-palmed "karatista"), but also because of his ingrained habit of being one of the first, if not the first, to rush to the scene of incidents requiring government presence. It's perfectly in synch with his fundamental governance philosophy -- you cannot ask of others what you yourself are not willing to do.

In all the crises that our city faced over the last two decades -- from the fires that hit the Naga City Public Market and private dwellings, to the supertyphoons that lashed our homes -- his reassuring presence strongly signals what have become a certainty: come what may, Naga will surely overcome.

I'm not sure what typhoon it was that buried the city center in foot-deep mud, but one unforgettable sight that Conrado de Quiros immortalized on one of his columns was of Robredo shoveling the dirt by his lonesome the morning after.

Legend has it that one of his kagawads had the temerity to ask why the mayor was doing the shoveling, when he can command his people at City Hall to do it for him. He was said to have replied: "Do you really think I'm enjoying this? But someone must start doing something."

Yes, hindsight is 20/20 vision. But my gut feel tells me that if only President Noynoy Aquino trusted the political instincts of his DILG secretary more, things would have turned out differently.

It's also about the mindset

2010-07-15T08:48:00.003+08:00

I CAN ONLY commiserate with the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), which again bungled its job of providing accurate forecast on the path of Typhoon "Basyang" that caught Metro Manila residents on their pants once more.

But while I agree with the Inquirer editorial's point on securing the necessary equipment, that is built on the faulty premise that it is the only solution to our woes. And if we are to follow this line of reasoning, it will need P1.8 billion in government spending and two more years before the Doppler radars are finally made operational.

For a country lying on the typhoon alleyway like ours, this is not an acceptable option.

And the premise easily crumbles in the face of David Michael "Mike" Padua's accurate forecast of Basyang's track. As early as 2 pm last Tuesday, in a meeting hastily called by Mayor John G. Bongat, Padua's latest map tracking the typhoon clearly showed Metro Manila as its target.

"Medyo nagbaba an direksyon as of 12 noon, kaya mahanggilid sa northern Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte, pero at most 50 kms away from the city," city disaster pointman Erning Elcamel explained, interpreting Padua's table of strike probabilities on Naga. It used data from the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawai‘i.

Now, how did an unassuming guy, armed only with his love of storm tracking and equipment either bought out of his own pocket or donated by friends, admirers and other partners, got it right -- while the entire PAGASA machinery got it wrong?

It's all about the mindset. From the looks of it, our state weather bureau's instinct is of the pre-internet days -- which is to rely on its outdated data gathering methodologies anchored on internally generated info from field men and their outdated equipment.

By holding on to these methods and procedures, it becomes like the proverbial ostrich that buries its head in the sand.

Instead of sniping on Padua's work, which some of its local people do out of spite, it's about time PAGASA listens to what the guy said:

"...the problem with PAGASA’s forecast went beyond the procurement of new equipment. You will need more training to go with the new equipment. But more than how to use the new equipment, training in the new methods of meteorology and storm tracking.

"Padua recommended training under experts from the National Hurricane Center in Miami. He also said PAGASA should use resources on the Internet for information on coming storms. 'There are many websites officially recognized by many agencies,' he said."

Actually, instead of relying on the state, what communities and local governments should do is to create space for more Mike Paduas to flourish and encourage them to pursue their hobbies with renewed vigor.

The academia would be a perfect place to start. After all, Mike Padua by day is a professor at the Naga College Foundation.

The humongous elephant in the room

2010-02-09T06:16:00.004+08:00

WHAT DO you know? It seems my favorite Vox Bikol columnist and my favorite Bicol Mail editorial writer have decided to tag team me.

As of February 4, 2010, I just became editorial material of the Bicol Mail, "Bicolandia's only regional newspaper" which claims, among others, that it will "serve no master except the Truth" -- whatever that means.

This ongoing conversation has definitely become more exciting. And who am I to refuse? I therefore obliged them with the following reply:

Allow me to make the following points in response to last week’s rambling editorial entitled “Cat out of the bag”:

1. The article tries mightily to make a controversy out of statements I made at the Ateneo de Naga forum on Kaantabay sa Kauswagan, the city’s social housing program, where Atty. Jose Maria “Che” Carpio was resource person. Unfortunately for your editorial writer, there is no cat to speak of, much less one that springs out of the bag – enough for Bicol Mail to shout “Eureka!” as if a historic discovery has just been made.

2. The political dimension of public policy making is well documented by literature. My dissertation on Kaantabay -- submitted in 2004 to the Land Economy Department of Cambridge University, which explains my abiding interest on the topic -- in fact used political economy as a key theoretical frame, precisely because in the real world, policymaking does not exist in a vacuum.

Nicola Acocella, in his book The Foundations of Economic Policy, ascribes it to two realities:

Firstly, “the economic system is not composed of anonymous agents but rather of classes or groups of individuals with shared characteristics or needs. These individuals tend organize and act jointly to ensure that their preferences prevail over those of other groups;” and

Secondly, “policymakers are equally not anonymous representatives of the public interest but can in fact be divided into politicians and bureaucrats who are faced with agency problems.”

The Bicol Mail’s editorial writer would of course insist on a simplistic analysis because it would perfectly serve his purpose -- which is to find fault with everything and anything remotely related to City Hall in general, and its outgoing mayor, Jesse Robredo, in particular.

He is, of course, free to call my defense of City Hall “image building”. My parting words to Attorney Carpio are worth repeating here: “I will not take it against you: you are entitled to your beliefs, in the same manner that I am entitled to a vigorous defense of the city’s position against continuing distortions that mask reality.”

3. This much is clear from his claims -- which are among the issues raised by Attorney Carpio in his critique of the Kaantabay program -- in the second paragraph of the article. Urban Poor Affairs Office (UPAO) chief Rolando Campillos already explained these to the attendees; he joined me in that forum precisely to answer questions previously raised by Carpio in his Vox Bikol column pertaining to the SPUKOI housing project. In all probability, Carpio ignored Campillos’s explanation in his version of the event, which he emailed to Bicol Mail. That’s already strike two, after that Standard and Poor’s fiasco that Vox Bikol conveniently swept under the rug in its latest issue.

For your editorial writer’s sake, let me repeat what Rolly said at the Ateneo: In providing for a 10-year holding period (not payment period, as he erroneously stated, because the term for a Kaantabay homelot ranges between 7 to 15 years) prohibiting the sale or conveyance of a homelot acquired under the city’s social housing program, the city government’s ordinance -- which former councilor and 2nd District congressman Jaime Jacob authored -- is in fact more generous than Republic Act No. 7279, otherwise known as the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) that former Sen. Jose Lina crafted. The latter perpetually limits the sale of any homelot acquired under its social housing programs.

Incidentally, this underscores two basic features of Kaantabay: (a) It is not a doleout, unlike what long-standing political opponents of the Robredo administration, and their wanna-be apprentices, dangle before Nagueño voters every election -- “Kun kami an iboboto nindo, an mga lote libre!” Penalties and surcharges may be condoned from time to time, but not the principal and its interest. To its credit, the sector in general saw through the crap and rejected what amounts to a snake oil salesman’s pitch time and again. (b) It has empowered the urban poor sector in Naga. Over the last two decades, the sector -- through its city-level federation of urban poor associations -- has emerged as a strong interest group. For them to negotiate and secure these favorable policy concessions from City Hall is a testament to their political empowerment.

4. As to the voting requirement, I will not second-guess the Sanggunian’s intent in incorporating that particular provision; as I explained to Elmer Abad when he interviewed me right after the forum, I am pretty sure its merits and demerits were deliberated fully by the local legislature. As with any major policy proposal, Jacob’s proposed ordinance went through the close scrutiny of the Sanggunian’s legal luminaries, among them the venerable retired Judge Esteban Abonal and Mila Raquid-Arroyo, now director of the Ateneo de Naga University Social Involvement Council (USIC).

Instead of seeing ghosts, why doesn’t your editorial writer do a research on the subject -- basic for any journalist worth his salt -- by consulting the records of the 5th Sangguniang Panlungsod, which is responsible for passing the Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Ordinance among other landmark legislations it crafted? This option should yield a more definitive answer to that particular question, and will serve Bicol Mail readers far better than the malicious insinuations and conspiracy theories he had been spinning with clockwork regularity.

5. Which leads me to my final point: in its consuming obsession with these non-existent cats, why is Bicol Mail deliberately ignoring the humongous elephant in the room?

To be more specific about it: why find fault with the inaccessibility of the staffing plan of the Naga City Government through the internet (although he himself acknowledged printouts can be had for a fee), when other local governments in the Bicol Region -- including its six provinces, six cities and 107 municipalities, which the newspaper purports to serve by “depicting the realities of our society” and “serving as a forum for intelligent discourse on issues and concerns affecting the region” -- have not made available their annual budgets online, not even a single page, and would rather keep them out of print and out of sight?

The guess of every discerning Bicol Mail reader is as good as mine.

Those interested in my dissertation can check the following:
The Kaantabay Case Study

A little more honest, but...

2010-01-31T16:21:00.010+08:00

MY FORMER City Hall colleague, Jessie Natividad, must have been following my ongoing conversation with Atty. Che Carpio.

When I woke up this morning, I got an email from him containing the link to Carpio's latest column, which Vox Bikol published in its website a day after our face-to-face at the Ateneo when he talked about Kaantabay sa Kauswagan, Naga's urban poor housing project.

I of course obliged him with the following reply:

Dear Attorney Carpio:

This pertains to your latest column entitled “Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang,” which continues to amuse me.

First off, this is an ongoing conversation between us. Since I first emailed you last Jan 17, you will take note that the message came from my email address; and it was my name that appeared as its author. It is only in your mind that it was Mayor Jesse Robredo responding, not I.

Having said that, anyone interested in finding out what I emailed you the second time around can check my weblog. I stand by what I wrote; if your or anybody else’s sensibilities are offended, then I’m sorry for that and the attending hurt or discomfort. But I will never apologize for correcting distortions and data selectivity that would amount to intellectual dishonesty.

Let me now address your clarifications point by point:

1. The only reason why the S&P report is not available in the website is because S&P marked it confidential. That much is clear from my email to Julma when I forwarded it to her per your request.

2. To the contrary, your claim that “intermediate is a dismal 50% rating” and a “failing mark”” is what I will call a spin. Because nowhere in that report did S&P conclude that way. They were your simplistic conclusions that do not do justice at all to the report in its entirety.

Consider, for example, the following snippets from the Financial Management Assessment (FMA) Report’s “Overview of Naga City’s key strengths and weakness” (underscoring mine):

Not withstanding the systemic constraints and institutional weaknesses afflicting Naga City, the strongest areas of financial management which drive the overall score for the city government include annual budgeting at Intermediate, financial reporting and disclosure at Intermediate Plus and debt management at Intermediate Minus.

Despite the lack of budgeting or accounting software, the city has been accurate in its budgeting performance on both revenue and expenditure. And as mentioned, its audited financial statements are free of material qualifications, a rarity among Philippines LGUs. This is a significant driving factor behind the city’s overall score as well. Naga city has also proven to have the capacity to managed debt and demonstrated a relatively high level of quality in its debt monitoring.

…

The city’s financial statements had received clean audit opinions from COA in the last few years. No notable discrepancies appeared on Naga’s audited statements except for the usual inconsistency in the valuation of physical assets, and COA reported that the city is expected to resolve them by end 2008. Naga’s transparency in its reporting of financial performance is also noteworthy, with the comprehensive publishing of its annual budget, interim annual and quarterly financial statements released on a timely basis on the city website. However its financial reporting score is constrained by the lack of accounting software that would potentially reduce paperwork and offer easier access to financial information within the city administration. Nonetheless, Naga has still managed to consistently produce reliable financial statements despite the lack of electronic solutions.

Likewise, despite the absence of any budgeting software, Naga’s annual budgeting performances have been strong and demonstrated relative accuracy on both revenue and expenditure planning. It is conservative on revenue budgeting, with final outcome more often than not exceeding initial budgeted amount. Correspondingly, expenditure outturn has been lower by an average of 1.6% from budgeted amounts in the period 2005-2007 (albeit with some volatility from year to year). Though Naga’s annual budgeting process is still largely characterized by incremental-based, it is one of the few LGUs to have at least adopt some form of programmatic expenditure planning. Currently, around 15%-20% of the city’s budget is estimated to be program-based.

The Naga city government demonstrate adequate capacity in debt management. Unlike most LGUs who have monthly debt repayment automatically deducted from their monthly IRA transfers, the Naga administration keeps good track of its amortization schedule and issue checks on timely basis to directly repay lending banks. Furthermore, all of the city’s loans are negotiated with clauses that allow prepayment without penalties. The city government actively monitors borrowing rates and would seek cheaper refinancing whenever the opportunity arises. However, like most LGUs, Naga’s debt management score is weakened by the lack of a coherent and explicit debt policy. Alleviating this is that the city’s medium-term investment plan (LDIP) has acted as a pseudo-debt policy of the current administration.

Together with the FMA is the Credit Rating Report on Naga, whose section entitled “Comparative Analysis” contains the following:

International peers
The Russian entities of Nizhny Novgorod (BB-/Stable/--) and Tver Oblast (B+/Negative/--), as well as the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv (CCC+/Watch Neg/--) and the Turkish city of Istanbul (BB-/Negative/--) are suitable international peers for the City of Naga (which is was given a credit rating of BB-/Stable)

…

Like some of its peers, the City of Naga has been able to partially fund aggressive capital expenditure programs in recent years with operating surpluses, which has helped to limit its borrowing requirements. However, the overall average level of capital expenditure relative to total expenditure reported by Naga (18.5%) is still below that for its international peers (30%) from 2005-2007. Although its physical infrastructure is relatively well-maintained by national standards, it is largely inadequate in the international context.

Naga’s direct debt level has been steadily declining, unlike Istanbul’s. Coupled with a healthy and fast-rising cash position, the city’s overall debt profile is favourable and compares well to that of Nizhny Novgorod. Likewise, Naga’s strong budgetary performance stands out among its peer group. However, this is in part a function of the city’s weaker capacity to administer capital projects (stemming from lack of benefits of scale), and also a function of the systemic borrowing constraints faced by Philippine local governments.

Local peers
Unlike its domestic peers who are located in Metro Manila like Quezon City, Taguig and Mandaluyong, who have relatively more diversified service-base economies, Naga is predominately engaged in the agrarian sector. The lack of a distinct geographic or industrial advantage has resulted in lower property value and smaller-scale businesses operating in Naga, which in turn limits the city’s real property and business tax collection. In mitigation, its local economy has been relatively more insulated than Metro Manila peers in this current global downturn. In addition, outside the capital region, Naga’s tax base and per capita income would compare more favorably than those of Iligan and Tacloban.

…

The city’s budgetary performance is nevertheless stronger than all rated Philippines cities, despite the fact that other cities have far more revenue streams at their disposal. This reflects to some extent the more advanced financial management practices of the Naga city government than its peers. Likewise, despite its more limited resources, Naga has been able to maintain robust liquidity coverage and a direct debt burden better than the average for its peer group.

This is hardly the picture of a “failing” city and its local government.

This is precisely why I challenged Vox Bikol to publish it wholly and let its readers decide. To me, it is an unadulterated take on the strengths and weaknesses of the city’s economy and the city government’s stewardship of its financial resources.

I will have to check if our point person in this credit rating project has already secured the needed clearance from S&P to publish the report in the city website. If yes, rest assured that we will make it available. Nonetheless, I am uploading the report in my blog, albeit unofficially, because I believe that its potential to educate us clearly outweighs its confidential nature.

3. I am happy that you have now acknowledged Naga’s score relative to its peers, the glaring omission that actually prompted that “intellectual dishonesty” remark in my previous email. Consequently, I will now gladly reconsider that assertion.

4. I will concede your point on the scope of that World Bank-funded pilot project, which is only limited to eight cities thus far. But I am confident that this inference is in order for the following reasons:

To have been considered, and more importantly, included in a pilot project on the credit rating of Philippine cities (out of the 120, because the League of Cities of the Philippines is still contesting the controversial SC decision affirming the cityhood of the other 16) already says enough about Naga. The mayor’s SOCR already covered this. But clearly, there is something about Naga that merited the Bank’s attention.
Quezon City, the richest LGU in the Philippines today, is among the pilot cities. So are Marikina, incidentally the most innovative and most awarded city in Metro Manila; Mandaluyong, Malabon and Taguig. But as you yourself acknowledged, albeit grudgingly, Naga more than held its own compared to these richer localities and their much more diversified economies. Unlike you, I therefore like our chances.
Your asides about transparency notwithstanding, the report clearly recognized, and it bears repeating here, that “Naga City is the only city assessed so far to have consistently received a clean opinion from COA on its financial statements, which placed the quality of its financial reporting considerably above domestic peers.” I have every reason to believe we will continue to be so, even if credit rating covers the entire universe of Philippine LGUs.
My experience with Philippine local governments -- and my work on public education has brought me to a number -- is that for the most part, they have continuing difficulty with disclosure and openness in regard to their finances. (For instance, I will be very interested to see whether the CWC is making money or not. By the way, I have written COA twice, requesting that it put online its 2008 Audit Reports for the Bicol cities and provinces; thus far, they have only obliged us with Masbate province and city.) To my knowledge, and of course I will be happy to be corrected on this matter, only Naga publishes its proposed and approved annual budget, as well as its quarterly financial statements.

5. Finally, that “consuelo de bobo” thing again highlights the fundamental difference in our respective positions: you may have become a little more honest in laying down the facts, but the “half-empty” perspective continues to color your opinion.

In your static world view, that condescending put-down (that Naga merely topped the class of Philippine failures) is consistent with your negative perspective; if one reads closely, it smugly implies that Philippine cities do not have what it takes to be world-class -- simply because their best started out with a measly “Intermediate” rating when S&P first came to local shores, courtesy of the World Bank.

In that world view, its credit rating of BB-/Stable for foreign currencies -- mind you, better than the capital cities of Ukraine and Turkey; BB+/Stable for local currencies; and AA+ in the national rating system -- only a shade lower than AAA, S&P’s top investment grade given to “the best quality borrowers, reliable and stable” -- it proposes for Philippine local governments do not matter at all.

Unfortunately for you, the Naga city government not only looks at the glass half-full, but believes it is our responsibility to fill it up the brim. Instead of sulking and fault-finding, we celebrate affirmations that come our way, like that S&P report, because they tell us we must have doing some things well and right all along. Thankfully, its FMA points out precisely where and what we need to do make the system better. I am confident that our current and next leaders are as bullish about the future and have the same positive, can-do attitude.

Again, I will not take it against you: you are entitled to your beliefs, in the same manner that I am entitled to a vigorous defense of the city’s position against continuing distortions that mask reality.

And I don’t have be a Mayor Robredo to be able to do it.:)

Those interested in the S&P report can go check the following:

Credit Analysis of Naga City

Financial Management Assessment (FMA) Report on Naga City

Appendix - Overview of the Philippine Inter-Government System

Malolos City is short, however one looks at it

2010-01-28T19:38:00.006+08:00

INTRIGUED by the close 7-6 vote by the Supreme Court on the voided law creating a separate Malolos City congressional district, I checked the dissenting opinion penned by Associate Justice Roberto A. Abad.

I have a feeling these are more or less the arguments that were invoked or will be invoked by Rep. Dato Arroyo and his PALAKA cohorts in support of their reapportionment of Camarines Sur's former 1st and 2nd congressional districts.

The money quotes (underscoring mine):

The Court has always been reluctant to act like a third chamber of Congress and second guess its work. Only when the lawmakers commit grave abuse of discretion in their passage of the law can the Court step in. But the lawmakers must not only abuse this discretion, they must do so with grave consequences.

Here, nothing in Section 5, Article VI of the Constitution prohibits the use of estimates or population projections in the creation of legislative districts. As argued by the Solicitor General, the standard to be adopted in determining compliance with the population requirement involves a political question. In the absence of grave abuse of discretion or patent violation of established legal parameters, the Court cannot intrude into the wisdom of the standard adopted by the legislature.

...

R.A. 9591 is based on a “legislative” finding of fact that Malolos will have a population of over 250,000 by the year 2010. The rules of legislative inquiry or investigation are unique to each house of Congress. Neither the Supreme Court nor the Executive Department can dictate on Congress the kind of evidence that will satisfy its law-making requirement. It would be foolhardy for the Court to suggest that the legislature consider only evidence admissible in a court of law or under the rules passed by the Office of the President. Obviously, the Judicial Department will resist a mandate from Congress on what evidence its courts may receive to support its decisions.

It is however Paragraph (c) of Justice Abad's disquisition as to why a Ramos-issued executive order governing the use of NSO demographic projections that I find flawed mathematically. It relies on the annual application of the 1995-2000 population growth rate (PGR) of Malolos City (certified at 3.78% annually by NSO Region III Director Alberto Miranda) from 2001 to 2010, which would conveniently yield a projected population of 254,036 this year -- enough to meet the minimum 250,000 threshhold.

But it is not an accurate projection for two reasons:

1. It does not square with the actual 2007 NSO count. The 2007 NSO census for Malolos (223,069), which is available here, is 4,208 lower than the projected count of 227,277 -- putting the 3.78% certified PGR at the high side.

2. The PGR between 2000 and 2007 should have been used. It would have yielded a more accurate projection, being closer to the year in question. Demographers and city planners can easily compute this, using either geometric or exponential formulas.

I plugged these formulas and the basic data in this spreadsheet, which I uploaded to Google Docs. I will urge you to check it for accuracy. In sum, my computations yielded a PGR between 3.44% (geometric) and 3.5% (exponential), significantly lower than what Director Miranda certified.

In both instances, Malolos City falls short of the threshhold by a low of around 3,600 to a high of around 4,000.

They only reinforce the majority decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, which spells trouble ahead for the PALAKA coalition in Camarines Sur.

A pyrrhic victory for PALAKA?

2010-01-28T09:21:00.006+08:00

UPDATE (1:35 PM): The SC decision voiding the Malolos City congressional district is now accessible here.

THIS PHILIPPINE STAR story should give pause to the unabated media war being prosecuted by the media groups of Rep. Dato Arroyo and San Fernando Mayor Perry Mabulo, aided by Gov. L-Ray "Bebe Ko" Villafuerte.

If the SC decision penned by Justice Antonio Carpio were to serve as precedent, they may just end up -- together with DBM Secretary Nonoy Andaya and Rep. Luis Villafuerte, author of the bill reapportioning what used to be the 1st and 2nd Districts of Camarines Sur -- holding an empty bag, owners of a pyrrhic victory that caps the total unraveling of yet another best-laid scheme of mice and men by the Partido Lakas-Kampi (PALAKA) coalition.

The key portion of the story, found towards the end, deserves to be quoted fully:

‘Invalidate splitting of Camsur’

Meanwhile, sources in the House of Representatives said the SC could also invalidate the splitting of the first congressional district of Camarines Sur.

They said like Malolos, the two districts do not meet the population requirement of 250,000 per legislative constituency as prescribed by the Constitution.

President Arroyo’s son Diosdado is the incumbent representative of Camarines Sur’s first district, which has been split into two.

The new district is composed of the towns of Libmanan, Pamplona, Pasacao, Minalabac, and San Fernando, and the second district has the towns of Gainza and Milaor.

Libmanan is Rep. Arroyo’s adopted town. He is seeking reelection in the new legislative constituency, now denominated as the second district.

What remained in the original first district are the towns of Del Gallego, Ragay, Lupi, Sipocot, and Cabusao.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., who represented the district for nearly nine years, is seeking to reclaim his House seat. The Andayas are from Ragay.

The present second district becomes the third district and is composed of the remaining towns of Pili, Campo, Camaligan, Canaman, Magarao, Bombon, and Calabanga, and Naga City.

Rep. Luis Villafuerte, author of the law splitting the first district, represents the second (now third) district.

The third district becomes the fourth. It will continue to compose the towns of Caramoan, Garchitorena, Goa, Lagonoy, Presentacion, Sangay, San Jose, Tigaon, Tinambac, and Siruma.

The fourth district becomes fifth. Like the fourth, its composition -- Iriga City and the towns of Baao, Bato, Buhi, Bula, and Nabua – remains intact.

Secretary Andaya, a lawyer, said if he and Rep. Arroyo win on May 10, they would both lose their congressional seats if the Supreme Courts declares the splitting of the first district as unconstitutional.

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo have asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the division of the first district for failing to meet the population requirement.

Local officials, led by Gov. Luis Raymond Villafuerte, Rep. Villafuerte’s son, initially opposed the splitting of the first district because they wanted a general redistricting of the province, which they said was entitled to six districts, instead of five.

In their letter to the Senate, they said Rep. Villafuerte’s bill would cripple the existing first district in terms of population.

“The remaining towns of Del Gallego, Lupi, Ragay, Sipocot, and Cabusao have a combined population of 176,383, 30 percent short of the population requirement prescribed by the Constitution,” they said.

When Rep. Villafuerte’s bill was pending in the Senate, Aquino had suggested that all the existing districts be reconstituted so that each would hurdle the population standard and the province would be entitled to six, instead of five districts. But his suggestion was ignored.

As my friend from Minalabac puts it colorfully, "gurang nang komedyante, nasuwi sa entablado."

A case of intellectual dishonesty

2010-01-26T09:50:00.007+08:00

ATTY. CHE Carpio, in his latest column, channels Shakespeare in his defense. But I don't think the Bard of Avon will be of any help -- to one who is engaged in the selective use of data to support his preconceived notion.

A clear case of intellectual dishonesty.

And unfortunately for Bicol Mail, its editorial writer swallowed Che's propaganda hook, line and sinker in its latest broadside against the city government.

This compelled me to fire the following rejoinder (which benefited from a little tightening), with cc: to the Vox Bikol staff.

Dear Attorney Carpio,

I am amused by your latest column entitled "The insolence of office."

1. I don't think even Shakespeare can help you mask the fact that you have cherry-picked your data to support a tenuous claim. This is a clear case of intellectual dishonesty.

2. You may be entitled to your own opinion, but definitely not your own set of facts. In support of the quote from the report (summary) which I highlighted in my previous email, you surely must have seen the Final Credit Rating Report and the accompanying spreadsheet comparing the cities covered by the pilot World Bank project on the credit rating of Philippine cities, which I emailed to Julma (Narvadez) per your request.

Only a biased columnist driven by the need to cherry-pick data favorable to his preconceived opinion will deliberately ignore the report's contents in its entirety. On this note, why doesn't Vox Bikol publish the main text of the (whole) Credit Rating Report so that its readers can judge for themselves who is really engaged in spinning lies and half-truths? Let's see if Fr. Wilmer Tria will be up to it.:)

3. I don't think disparaging the Standard and Poor's methods will help you get out of this mess. Not happy with its message, so you now want to shoot the messenger? Is this how a "liberal" strives to find the truth?

4. Finally, nice try on that SPUKOI issue to muddle our conversation; Rolly Campillos of the Urban Poor Affairs Office (UPAO) is more competent to clarify that matter. But no, let's stick to the topic, please; the least that will come out of it is the education of Bicol Mail's editorial writer who swallowed your propaganda hook, line and sinker.:)

As I am writing this, Julma emailed she will take up my request with her editor, Eric Lagdameo.

But just in case Vox Bikol decides it's not up to the challenge -- which would have been a great contribution to Ateneo de Naga University's ongoing Philosophy Week celebration -- the internets, courtesy of Scribd, should do just fine.
Credit FA_Naga_ Final 31July09

Hijacked by personal partisan agenda

2010-01-17T12:24:00.014+08:00

WHILE WE'RE at it, I actually found the latest editorial of Bicol Mail's angry old man funny in a different sort of way.

I mean, how can the Bicol Mail people continue to put up with this kind of garbage that finds its way to its editorial space? Does its editorial staff even discuss among themselves the burning issue of the week that their paper must address -- as any well meaning newspaper worth its salt should?

Sadly, Bicol Mail's editorial has been hijacked to serve the personal partisan interests of its editorial writer. Like this one.

Questions that Councilor John Bongat has to answer

THE classic statement in the Spiderman movies that great powers demand great responsibilities does not end with a period. In fact it does not have a period. It has a relative phrase: that give rise to great questions that demand great answers. How true this is when one political term ends and another begins. The current issue on the great power of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has given rise to great questions from senators, luminaries in the law, even bishops -- who demand great answers.

In the local scene, the great power handed down to Councilor John Bongat to lead the Liberal Party has with it great responsibilities that have given rise to questions that demand equally great answers. The funny thing is that most of the questions that Councilor John Bongat has to answer are not about himself or about what he has done as the Number One Councilor in the Sanggunian Panlungsod of Naga. The questions that he must face and must give truthful and off-the-cuff answers to are about his predecessor, City Mayor Jesse M. Robredo.

The title and opening paragraph starts well enough; in the context of the coming May 2010 elections, Councilor John Bongat's fitness and readiness to become Naga's next mayor actually deserves attention and scrutiny. But then the second paragraph unmasks the real object: it's not actually about Bongat, it's about the writer's continuing obsession with Mayor Robredo.

This is yet another proof of the once venerable Bicol Mail's growing bankruptcy of ideas. So, are we to judge now a candidate's fitness for office, not on his own merits and accomplishments but on the basis of a Q&A about somebody else, who's not even running anymore? How sad.

This is understandable because Councilor John Bongat is perceived to be an ally if not the clone of Mayor Jesse M. Robredo. For what has he been endorsed as the standard-bearer of the Liberal Party, most of whose candidates were of Aksyon Demokratiko, if has not been perceived as capable of providing the sequel to the great powers and equally great responsibilities experienced by Naga under Robredo’s term?

There are great questions that are raring for great answers that Councilor John Bongat must be prepared to give truthfully, off the cuff -- preferably without any coaching from Mayor Jesse M. Robredo -- preferably after having taken a glassful of wine for, as the saying goes, in vino, veritas (in wine, there is truth).

So John Bongat now needs to drink wine to be able to tell the truth -– and about somebody else? Is the wine-sipping Bicol Mail editorial writer also implying that Bongat is a liar for the most part of his waking hours, when he has to make do with water and other non-alchoholic drinks?

One question is on the investment code in the City of Naga. Has this code been truly implemented, its provisions followed to the letter, its organizational set-up manned with elements who independently perform their duties and responsibilities as provided for in the code without any intervention from those sitting in the executive and legislative branches of the local government of Naga?

What does this have to do with Bongat's credentials to be mayor if and when he wins in May? This is a question better addressed to Robredo, who is still the sitting mayor and therefore accountable for the investment code's implementation. And Bongat will have every opportunity to do his thing in regard to the code and the Investment Board, which the editorial writer may or may not like, when his time comes.

Another is on the loans contracted by the City Mayor as authorized by the Sanggunian Panlungsod. How much really are the loans -- in government banks and in other non-government banks, if any -- that the residents of, and those to be born in, the City of Naga have to pay? Transparency has always been claimed by the administration of Mayor Jesse M. Robredo but this item has not been included, wittingly or unwittingly, in his State Of the City Report (SOCR) or in the website www.naga.gov.ph.

This is as stupid a question as stupid gets. Simply because the answers are actually available in the internet, especially the 2010 budget in the city website, which lists Naga's statutory obligations, and this news article and the SOCR for the amount of the most recent Coliseum loan. At least, Atty. Che Carpio, when he asked for a copy of the S&P report, said he did an internet search first.

Still another is on the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) of Mayor Jesse M. Robredo, from the time he entered the political arena in Naga City some twenty-years ago until this year when he is tasked to head the campaign of Noynoy Aquino–Mar Roxas tandem in the Bikol region. What were his assets and liabilities, his salary then, compared to what he has today -– his assets and liabilities, including his net worth and salary?

This should be compelling topic for an investigative report, ala PCIJ. Well, I guess it's because the Bicol Mail is not PCIJ.

But come to think of it, why in the first place should Bongat answer for Robredo's SALN?

These are just three of the many questions that Councilor John Bongat has to give truthful answers, barring the excuse that the most qualified person to give the details is Mayor Jesse M. Robredo.

If Councilor John Bongat shall keep us in the dark by evading the questions, he is literally telling us that we are in for a long, long dark night.

If the Bicol Mail continues to churn out garbage like these, then its readers are in for a long, dark night of inanity and stupidity.

Choosing to see the glass half-empty

2010-01-17T08:38:00.006+08:00

THROUGH my Newswires widget. I came across this Vox Bikol column by Atty. Jose Maria "Che" Carpio. The article is taking issue with the 2009 State of the City Report of the Robredo administration, which can be accessed here.

To set the records straight, I sent him the following email:

"Dear Attorney Carpio,

"I just read your Vox Bikol column, which raises the question: "Is 'Intermediate' the 'Best'?”

"I cannot fault you for taking a negative stance on the matter. It's the classic hall-full glass: in your effort to find fault with the city government, you have chosen to ignore the obvious, which I am quoting below. Funny how you can miss this when it is found on the very same page quoted in your column.

The overall FMA score of ‘Intermediate’ for Naga City reflects its moderately developed level of financial reporting and fairly high level of disclosure, adequate performance in annual budgeting and debt management skills which are more sophisticated than most local peers. On the other hand, the score takes into account the basic practices of Naga in elements of FMA like expenditure management and medium-term planning.

Notably, Naga City’s overall FMA score is the highest among assessed Philippines LGUs to date, reflecting the city’s more balanced developments in its FMA practices for most key areas, as opposed to some local peers who may demonstrate sound practices in certain elements such as revenue management, but at the same time scoring poorly in other areas like debt management, budgeting etc. Nevertheless, the Naga city government’s lack of computerization in most aspects of financial management such as annual budgeting, financial reporting, tax collection and disbursement have emerged as a constraint on these respective scores. A comprehensive computerization of the city’s system could potentially see improvement in Naga’s overall FMA and individual element scores. (Underscoring mine)

"So, to answer your question, an "Intermediate" score is the best among Philippine LGUs according to that S&P report. But you opted not to see that, and would not accept it, because you chose to see the glass half-empty, as you always have with the city government."

Show me the money!

2010-01-13T05:54:00.009+08:00

TV INFOMERCIALS of the leading presidentiables suddenly flooding the airwaves last night forced me to check their platforms, whose links Manolo conveniently put up here.

After reading through them, I felt somewhat like Cuba Gooding, Jr's Rod Tidwell character in Jerry Maguire and shout at Noynoy Aquino, Manny Villar, Gibo Teodoro and Dick Gordon: "Show me the money!"

C'mon, guys! You're promising us heaven (especially Manny Villar, who proclaims he will finally write finis to poverty as we know it). But from the looks of it, whoever wins will be so cash-strapped his administration wouldn't even have enough money to support the current level of basic government programs and services.

I did some pencil pushing using data on the proposed 2010 national budget, which can be found at the DBM website. You can see for yourselves the tables, including my notes, assumptions and computations, which I uploaded as a Google spreadsheet. Sheet 4 contains the table reproduced above.

Assuming my calculations are accurate, the incoming administration, when it prepares its first budget proposal for 2011, will barely have P125 billion left to fund P174 billion worth of other obligations in the 2010 budget, assuming these are carried over next year.

This "free resource" -- arrived at after taking out personal services (salaries and wages for government employees, which will be pushed upwards by at least P50 billion annually over the next four years, thanks but no thanks to the Salary Standardization 3 law), the allocation to local governments (including their Internal Revenue Allotment or IRA), debt servicing, pension and gratuity for retirees, and the maintenance and other operating expenses for government agencies in the executive, legislative, judiciary and other constitutional offices -- further dwindles to P69 billion in 2012, and to only P9 billion in 2013.

What are these other obligations? Table II-2, which details the Special Purpose Funds included in the budget, includes the following:

Budgetary Support to Government Corporations, which include GOCCs like the National Food Authority; specialized hospitals like the Lung, Kidney, Heart and Children Center; the Philippine Convention and Visitors Center; the Philippine National Railways; the housing agencies NHA, NHMFC and Home Guaranty Corporation; Cultural Center of the Philippines; and research instituions like the PIDS and the DAP.
AFP Modernization Program
Calamity Fund
DepEd-School Building Program
E-Government Fund
International Commitments Fund, and
the Priority Development Assistance Fund, more popularly known as the pork barrel of the Senate and the House

And this assumes that government is able to fully fund its annual expenditure program; in other words, the BIR, the Bureau of Customs and the LTO are finally able to meet their annual revenue targets. Otherwise, it will continue to finance these deficits (which reached P234 billion in 2008 and should easily breach P300 in 2009) through another borrowing binge. Which will of course add more pressure on our debt position.

Several questions therefore I would like to ask our esteemed presidentiables:

1. Given these constraints, how are you going to fund the programs you committed to undertake in your respective platforms, particularly the money-draining populist ones intended to win you votes?

2. How will you plug the deficit, which will surely plague your administration?

3. If it is by raising more revenues, what new taxes will you certify to Congress as urgent? Which government properties will you sell or privatize? And what makes you think you will squeeze out more of BIR, BOC and LTO and other revenue generating arms of the national government?

4. If it is by reducing costs, which agencies will face the chopping block first?

It's time to cut through the bull, guys.

We deserve better than the motherhoods you've been serving up so far.

Show us the money, baby!

Financing an autonomous Bicolandia

2009-12-17T10:11:00.019+08:00

OFFHAND, I salute the Bicol Autonomy Movement for raising the discussion on federalism to another level. The proposed charter for a Bicol Autonomous Region (BAR) finally provides a clear starting point for a meaningful conversation on the issue, which is a sentimental one for Bikolanos.

This is certainly far more important than the ongoing furious inane air war between Dato Arroyo and LRay Villafuerte over the Libmanan-Cabusao Dam Project that has become very irritating and proves only one thing: they both have oodles and oddles of money whose questionable provenance, given their meager salaries as public officials, is what local radio stations should be investigating.

But you can't expect local radio stations, whose management are laughing their way to the bank, to care a whit, can you? The faster the burn rate, the better for them.

Anyway, the establishment of a regional government akin to the one in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is a concrete step towards this aspiration -- which clearly does not need tinkering with the 1987 Constitution.

But one nagging question that must be answered: can the BAR fly for the long haul? Or stated differently, will it be able to sustain itself?

I have strong reservations that it will.

Article XI (Fiscal Autonomy) consists of nine sections that essentially lay down the mechanics as to how the proposed BAR regional government will fund itself.

Section 1 provides that it will retain 80% of all national revenue taxes imposed, as well as the income derived from utilization of national resources in the BAR.

Section 4 identifies the main sources of revenue for the regional government, including the imposition of its own taxes, national transfers, share in both tax and non-tax revenues collection in the BAR, block grants and other forms of donations, aid or endowments.

Section 5 defines the sharing scheme for the 80% share of national revenue taxes to be retained between the BAR (which will get half of the 80% or a 40% net) and its component local governments (provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays, which will share among themselves the remaining 40%).

In addition, Article XIX (Transitory Provisions) also provide two additional interim funding source: a P25 million initial outlay to support the operations of the interim regional government (Sec. 4), and P10 billion annual outlay for priority infrastructure projects over its first five years of existence (Sec. 13).

But totaling all of the above, as summarized in the accompanying chart, shows that the region will be worse off by at least P5 billion annually under the proposed BAR than under the current setup during those first five years. For one, DBM data here show that in the current 2009 budget, Bicol already gets a total funding allocation of P35 billion, spread throughout the regional offices of national government agencies, the local governments (mainly their IRA share), as well as the pork barrel of its legislators and its share in the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Fund.

Of the total, almost P19 billion are allocated for the regional offices of various line and staff departments of the national government, which in theory is what will be devolved to the proposed regional government; DepEd accounts for almost P11 billion of this, which effectively is the cost for providing basic public education services in the region. The proposed charter failed to fully factor in the cost of these devolved services.

Can the BAR cover this huge funding shortfall by getting half of the 80% of internal revenue taxes that will be retained in Bicol, as Section 1 of Article XI proposes? Hardly. The 2007 report of BIR collections show that Bicol contributes only 0.53% of the country's internal revenue taxes. Using this data, this translates to a share of only P1.5 billion for the BAR regional government.

And because the P10 billion outlay for insfrastructure is a special purpose fund that cannot be used to defray to cost of other essential services defined under Section 2 of Article VI, we are looking at a gaping funding shortfall of at least P17.5 billion annually.

Will the BAR's proposed taxing powers and other revenue sources make up for it? The huge difficulties being faced by the national government's revenue agencies, mainly the BIR and Customs, in plugging this year's deficit -- projected to hit P320 billion -- does not inspire confidence.

It is stuff like these -- financing and institutional arrangements that will help make sure that the proposed Bicol autonomous region will be sustainable over the long run -- that needs to be examined and reexamined, both by proponents and critics of the BAR. As things stand, a federal Philippines will never be able to fly if no equalizing mechanisms will be adopted, in the face of current realities where the National Capital Region accounts for 87% of the internal revenues of the national government. Clearly, one cannot treat unequals equally.

There are other considerations that matter as well (for instance, are provincial governments a redundancy under a system of regional autonomy, or not?), and I will try to cover them later. But certainly, the Bikol Autonomy Movement does need to review the provisions of its draft charter in regard to the sustainable financing for the proposed BAR.

The proposed charter of Bicol Autonomous Region

2009-12-15T15:54:00.002+08:00

BY WAY of fil07's posting at the Skyscrapercity forum -- who I have a feeling is none other than Irvin Sto. Tomas -- I have uploaded via Scribd a copy of the draft charter for the proposed Bicol Autonomous Region.

Mainly the effort of the Bicol Autonomy Movement chaired by Dante Jimenez of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) fame, it had its formal launching last December 8 in Daet, Camarines Norte.

Rene Gumba of the Ateneo de Naga University Institute of Politics, one of moving forces behind the movement, had other related posts here and here.

Jimenez, in an interview with Business Mirror, laid down the basic -- and mainly economic -- argument for the autonomy movement: to lick poverty and increase investments in the region.

What do you think? My initial thoughts in my next entry.
The Charter of Bicol Autonomous Region

Another interesting weekend reading

2009-12-12T09:56:00.003+08:00

GOT an email the other day, and then this morning, another forwarded copy dropped again in my mailbox. I guess it must be interesting enough to circulate in the internet, so I might as well share it with you, by way of Scribd.

To provide some context, Kristian Cordero has Fr. Wilmer Tria's original open letter here -- which the document below responds to -- and City Hall's riposte through Joe Perez in the comments section.

Materials on the Naga City Coliseum are available here.

Happy reading.:)
Open Letter to Fr Wilmer Tria

The Ateneo forum on Dato's Dam

2009-12-11T07:03:00.006+08:00

LAST Monday, Vic Nierva informed me that the forum on the Libmanan-Cabusao Dam Project (LDCP), more popularly known as Dato's Dam, is finally pushing through on December 8.

Because of a prior commitment, I asked Mandy, a colleague at the Naga city planning office, to attend and take notes on the proceedings. I am sharing with you his take on what happened during the forum.

To my mind, the presentation by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) representative only raised more questions than answers. You can draw your own conclusions after reading the document.
Report on the Libmanan Dam Forum

But the following paragraph, I think, foreshadows what will happen to this controversial project.

Mayor Norberto U. Genova of Cabusao said that already Congressman Dato Arroyo has told him that a massive campaign against him has been launched to discontinue the dam construction, and is now considering the option to withdraw the project.

This response from the incumbent congressman is expected; the LDCP issue has been politicized and has emerged as a major theater in the unfolding war between Dato Arroyo and Gov. LRay Villafuerte. Check out the accusations levelled against Nierva and his fellow Lupinons in the community forum of their anti-Dato Dam blog.

Since late November, local airwaves are being inundated with competing radio spots, voiced over by innocent children, which are often played one after the other. They started out as ingenious ads, but whose increasing frequency has become grating to the ear. (Only the radio stations are laughing their way to the bank.) These are what the PDI's Jonas Soltes complained about during the forum.

A few days ago, the attacks have become personal, making implied allusions to sexual preferences of the political principals.

And the official political campaign season has not even started out yet.

What gives, Bicol Mail?

2009-11-28T08:35:00.009+08:00

WHILE waiting for the rice cooker to do its thing, I checked the Bicol Mail website this morning, hoping to see its latest issue -- which hit the newsstands yesterday -- already online. I got my wish. So folks, here goes another serving of what I hope will be this blog's weekly ritual: Say that again, Bicol Mail?, putting its resident angry old man under the microscope once more. This week's piece?

Pushcart classroom

EFREN PEÑAFLORIDA, who was named CNN Hero of the Year for his “pushcart classroom” in the Philippines, has contended that even a poor man can provide basic education to poor children, share his gift of education more meaningfully in communities where the concern of the local government has been found wanting. This requires an initiative and an unflinching dedication despite difficulties. Such a spirit of sharing does not expect any award in return.

Our editorial writer starts well, and rather innocuously. But the phrase "local government" flashes a warning sign: isn't public education the primary mandate of the Department of Education and by extension the national government? Uh-oh. I'm afraid the bias is showing this early.

The “pushcart classroom” idea is less appealing than the School Board to any of the more enterprising minds in the local government of Naga, known nationwide for being innovative and being first-among-equals. But with the honors Efren Peñaflorida is reaping throughout the country and the world, it will not be surprising if the local government of Naga will join the bandwagon of those who are honoring the pushcart hero. Peñaflorida is a good name to be associated with today as the national elections are just around the corner.

I didn't know he's already dabbling in fortune telling. Let's see if the city government, through the sangguniang panlungsod, will take the bite. Personally, the accolades coming Efren Peñaflorida's way is more than enough; the bigger challenge is learning its lessons and actually applying it.

Already Malacañang, in trying to make up for its shortcomings in education, has announced that the Order of Lakan Dula, one of the Philippine government highest honors awarded to a civilian who “has demonstrated by his life and deeds a dedication to the welfare of society” would be conferred upon Peñaflorida. In a press statement, Lorelei Fajardo, deputy presidential spokesperson, even said the government was willing to extend financial aid and other forms of assistance to help Peñaflorida expand his groundbreaking program on education.

A statement of fact, which needs no disputing.

Fajardo said Peñaflorida’s program was a good example of how the private sector could “augment whatever inadequacies the government may have.” This is a shameful statement coming from a government mandated by the Constitution to insure the education of children. A government that gives excuses for its inadequacies in education or passes the blame to others for its inefficiency or cannot take responsibility for any outcome does not have the right to discharge that mandate or to operate as an agency of that government.

He hits the nail right in its head on this one.

In Albay, Governor Joey Salceda has sounded instructions to the provincial council to pass a resolution conferring the highest provincial award on Efren Peñaflorida, giving him a cash gift of P250,000, and making him an honorary son of Albay. The province of Albay has all the moral right to honor Peñaflorida in as much as the province has always a good word for its teachers, has annual awards for outstanding teachers, and has open arms for teachers rejected by another division for alleged inefficiency due to the poor ratings of their division in the National Assessment Tests.

So far, so good. Which only goes to show that nobody has a monopoly on good ideas. As a footnote though, let me say for the record that the City Government of Naga, the regional partner of Synergeia Foundation, has been helping the towns of Libon and Tiwi pursue their education reform projects. Incidentally, these are two of the five finalists for the first-ever Kadunong Award that seeks to recognize the most outstanding Albay LGUs with education programs. And one of them will go home next month as grand winner of the search. (Disclosure: I took part in the final judging representing the city government and Synergeia.)

Efren Peñaflorida has brought honor and respect for the teaching profession and more, for teachers who have given their whole life in teaching children the proper values without expecting any award in return. He has achieved more than what Manny Pacquiao has. Peñaflorida has been combating ignorance not in 12 rounds of face-bashing in a ring but in the streets, day in and day out, without banking on a hundred-million-dollar kitty for the bout winner.

Now, this is somewhat a stretch. Come to think of it, Peñaflorida's outstanding achievement actually indicts the formal schooling system (i.e. the DepEd) in the country, where certified members of the teaching profession, including those whose names carry an alphabet soup of academic titles after them, lord over.

Distinction should be made between the formal, which employs close to 500,000 public school teachers, and the non-formal (now popularly known as alternative learning system); Peñaflorida belongs to the latter. The failings of the former actually creates the necessary preconditions for the latter, and magnifies Peñaflorida's achievements to heroic levels. When 3 of every 10 Filipino schoolchildren entering Grade I fail to reach Grade VI, you need a strong ALS to catch these dropouts and give them a second chance. But in the same breath, it means that the formal public school system -- and the whole certified teaching profession underpinning it -- is falling short of the standards.

For the sake of accuracy, it should restated as: "Efren Peñaflorida has brought honor and respect to the alternative learning system, whose teachers have given their whole life in teaching children the proper values without expecting any award in return."

Maybe he's just confused. Or is it a case of deliberate confusion? The last two paragraphs will provide the answer.

The Naga City Local Government’s indictment of the inefficiency of former Division of City Schools Superintendent Dr. Evangeline Palencia during her stint in the city begs the issue whether it has the moral right to honor Peñaflorida. The premium importance the City of Naga gives to ratings in assessment tests in school more than to learning values for life shows that the educational system in the city has much to be desired. This inanity cannot be covered by seeking the transfer of Palencia to Ligao City or by giving honors to Peñaflorida.

Clearly, it is still all about Naga, and the editorial writer's obsession and consuming desire to badmouth its local government. I think this unmistaken obsession has forced him to wittingly or unwittingly twist facts, like (1) the confusion between formal and alternative learning systems, (2) and the confusion as to which level of government is responsible for public education.

This unhealthy preoccupation with Naga has in fact put on a dangerous set of blinders on Bicol Mail itself, for an editorial supposedly speaks for the paper as a whole. For a paper that purports to be "Bicolandia's only regional newspaper," all it can see is the city government of Naga, when there are six other provincial governments, six other city governments and 107 municipal governments in the universe of Bicol LGUs.

This dangerous obsession compels one to ask: What gives, Bicol Mail? Certainly, there is more than meets the eye here.

The system implemented by the city with a highly charged School Board has fared poorly. The pushcart classroom of Peñaflorida could be the better system.

Sadly for him, the editorial writer seems to have been so punchdrunk with bitterness towards City Hall that he has yet to snap out of his world of make-believe. Garo iyo ang narugado ni Pacquiao, bakong si Cotto.:)

Hello! The last time I checked, (1) it is still DepEd running the public school system, in Naga and in the entire country; (2) we don't need pushcarts in Naga to provide ALS services, because we have mobile teachers, ALS classes and sub-contracting arrangements with local schools, particularly the Universidad de Sta. Isabel, (although data shows that while ALS coverage has improved from 20 to 36%, three of every five OSYs have yet to avail of its services); and (3) we will only consider mass investment on Peñaflorida's pushcarts if DepEd-Naga and our local institutional partners finally admit they cannot get the job done.

Say that again?

2009-11-23T02:52:00.009+08:00

AFTER that most unexpected editorial slamming Camarines Sur Gov. LRay Villafuerte, my favorite Bicol Mail editorial writer is back, he whose life revolves around City Hall, in particular Mayor Jesse Robredo.

Which gave me an idea: to inject some life into this blog (which is supposedly part of the so-called new media), why don't I dissect the rantings of the venerable Bicol Mail's resident angry old man and expose him for what he is?

So for this week, what a fitting way to start than with -- tadaaah! -- the city public schools.

Cruel and unkind

THE TRANSFER of City Division of Schools Superintendent Evangeline Palencia to the City of Ligao is unkind and cruel to both -- to her and to the City of Ligao.

She was blamed for the poor showing of Naga City public school students in the National Achievement Test. These students from Naga City did not come up to the expectation of the city officials who would refer time and again with pride to the ratings attained by students who had taken the examination last year.

Hello! My favorite editorial writer is clearly shooting from the hip. Naga's elementary schools last exceeded expectations in the 2005 National Achievement Test (NAT), when Dr. Nenita Ramos was still superintendent. Since then, their performance has been deteriorating.

In any which way the city officials explained the transfer -- that it was routine, that it was the decision of the higher-ups in the Department of Education, that the transfer may be done at any time of the year which is reportedly beyond the control and not of the making of the city officials, and that it cannot but be associated with the poor showing of the examinees about which the city officials felt dismayed.

He's making things up again. Let me make it clear: the city government actively sought Dr. Palencia's transfer, as early as November 2008 after news of shenanigans at DepEd-Naga first surfaced, arising mainly from COA's 2007 Audit Report.

That report cited 10 negative findings, including (1) Non-adherence with existing auditing/accounting laws, rules and regulations to prevent irregular, unnecessary and excessive expenditures resulting to wastage of government funds amounting to P1,811,340.72; and (2) Payment of P264,395.00 for job contracts, cash advances, reimbursements for travel expenses and other expenditures of four relatives of the OIC-SDS, in violation of pertinent provisions of Republic Acts No. 6713 (“Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees”) and 3019 (“Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act”).

When that COA report came out, the relationship between City Hall and DepEd-Naga was never the same again.

Last year the performance of the examinees was highly commended because Naga City was ranked among those in the top, very much reflective of the excellence that city officials would like Naga City to be reputed in any endeavor.

Excuse me? Since when did a 7th-place performance (out of 13 divisions in Bicol) become "highly commended"?

This year the examinees were ranked 187th among the 204 divisions in the national and 13th, the last in the heap, in the regional level.

Ahhh! At last! My favorite editorial writer finally got one paragraph right.

If Superintendent Palencia were the one responsible for the poor ratings of the public school students this year, then the City Division of Schools of Ligao City should feel insulted by the appointment of Palencia in the division. Ligao would not like to be the recipient of a loser, to be a dumping ground of an ineffective superintendent to head the division in the training of their children.

Let me tell you: they are. I was there last week.

The acceptance without any reservation of the City Division of Schools of Ligao City for Superintendent Palencia flings down the gauntlet on the unkind imputation directed at her by the City officials of Naga.

It was outgoing Supt. Dads San Antonio (who was promoted to the DepEd Central Office) who joined Mayor Linda Gonzales in showing us around. Enough said.

If Superintendent Palencia were the one responsible for the poor ratings of the public school students in Naga City this year, then how come the buck should stop with Superintendent Palencia. There are officials who have been dipping their hands in the education of public school students in Naga. They should equally be made answerable for the poor ratings of these students.

That is called "command responsibility," and I agree that there are others who should be made answerable as well, particularly the school heads who are not doing their job. An off-year is understandable, but three consecutive years is certainly not acceptable.

No amount of funds released for the public school children in Naga by the Local Government of Naga -- for their school bags which contain the names of City Hall officials, for scholarships that are given by reason of political patronage -- can assure quality education.

True, without a superintendent leading by example and competent school heads doing the same, the city government is only throwing good money after bad. Palencia's tenure is Exhibit "A" and the Bicol Mail is faulting us for exacting accountability.

School children are not equally gifted. Some batches are not as good as others. No matter how insistent teachers are in their classroom instruction, if the students are not intellectually endowed, there is no room for excellent ratings in examinations.

Probably, especially if it is a one-off thing. But four consecutive failing years, the last two with Palencia at the helm?

Considering that these students had the same teachers as the students who had taken the assessment test last year, there is no doubt that they were given an equally strenuous classroom review if only to prepare them for the assessment test.

Laying the blame on Superintendent Palencia when she has no direct hand in the results of the assessment test is truly unfounded to say the least -- cruel and unkind to say the most.

As superintendent, she is primarily responsible for the performance of the DepEd-Naga Division and therefore accountable for its education outcomes, including the NAT results.

The city officials who blamed Superintendent Palencia for the poor ratings of the public school examinees should look at themselves and lay the blame on themselves too. After all, they are in the same boat as the Superintendent. If Superintendent Palencia was blamed for the poor ratings of these students because she was their City Division chief, City officials should equally be blamed since they have command responsibility for the education of these public school children. These officials use to bruit about in their pagsalingnoy that their program called QUEEN is one that assures quality education, and that under their leadership the number of public schools has increased through the years.

We fully subscribe to the principle that "education is a shared responsibility" in spite of the fact that public education is not a devolved function and therefore not within the control and supervision of the local government. (The mayor, for one, cannot hire and fire the superintendent.) Others could have invoked that argument and get away with it. But not us.

As early as December 2007, with Palencia having already warmed her seat at DepEd-Naga, I warned the city's school heads and supervisory staff about the danger signs. Their response was a division planning conference at Regent Hotel that I attended as an observer; one thing that stood out from the individual plans presented, which I pointedly underscored when asked for comments, was the absence of clear numerical targets for each intervention. They never invited me again.

In October 2008, when Mayor Robredo presented his second State of the Children Report at the Naga Youth Center, with Palencia and the new assistant superintendent Carlito Boni in attendance, the same concern was raised with greater urgency: Naga's performance has been slipping. And this inconsistent performance does not match continuing investments of the City Government. Both chose to skip this year's report that highlights the celebration of Children's Month every October.

Which is why at the very outset, when the 2007 COA report surfaced confirming our worst fears about Palencia's leadership, Mayor Robredo immediately sought her replacement. The city's public school system deserves a better leader. And it took the DepEd Central Office one full year to realize this.

Money released for salaries of teachers in the public schools in Naga City, even the establishment of a School Board or the enactment of an ordinance establishing the QUEEN will amount to nothing, if education is treated as a business enterprise and as a political item.

Correct premise, wrong conclusion. All these will amount to nothing if the Nagueno child cannot be assured of two things, and only two: access, that he has every opportunity to graduate when he enters Grade I and First Year; and quality, that what he is getting is the best that his city has to offer. All others are mere propaganda.

Many of those who had unkind words for Superintendent Palencia do not even know how to run an educational institution and how to teach a class of 60 students, with not enough room space and not enough books, students who report to school with empty stomachs and with parents who avail of any of their free time for home and livelihood chores.

I should know: all my school-age children are enrolled in the public schools of Naga, two of them in an elementary school that we share with the less well-off residents of the city. Which is why I am mad because they deserve far better than the rut that our public schools are in.

Government officials who are accustomed to be conferred with awards of excellence cannot claim that they have the right to treat unkindly anyone who falls short of it.

We are not claiming it now or in the future because that imagined right is definitely home, safe and sound, with Bicol Mail's angry old man. But we reserve the right to demand better public schools -- including better superintendents, school heads and teachers -- and better newspapers -- including better and more well rounded editorial writers whose lives do not revolve around City Hall, and for that matter Mayor Robredo, alone.

The law of unintended consequences

2009-11-09T08:22:00.006+08:00

According to Wikipedia,

The so called "law of unintended consequences" (or "law of unforeseen consequences") is ... a humorous expression in common use according to which any purposeful action will produce some unintended, unanticipated, and usually unwanted consequences. Stated in other words, each cause has more than one effect, and these effects will invariably include at least one unforeseen side-effect. The unintended side-effect can be more significant than the intended effect.

Like Murphy's law, again a humorous expression rather than an actual law of nature, this law is a warning against the hubristic belief that humans can fully control the world around them.

Reading this Philippine Star article, I have a feeling that not only incumbents Rep. Diosdado "Dato" Arroyo and Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya stand the possibility of reaping the unintended consequence of Sen. Joker Arroyo's singleminded effort to reapportion the 1st and 2nd congressional district of Camarines Sur. Should he decide to run and win, Rep. Luis R. Villafuerte, who sponsored the original House Bill, may also suffer the same fate.

Let's review how Andaya explains it again:

In a recent interview, Andaya said whoever runs and wins as representatives of the two districts would be unseated if the Supreme Court strikes down the law splitting the first district as unconstitutional.

“If I and Rep. Dato Arroyo run and win, pareho kaming sibak (we will be both unseated), because it’s as if the two districts did not exist,” he said.

Asked if the winning candidate in what remains of the first district would also lose his seat, Andaya, who is a lawyer, gave an affirmative answer.

Because Villafuerte's district gave up Gainza and Milaor in the reapportionment law signed by GMA, doesn't it follow that the smaller 2nd Congressional District he will be running in for reelection next year also would not exist -- effectively removing any representation to the 1st and 2nd districts as we know it today?

I think a plausible argument to that effect can be made. What do you think?

Postscript to Peñafrancia

2009-10-07T16:53:00.008+08:00

Note: I wrote the first draft of this entry last September 28, a week after the fiesta.

To a non-catholic, Daet Bishop Gilbert Garcera’s homily after the fluvial procession would not have mattered much if not for Jonas Soltes’s note that appeared on my Facebook. Apparently, Bishop Garcera’s fiery denunciation of the media -- for sensationalizing the melee involving a voyador and a priest -- did not spare the city government.

A paragraph from the homily however struck me, and I would like to highlight it because to my mind, it mirrors the thinking of the local Catholic leadership in regard to the fiesta:

Third, I appeal to the FUTURE MAYORS OF NAGA CITY AND ALL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN NAGA CITY - to facilitate a prayerful atmosphere for pilgrims during the month of September especially during the novenario to Ina and the Divino Rostro. It’s VIVA Naga because of Ina. Without Ina, September will simply be another insignificant month in the calendar of the city. (Underscoring mine)

The claim, however, is problematic from a historical point of view. Because 111 years ago, on September 18, 1898 to be exact, a regiment of indio civil guards led by Corporals Elias Angeles and Felix Plazo led a successful uprising that successfully ended Spanish rule in Ambos Camarines.

In fact, as described in Joe Barrameda’s newly launched historical novel recreating the events leading up to the battle for Nueva Caceres, the Spanish colonial government would later surrender to the victorious Naguenos at around 2 o’clock of the following day.

It is precisely for this reason that the Sangguniang Panlungsod, through Ordinance 2006-050 as amended by Ordinance No. 2007-032, established September 19 as the “Aldaw nin Katalinkasan sa España.” Further, it mandates the city government to formulate annual programs, plans and activities that will promote and perpetuate the significance of that date in the City of Naga.

I will not blame Monsignor Garcera for making that flippant claim because like him, I too have always equated September with the Peñafrancia Fiesta -- and the convenient respite from work it brings me as a non-catholic -- because that is what tradition has always made us believe. Were it not for the efforts of local historians Danny Gerona, Joe Obias and Joe Barrameda, I wouldn’t have realized the importance of September 18-19 and thereby continued to wallow in ignorance of a most glorious event in our history as a city.

Come to think of it, for more than 100 years now, what has been the effect of Bishop Jorge Barlin’s effort in 1905 to move the celebration of Peñafrancia Fiesta from July to September? Intended or not, it is to overshadow and effectively erase those glorious two days from our memory, when they should actually be celebrated as a high point in our history as a freedom-loving people.

The only other event that would match it was in April 1945 when the Tancong Vaca guerilla units led by Major Juan Q. Miranda successfully liberated Naga from the Japanese Imperial forces way before MacArthur landed in Leyte Bay. In these two occasions, victory was achieved through a purely Bikolano effort, with no external help extended to the locals.

Yes folks, as a Bicol Mail editorial raised which JoeBar’s latest work answers, when Angeles and Plazo surprised the numerically superior and better armed Spanish forces in Nueva Caceres at around 11 o’clock on September 18, 1898, the city had already celebrated the Peñafrancia fiesta -- as it had previously been doing every July.

What took place in Naga in those fateful days was a “triduum for a tranquilizer” of the restless indio population as Barrameda describes it, with the winds of war in Manila having already reached Daet in the northern part of Ambos Camarines five months earlier. Clearly, it was not the nine-day celebration that the Catholic establishment now wants to keep free of intruders and intrusion.

When the Church of Caceres finally marks 300 years of the Peñafrancia devotion next year, September 18 will fall on a Saturday, coinciding with the fluvial procession, and 19 on the final day of the festivities itself. Thus, this year’s skirmishes and post-fiesta recriminations will, in all probability, come back to haunt Naga again. (It will, for sure, be an election issue in 2010.)

But whether the city government, under a new mayor, will fold and bow to the Church’s wishes -- as Garcera’s homily desires -- or whether it will continue to grow a backbone and assert its right to celebrate those two glorious days in September 111 years ago remain to be seen.

What is clear though is that viewed from the prism of history, this heroic act of the sons of Handiong predated the Peñafrancia fiesta in September; hence, it is incorrect to claim that without the fiesta, September will just be another insignificant month in the city's calendar. This therefore calls for some more give-and-take, and not hardening of positions, by both sides. Its recognition of this historical fact will go a long way in mending the frayed church-state relations that has characterized the final year of the Robredo administration.

Naga City wins Plaza Rizal case at the Supreme Court

2009-10-05T21:13:00.006+08:00

UPDATED (Oct 7): The SC decision is now online here.

WHEN the Supreme Court website containing decided cases for September is finally fixed, expect the following to dominate the local airwaves for a news cycle or two:

Naga City retains control over landmark site (0 hits)
By Ira P. Pedrasa
The City of Naga has administrative control over a landmark site there called Plaza Rizal, the Supreme Court said. In a 21-page decision penned by Associate Justice Minita V. Chico-Nazario, the third division of the high court debunked the claim...

The incomplete, corrected lede (it refers to Plaza Rizal as Plaza Miranda, and misspelled "landmark" as "landark" ) is what the Business World Codex Free Search feature shows if one types "Naga City" in the search box. The article appeared in the October 3, 2009 issue of the Manila-based business newspaper.

The particular link to watch out at the Supreme Court website is G.R. No. 175064. September 18, 2009: Province of Camarines Sur, represented by Governor Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte, Jr. Vs. Hon. Court of Appeals and City of Naga, represented by Mayor Jesse M. Robredo.

This piece of info came courtesy of the Newswires widget in my sidebar.

An eroismo kan mga Bikolano: Overview kan bagong obra ni Joe Barrameda

2009-09-22T05:55:00.005+08:00

Given during the book launch of Jose V. Barrameda's historical novel on September 15, 2009 at the Raul S. Roco Library.

KAN mag-text si JoeBar na matao akong overview sa launching kan saiyang bagong libro, daing gayo ako nahadit ta saboot ko, dakol man siguro kaming mataram. Pero kan makua ko na su program, medyo kinabahan ako ta ako lang palan an matao kan overview.

Kaya kasubanggi, binasa ko giraray su pigsurat niya ta baka dai ko matawan hustisya. Ponan ko an estorya sa pagtao nin konteksto sa pagtiripon niatong ini. Dai pa sana nahahaloy, an mga autoridad sa Cebu nahahadit huling nalilingawan na kan mga aki ninda kun siisay si dating Presidente Sergio Osmena. Kan magheling ako sa Sunstar.com.ph, igwang artikulo duman manongod sa ika 141ng anibersaryo kan kumpleanyo kan dating presidente. Dakol sa mga aki nagsabing bisto ninda si Osmena huli sa (1) nakapangaran saiya an eskwelahan ninda, (2) igwang tulay na an pangaran Osmena, asin (3) si Osmena lolo kan presente nindang alkalde.

An libro ni JoeBar nagpapangyari satong mabisto nin orog kun siisay si Elias Angeles asin Felix Plazo, na para sa kadaklan tinampo sana igdi sa satong ciudad. An dua iyo an nasa likod kan sarong successful uprising laban sa mga kastila 111 anyos na an nakaagi igdi sa Naga, na mibdid kaidto bilang Nueva Caceres. Si Angeles asin Plazo pareho indiong guardia civil. Kun papanong an pag-entra sa PMA ngonyan sarong paagi tanganing an sarong tios mag-asenso sa buhay, kaidto palan ginigibo naman iyan. An mga indio puede man magin miembro kan guardia civil, an federal paramilitary police kan mga kastila segun sa Wikipedia. Si Angeles bakong propiong taga-Naga; sa Pasig siya namundag, alagad huli ta may kapilyohan na naginibohan, napiritan siyang magdulag asin nakaabot igdi sa Naga, kun haen sinda nagkabistohan ni Felix Plazo na tubong Tigaon.

Sa librong ini ni JoeBar, madidiskubre ta na an pista palan kan Penafrancia orihinalmenteng pigseselebrar kada Hulyo, bakong Septyembre. Sarong editorial kan Bicol Mail an naheling ko man sa internet, asin duman pigsabing nagin Septyembre sana an pista kan 1905 huli sa espwerso ni Jorge Barlin, obispo kan Caceres. Kaya bakong totoo na mayong diretso an lokal na estado na iselebrar an bulan na Septyembre; an totoo pigdeklarar na kan Sanggunian an ika 18 asin 19 kaini bilang aldaw nin katalingkasan kan ciudad.

Kaya kan Septyembre 1898, tapos na an fiesta. Pero kun babalikan ta an kasaysayan, maribok na kaidto sa Filipinas. Orog na nagroro an sitwasyon poon kan badilon si Jose Rizal sa Bagumbayan (ngonyan Luneta) kan Disyembre 30, 1896, na sinundan kan 11ng mga Bikolanong martir, kompuesto kan mga midbid na tawo sa Nueva Caceres, kan Enero 4, 1897. Limang bulan pa sana an nakakaagi, prinobaran na pabagsakon kan mga Katipunerong taga-Daet sa pangengenot ni Ildefonso Moreno an gobyernong kastila sa parteng idto kan Ambos Camarines (mayo pa kaidtong Camarines Norte). Alagad sa ibong kan tolong aldaw na pagkubkob kan tropa ni Moreno kan pinagkutaan kan mga kastila, dai sinda napasuko. Kagadanan an sinapo ninda Moreno kan umabot an ayuda hali sa Naga; an iba pinugutan nin payo sa kasuguan ni Francisco Andreu. An kaparehong kaaabtan an nagdara nin takot sa mga indiong guardia civil na pinangengenotan ni Angeles asin Plazo; arog ni Moreno, sinda man mga miembro kan Katipunan ni Bonifacio, sa lokal na sanga kaining pig-apod na Barangay Maluningning.

Tano ta nagkaigwa nin selebrasyon giraray kan Penafrancia kan panahon na idto sa Naga? Ini an draft blurb na pigsurat ko bilang kontribusyon sa libro ni JoeBar:

The Bikolanos’ finest hour

If you think the recently frayed (and hopefully mended) relations between the local church and state is something new, better think again and read Joe Barrameda’s latest opus. A fitting follow-up to the cinematic In the crucible of an asymmetrical war in Camarines Sur 1942-1945 that chronicled the exploits of the Tancong Vaca guerillas during World War II, Catalingcasan traces the fateful days of September 1898 that ultimately led to the successful liberation of Nueva Caceres (now Naga City) and Ambos Camarines from Spanish rule by a regiment of Tagalog and Bikolano guardia civil led by Elias Angeles and Felix Plazo. (Which raises the question as to why the Tigaon-born Plazo is not equally honored as Angeles, who originally came from Pasig?)

In its pages, you will discover that 110 years ago, Peñafrancia festivities are celebrated in July and not September; that the Spanish military rulers, often at odds with their civilian and religious counterparts, colluded with church leaders in mounting a triduum featuring a Traslacion and fluvial procession of the image of Lady of Peñafrancia to appease the growing discontent and unease among the locals; and how Angeles and Plazo, sensing a possible repeat of the tragic bloody fate that befell fellow Katipunero Ildefonso Moreno and his band of Daet revolutionaries, were forced to mount a carefully planned uprising that -- in an overnight of horror and terror, and sheer barbarism as unintended consequence -- successfully booted out the colonials from one of the original royal Spanish cities in the Philippines.

Catalingcasan showcases the perennially underestimated sons of Handiong at their finest hour, and its pages celebrate their heroism, valor and honor as turn-of-the-century Bikolano warriors. But it would be shortlived as the realpolitik of the Tagalog-led Philippine revolution would bring the Angeles-Plazo tandem in disfavor before the new conquering horde. Which only goes to show that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Kan ako nasa hayskul pa, igwa kami kaidto nin sarong subject sa 4th Year na pig-aapod "Readings on Bicol Culture." Oportunidad ini kadto na pag-adalan an satong kasaysayan asin kultura; an makamomondo, an bagong kurikulum sa hayskul mayo na kan siring na subject. Baka maray paghingoahon ka Local School Board na ibalik ini huling itinotogot man iyan kan DepEd, basta dai sana inaan an basic curriculum.

Ikadua, baka kaipuhan na gamiton niato an iba pang medium -- nangorogna na visual arts -- tanganing mas orog na maapresyar kan mga hobenes an kasaysayan kan ciudad na ini. An duang obra ni JoeBar sa pagtubod ko cinematic: puedeng gibohan pelikula o kun dai man digital animation film ta igwa naman diyan kakayahan an ciudad.

An common theme kan mga pigsurat ni JoeBar iyo an eroismo kan mga taga-Naga. Kan 1945 sa saiyang libro manongod sa Tancong Vaca guerillas asin kan 1898 sa bago niyang libro, pareho nagin matriumpo an Bikolano sa pagpapalayas kan mga dayuhan. Matatawan sana niato nin hustisya an saiyang kontribusyon sa sosyedad kun ini mapapakinabangan asin aapresyaron kan satong mga kaakian. An angat sato ngonyan iyo an paghanap nin mga paagi kun pano orog na mapapakinabangan an mga obra ni JoeBar.

Bridging the gap between community information needs and student research: A local government perspective

2009-07-04T04:12:00.005+08:00

Remarks during the forum on Community Research Initiative:“Bridging the Gap between Community Information Needs and Student Researches” held at Avenue Plaza Hotel yesterday, June 3, 2009.

MY TASK this afternoon is to share my thoughts on how we can bridge research and the need for information.

Allow me to approach this from the perspective of a city official in charge of planning (who necessarily must view things from the confines of Naga City) and as program officer of the newly established Naga City Governance Institute (NCGI), whose advocacies encompass regional issues and consequently require a regional perspective.

In covering the topic, I will share with you a useful conceptual framework that, to my mind, captures the challenge we are facing in community research; examples of data gaps that we contend with in government; and my personal thoughts as to why we should move this effort forward.

Conceptual Framework
To situate our discussion, let me start with the so-called Data Triangle, which essentially captures the kinds of information that we at the city government and the NCGI are concerned about. According to the ADB Cities Data Book, to which I contributed the profile on Naga City:

At the bottom level of the data triangle are raw data or information. These data are usually assembled into statistics, which often take the form of tables or other partially organized data frameworks. These tables are not generally of much value in their own right for policy, since a majority of people cannot read large tables or perceive the importance of the results; and they require further interpretation and analysis.

The next step of organization is indicators, which are usually single numbers, mostly ratios, such as the unemployment rate of the economic growth rate, which permit comparisons over time and space and have normative and policy implications. Finally, at the top level of data organization are indexes, which are the combination of indicators designed to measure the overall health or progress of the object of study. The consumer price index (CPI). gross domestic product (GDP) and human development index (HDI) are all well-known indexes.

The same book distinguishes between indicators and the three other types of information: "The main difference between indicators and other kinds of data is that the connection with policy is, or should be, explicit. Indicators are about the interface between policy and data."

Of what importance is this Data Triangle to our work at the city and NCGI and your own work as researchers?

I don't want to underestimate college-level research, but to my mind, the area where we can more effectively work together in bridging the gap between the supply and demand of information is to focus on generating the two lower tiers of information, namely data and statistics, for two reasons: one, quite simply, these are the biggest holes in our information wall, to borrow from that popular GMA afternoon show; and two, we (and I particularly refer to student researchers) may not at this point and level of education have the expertise and experience required to grapple with indices.

Thus, I am proposing that by concentrating on addressing the local gap on data and statistics, we will all be better off because we will be doing something we can be good at and one what offers the most productive potential use to the local community of users.

Local, Regional Data Gaps
What are examples of the data/statistical gaps that we can address through a more responsive community-based research?

Allow me to share with you some, culled from my experience in assembling the Naga City indicators for the ADB Cities Data Book:

1. Population. Number of women-headed households, i.e. families where the father already passed away and the mother serves as household head.

2. Equity. Family income and expenditures by quintiles. What NSO has are income and expenditure survey results aggregated per province; data for towns and cities are not available. Consequently, it is difficult to definitively measure and track whether incomes and poverty incidence are rising or falling through time.

3. Health and education. On the surface, we have official data from the DepEd, but there are complications arising from the fact that public schools actually serve catchment areas that do not correspond to specific territorial/political jurisdictions. Which is why you find a significant number of children from neighboring towns – like Canaman, Magarao, Bombon and Calabanga to the north and Pili, Milaor, Gainza, Camaligan, Minalabac and San Fernando to the south-southwest enrolled in city public schools. This can overstate the real participation rate of school children in the city.

4. Productivity. City product per capita – or essentially the economic output of the local economy year in and year out. Even the ADB publication says this is usually not directly available despite its importance.

An important data that can help us generate this is the accurate picture on employment by sector, i.e. breaking down employment using the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC)
* Manufacturing, construction and utilities;
* Wholesale and retail, transport, personal services;
* Finance and business services;
* Education, health, government; and
* Agriculture, mining, defense.

5. New technology. Telephone traffic (the number of telephone calls per annum per person, broken down into local, international and mobile) and number of internet connections and their annual growth.

6. Land and floorspace. Rental rates, operating costs and other charges per month for prime commercial spaces, per square meter: these are especially important to investors.

7. Housing. Data on how housing is financed, especially the percentage of mortgages and those taken by women-headed households from such institutions as savings banks, commercial banks, government institutions, credit unions or cooperatives, trust or finance companies, and insurance companies or pension funds.

8. Physical and social environment. Energy usage per person, where you have to factor in all possible sources like petroleum (kerosene, aviation fuel, natural gas), coal, wood, electricity (hydro, wind, geothermal).

9. Transport. Mode of travel (private cars, train, bus or minibus, motorcycle; bicycle, including pedicab; walking, and others like boat or taxi). Percentage of car ownership. Traffic counts (pedestrian and automobile).

10. Governance. Perceptions as to livability and consumer satisfaction.

What else? Insofar as the NCGI is concerned, let me reiterate the example I shared during the launching of the institute last June 20 at the Crown Hotel, to wit:

At the same time, we will explore new perspectives on certain advocacies that come naturally and we often take for granted. For instance, federalism is now being dangled back as a sweetener to push Con-Ass and ChaCha, and there is danger that some of us may fall into that trap, But if you come to think of it, all arguments we have heard thus far in support of federalism are political arguments. I think it’s about time we explore other compelling arguments: for instance, we should explore the economics of federalism in the context of Bicol’s development.

Research should be able to tell us what the optimal conditions are – particularly financing and institutional arrangements – what will make federalism feasible. Otherwise, I am afraid we are running the risk of blindly rushing and pushing for an advocacy because of passionate reasons that run deeply in our veins as Bikolanos, instead of approaching the matter dispassionately.

Why We Should Bridge These Gaps
Let me now move to the last part of my talk, which deals with the reasons why we should move this initiative forward.

The answer, I believe, lies on why we are doing research in the first place – which is not just to earn a degree or confer these to our graduates, which by itself is a virtuous pursuit; or because there are opportunities in the environment and the market place, which should be taken advantage of lest we lose them forever. It is about our search for truth, or at the very least, a fuller understanding of the truth.

I want to mention this in the light of a lecture early this year at the Ateneo de Naga University, where Fr. Wilmer Tria took issue with the city administration in regard to its reputation as a good governance practitioner.

Now, let me say that I respect and even encourage researchers to think critically and cover all the bases in our search for the truth – after all, that is the most potent argument one can ever have against the claim that dissent is not being tolerated in the city.

For one, I fully agree with Fr. Tria when he said that good governance is merely a means and not an end in itself; that at the end of the day, the end-all and be-all to good governance, including the city’s claim to it, is human development. And this is where I part ways with him.

Because the state-of-the-art in research today shows that there are means of measuring the state of human development. I have already mentioned one – the HDI – a while ago, and the HDI has many other variants and flavors, depending on where on is coming from. We have the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and its plethora of indicators, which have been agreed upon by the international community of nations, and one which the NCGI has embraced as its own framework for regional advocacy. In others words, we no longer have to reinvent the wheel so to speak if we really want to understand more fully how local communities – in the province of Camarines Sur, among Bikol provinces and among Philippine regions – compare with each other in terms of human development.

And this is one concrete way through which community-based research among the educational institutions of the city can choose to move this initiative forward. For instance, you can choose to focus on each one of the eight MDGs and find out how towns and cities in Camarines Sur, or even how the 26 barangays in my native town of Pili are faring, considering that we have more or less five years to go before 2015.

If you are from Canaman, for example, where the purest variant of the Bicol language is said to come from, you may want to track down and analyze the comparative participation and completion rates of its various public schools, find out the magnitude of casualties – the average number of Grade I pupils who eventually drop out and are unable to finish Grade VI – the reasons as to why the phenomenon is happening (which is not true to the local but also the national level), and more importantly what the DepEd District Office and the Local School Board are doing or are intending to do about it. This puts you in a good position to relate these indicators to policy actions that they can explore as a means of addressing the problem.

Then, the Bercasio Group, probably in partnership with the NCGI and the Metro Naga Development Council, can sponsor an event that will allow you to present your findings, conclusions and recommendations to the concerned stakeholders. (Which is precisely what we are planning to do in Naga, through NCGI, within the year.) If this happens, one can really say with a high degree of confidence that his or her research is helping move things forward.

The bottom line is: we should not be afraid of numbers because as real researchers, they are key towards our deeper and fuller understanding of the truth, and in unmasking untruths. As is often said: one cannot improve what he does not measure. And one cannot measure what does not understand.

Otherwise, without the numbers backing up your thesis and assertions, what you will have is nothing but an educated opinion, which is still an opinion from anywhere one looks at it.

And while anyone can have his own set of opinion, he is not entitled to have his own set of facts. As researchers, our work will help ensure that these facts, or numbers, are valid, reliable and verifiable.

Thank you very much.

A life changing surgery

2009-06-21T23:16:00.004+08:00

A WEEK before the furor on Rizal's green house in Calamba hit the headlines, the three of us -- Lynn, Patricia Anne (our 5th we still call Nokie, but who now wants to be called by her real name) and myself -- found ourselves staying in our national hero's hometown.

Occasion was "Life Changing Smile" surgical mission arranged by the Calamba Medical Center (CMC), which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, in partnership with Operation Smile and the City Government of Calamba. The mission provided free cleft lip and palate operation at the 4th floor of the CMC Complex from June 15-17.

Nokie is turning six next month and the speech problem she had two years ago still persists, belying earlier assurances by local and Manila-based doctors that it is just a case of delayed speech which will correct itself when the right time comes.

Early this year, we brought her back to Manila and had her checked by an pediatrician specializing on speech problems; she referred us to an EENT who promptly diagnosed that Nokie's is a case of submucous cleft palate -- the outer lining of her palate is intact but the underlying muscle is not joined, which is most probably the reason why she has difficulty speaking clearly.

Last year, Naga (and several other Philippine cities) hosted an Operation Smile mission but its website showed there is none scheduled for the year. There are international missions scheduled in Southeast Asia, the nearest being Vietnam, but the ones for the Philippines have been concluded last February. Fortunately, when I inquired with its Philippine office, I found out there will be three local missions scheduled for Calamba in June, and Pasay and Makati in July. Renewed hope immediately replaced my quiet desperation.

The internets connected me with Dhey Nañola, CMC's bubbly marketing supervisor: first by Twitter, then by Facebook and finally by email, through which she sent the instructions and forms we need submit. It was already days past the extended June 1 deadline, and there are still data gaps and signatures by Pacol barangay officials we need to fill up.

Because I have to fly to Manila for a speaking engagement and the Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges (CSPC) board of trustees meeting to attend to on behalf of my principals, my eldest son Ezekiel had to take care of the rest; by midday, he emailed back to me the completed two-page form, which I immediately forwarded to Dhey after pasting Nokie's 3R picture I took the night before.

On June 10 and 11, Nokie had to take the blood test twice because her hemoglobin level (at 112) was quite low the first time around. After a good night sleep and iron supplements, it shot up to 119, only one notch lower than the 120 minimum but good enough that the attending pedia cleared her to undergo surgery.

On June 13, she and Lynn went ahead because I have important meetings to attend to in view of the approaching 61st Charter Anniversary of the city, which will be highlighted by the launch of the Naga City Governance Institute (NCGI) which the city planning office is handling.

In the late afternoon of June 15, I finally joined them at the CMC. Twenty four hours later, after calmly marching with a doctor and a nurse to the operating room, she went under the knife and emerged from the operating room about an hour later, terribly angry at the ordeal (and probably mad at the apparent betrayal of those she joined peacefully just an hour before?) with legs kicking and arms flailing at everyone.

Only when her mom cried unabashly and apologized did she regain the calm and steely resolve to overcome every hurdle just so she can speak clearly and finally join her younger sister Daddy (aka Ophelia Bianca, Jian Di or Bulilit Bulilit ang Liit-liit, depending on who's calling) at the latter's Peñafrancia Educare school.

The road ahead to Nokie's fully developed speech may still be long, or it can be short enough to be just ahead of the corner. I don't know: according to the doctors who briefed Lynn last June 15, the reconstructive surgery is no magic bullet for speech problems associated with children like Nokie. They have to unlearn how they now form words, and this can be difficult and will take time.

But with her palate now hopefully functioning well after the surgery, I am confident that we have addressed the physical constraint to Nokie's fully developed speech. Just moments ago, after a little prodding and coaching, she was able pronounce "Papa" correctly. Needless to say, I remain very hopeful.

As the world celebrates Father's Day, no gift can be greater, and for that I have to thank CMC (especially Dhey and Doctor Herbosa, who operated on Nokie), Operation Smile Philippines and the city of Jose Rizal for making it happen.

The Naga City Governance Institute: An introduction

2009-06-21T12:04:00.010+08:00

Remarks during yesterday's launch of the Naga City Governance Institute (NCGI) and the Inaugural NCGI Local Governance Forum at Crown Hotel, Naga City.

MY TASK this morning is to introduce to you what the Naga City Governance Institute is, how it came into being, and what it proposes to do.

Let me start with how it came into being.

The State of MDGs in Bicol
In 2006, I was asked by NEDA Region V to write a midterm progress report on the Millennium Development Goals in the region, using data they collected and organized from various line agencies of the national government.

The report came out in 2007, covering the region’s six provinces and three major cities. I’m not sure if many of you read it, buy let me share some of its findings.

Fig. 1 graphically summarizes them.

While on the balance, Bicol region appears to be on track on four of the seven MDGs, provincial and city performance varies, especially as one goes down into the detailed indicators.

We have two provinces that have almost twice as many off-track indicators as the region.

Meanwhile, the urban-rural disparity is also evident: the three cities are noticeable faring better than the six provinces.

Two years later after the report came out, there has been very little change. Of course, the report was published and publicized in the RDC newsletter but that was pretty much the end of it.

The local and national government agencies in the frontline of delivering or coordinating services and interventions are back in their business-as-usual mode pretty much without regard to the 2015 deadline.

Local challenges facing the MDGs
What other observations stood out in the report? Allow to share more with you:

• Information gap was noted as a major concern in the preparation of the regional progress report. The concern arose from data gaps (total or partial absence of required indicators), inconsistencies (conflicting datasets by government agencies), and quality issues (bad data that mask problematic situations on the ground).

• In addition, the report touched on “data implication,” pointing out that MDG indicators are substantially devalued when collected merely for the sake of monitoring without venturing deeper into their impact on policy. Essentially, it raised a concern on the inability of local authorities to link these indicators to policy and eventually to local action.

• Finally, the other face of the information gap concerns good local MDG practices. The report noted that while good local practices abound in the region, indicated by a DILG report that included less-known barangay programs from Bicol, there is a dearth in the number of documented, popularized initiatives that effectively address any or a combination of the eight MDGs. The particular gap has prevented more effective and widespread scaling up of local action addressing the MDGs.

The NCGI
It is in the context of the above that the city government, under Mayor Jesse Robredo, conceptualized the NCGI. Modesty aside, Naga did better than everyone else. Therefore, we must be doing something right, don’t we? And if there is that one thing we have been known for and proud to have been doing all along, it is our brand of participative governance.

The institute is built on the following propositions:

• It proposes to embrace the MDG framework because it is minimalist, the targets are within reach if a community only puts its heart and mind to it; it is robust, built around measurable indicators; and it widely accepted, having been agreed upon by the international community of nations

• It proposes that good local governance matters, because it brings a community together in mobilizing resources that promote economic growth and equitable social development that directly benefits its people

• It proposes that the Philippines will be better served if the quality of governance improves at the local level, as it is the key in reducing disparities and inequities among groups and sectors of the local society,

Our challenge therefore is to scale up and widen its network of “islands of good governance,” which can serve as model for effective community resource mobilization in promoting social development.

For this reason, Mayor Robredo issued Executive Order No. 2009-004 on People Power Day last February 25 creating the NCGI to serve as the main agency of the city government that will respond to the challenge of growing, promoting and sustaining local governance innovations in Naga City and the Bicol Region.

Its mission is reflected by the NCGI logo showing the Naga City Hall as backdrop. The four hands around it represent its four core functions: research, training, networking and advocacy – and its readiness to work with entities who share the same goal of improving local governance in Bicol as well as the Philippines.

What it plans to do
In response to that challenge, the institute will dedicate its efforts to the following, which we hope to implement with the help of the international community, starting with a grant facility of the European Union that we have been prequalified to apply to.

They are built around the steps recommended by the midterm report recommended to address the information gap in regard to the MDGs and intensify their localization in the Bicol Region:

1. More localized MDG tracking down to the city/municipal level. This involves the conduct and institutionalization of MDG progress monitoring and assessment at three levels: (a) regional (for provinces and cities), (b) provincial (for municipalities), and (c) city/municipal (for the barangays).

2. More effective alignment between national and local agencies. The report pointed out that the MDG outcomes it documented reflects the status quo, where regional and sub-regional units of national agencies, local governments and civil society organizations pursued MDG-related activities independently. A better way, it argued, is for them to align these activities to achieve greater synergy and efficiency and improve outcomes.

3. Documentation of less-known good practices. These should focus on local initiatives that address any or a combination of the eight MDGs and more importantly yield concrete outcomes.

4. Dissemination of local MDG tracking results. This involves the regular communication of MDG tracking results to stakeholders using various available mechanisms – such as the annual mayor or governor’s state of the local government report – and the production and dissemination of analog and digital MDG promo collaterals to key stakeholders and constituents.

Parallel to that, we will pursue certain advocacies we believe will promote regional development. One of them is the Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education (MLE), for which we already did a lecture-forum last March 31 in partnership with the UP-based MLE Consortium, We look forward to working with DepEd-Naga and the regional office to push this forward, in line with its own Lingua Franca initiative.

We will also conduct smaller roundtable events to promote a culture of local and regional research that will drive, define and inform our advocacies. For instance, in Naga City, we will be working closely with the Bercasio Business Solutions group in implementing their Community Research Initiative (CRI) that seeks to bridge supply and demand in applied and theoretical research, starting with the college level.

Truth of the matter is, much of our academic research in the city is grappling with the Mona Lisa conundrum: after being completed by students as a degree requirement, they would just lie there and die there, in a manner of speaking – in spite of their immense potential value to users.

For instance, students at the Naga City Science High School, if I’m not mistaken, came up with a way to produce katol our of water lilies – just imagine the impact it would have in revitalizing Naga River by suddenly giving value to the harvesting of these plants, thereby sparing us of a perennial headache during weekly cleanup drives.

Another research dealt the use of certain flowers as predictors of air quality – which we can potential use in cross-checking periodic readings made by our local environment office.

The NCGI will conduct events that will bring researchers (producers) to their logical community of users (consumers), thereby addressing what is called in literature as information asymmetry. At the same time, we will be working with our local academic institutions in crafting a research agenda that will respond to what the market really needs.

At the same time, we will explore new perspectives on certain advocacies that come naturally and we often take for granted. For instance, federalism is now being dangled back as a sweetener to push Con-Ass and ChaCha, and there is danger that some of us may fall into that trap, But if you come to think of it, all arguments we have heard thus far in support of federalism are political arguments. I think it’s about time we explore other compelling arguments: for instance, we should explore the economics of federalism in the context of Bicol’s development.

Research should be able to tell us what the optimal conditions are – particularly financing and institutional arrangements – what will make federalism feasible. Otherwise, I am afraid we are running the risk of blindly rushing and pushing for an advocacy because of passionate reasons that run deeply in our veins as Bikolanos, instead of approaching the matter dispassionately.

We look forward to working with each and every one of you in these endeavors.

Thank you very much.

Zest Air, Cebu Pacific's new best friend

2009-03-22T21:36:00.001+08:00

I TOOK Zest Air's afternoon flight to Manila today and mumbled to myself, "Cebu Pacific has a new best friend in Naga."

With its four-flights-a-week frequency (MoWeFriSu), the Naga Airport in Pili town effectively has three flights a day this summer: Cebu Pacific Air's (CPA) 72-seater European-made ATR 72-500 slugging it out with Air Philippines's Boeing 737 jet service every morning, and Zest Air alternating with CPA (TuThSa) in the early afternoon market.

Zest Air's aircraft is the Chinese-made 56-seater Xian MA60 (MA stands for "Modern Ark"). Powered by Canadian-made Pratt and Whitney turboprop engines, the flight was a tad louder than the ATR's, but less noisier than the YS-11, which Asian Spirit used to field for its Naga flight. But for a one-hour flight, it was tolerable enough.

In September 2008, Asian Spirit was rebadged Zest Airways (after Zesto, the flagship juice drink brand of AMY Holdings) when the Yao group purchased the former lock, stock and barrel. Last March 16, it resumed its flights to the city.

But one thing actually going for it are its staff, who are certainly more customer-friendly than CPA's. My main beef with the latter is its increasingly impersonal service: the personal touch that would make loyal patrons at ease is largely gone, replaced by rigidly applied rules that spare no one.

I can vouch for Zest Air's ground staff at Naga Airport, led by Ryan Manza: they were colleagues when we were still running Asian Spirit's operations here. For us, the customer is really king. This afternoon's flight was actually a get-together: sending me off was my city hall collegue Nick Motos, who was Ryan's boss at the time.

And of course, a P488 promo airfare (about half than what you would pay for the 7-to-8 hour overland trip) definitely didn't hurt: I managed to wangle one when I purchased online last Thursday. But that promo fare is most probably gone: when I checked before leaving Naga, the cheapest is already P888. With a full flight coming in and about 33 going out, that was not a bad fourth flight at all for the newest player in the local air passenger market.

Most and least corrupt at the same time

2009-03-19T10:40:00.005+08:00

FROM today's Inquirer:

No. 2 on the list of “most corrupt” agencies was the Philippine National Police (21 percent), followed by the Department of Agriculture (19 percent), Bureau of Internal Revenue (16 percent), DepEd (15 percent) and Bureau of Customs (15 percent).

“Interestingly, while the DepEd is identified as ‘most corrupt’ by 15 percent of Filipinos, 20 percent (of the respondents) deem it as one of the least corrupt government agencies in the country,” Pulse Asia noted.

Methinks it has something to do with the high level of respect still generally accorded by the population to hardworking public school teachers.

Corruption however starts to rear its head as one moves up in the totem pole. Teacher items for sale, overpriced textbooks and computers, padded cost of school and multipurpose buildings: these are some of the many faces corruption takes in our public schools.

Many years back, a friend once told my wife: "Mag-principal ka 'boy! Yaon d'yan an kwarta." She is now one, and controversies have always hounded her in all schools she was posted.

As graduation time nears, these vultures will again have a field day exacting their pound of flesh on hapless parents, especially the poor. "Libre man baga an pagpaeskwela" goes their twisted reasoning.

With an old-boy network instinctively looking after their kind, reinforced by criss-crossing padi-madi relations (called the compadrazgo culture in academic literature) I'm not so sure if change will ever take place in the DepEd that I know.

Naga City Science High shines in Smart tilt

2009-03-17T18:37:00.003+08:00

GOT the following in my mailbox. Congratulations to Joretze Carandang and her winning team.

Naga City Science HS reigns at the 1st DPSA Learning Challenge Awards

[14 March 2009, Manila] – The Naga City Science High School (NCSHS) won major awards during the 1st Doon Po Sa Amin (DPSA) Learning Challenge awarding ceremonies held in SM Megatrade Hall 2 in Mandaluyong City.

The NCSHS DPSA Team, headed by their Moderator, Ms. Joretze S. Carandang, bagged the Grand Champion and the Best in Social Science Topic Category awards with their entry “Si Ina: Sarong Debosyon sa Halawig na Panahon.” The entry is a research narrative about the social issues revolving around the Peñafrancia Festival, and is one of the top 5 entries under the Social Science Topic Category.

Thirty-five entries were shortlisted from the total 130 entries submitted by 40 Smart Schools Program (SSP) partner schools nationwide. Winners of the Best in Topic Category award are:

Mathematics
Science and Technology Education Center
Pulos: The Functions of Math in Oponganon’s Way of Life

Science and Environment
Lake Sebu National High School
Sagip Lawa

Language and Literature
Batanes National High School
The Untold Stories of the Ivatans

Arts and Culture
Batanes National High School
Laji and Palo Palo

Health and Wellness
Camiguin National High School
Amazing Nanay Ansing

Technology and Livelihood
Lupon Vocational High School
Bundas: Gateway to Squid Fishing

Teams of the winning entries in the Best in Topic Category award received P30,000 cash prize, trophy, and Smart Bro prepaid Plug-it Kit. Their schools, in turn, will receive one computer unit each. As the Grand Champion, the NCSHS team received an additional P50,000 cash prize, trophy, and one-year Internet access grant for their school.

The following entries also received Special Awards:

Best in Student Collaboration
General Santos City High School

Best in Photos
Barobo National High School
Baroto ni Tatay

Best in Website Design
Oton National High School
The Community Structure of Mangroves In Batiano River, Oton, Iloilo

Best in Community Impact
Agusan National High School
Moryo-Moryo: A Ray of Hope

Winners of the Special Awards received P10,000 cash prize, and trophy.

The Doon Po Sa Amin Learning Challenge, one of the components of the Doon Po Sa Amin project, is a competition for local content generation that seeks to engage SSP teachers and students to generate rich local content using ICT and curriculum-based topics that will help promote and develop their respective communities.

This made me pause

2009-03-17T12:53:00.008+08:00

WHILE looking for something on the net, I stumbled upon this, which came out in the U.P. Ibalon Bicol online newsletter last November and needs to be quoted in full:

Naga City Could Be Left Behind

For the past years I have been a regular visitor to Naga and Naga is my base when I stay in Bicol. So, I have come to observe and be familiar with Naga. I have also travelled a lot over the years and I have stayed in different places. With that I am able to compare Naga with the other cities I have become familiar with.

Naga is a beautiful place with a charm of its own. It is place of gentle people who are really proud of their city, with enough reason of course. In UP Ibalon it has contributed its fair share of denizens.

Naga consistently ranked high in competitiveness surveys. It is a well-run city led by legendary mayor who has won award after award and who is not content to just sit behind a desk. It has also led in people empowerment, transparency and public consultation.

With these factors, Naga could be flying high soon but that is not what I see. I even see the threat that it could be left behind and I will be sad for that.

I see the Naga government is very good in the old things that it usually does. In short, the grind. Complain about something, you will be heard. A pothole and a burst pipe is reported, it will be patched soon. A problem rises, the city government will try to look for solutions, in the soonest possible time, that is equitable for all.

But then I feel something is lacking but I cannot put my finger into it.

Even decades ago Naga is already a great educational center. But I see that it really cannot absorb its graduates. Graduates are human capital and it is Camarines Sur which paid for that. Once lost few will come back and they will no longer be available for development nor consumption.

Naguenos might not be bothered by it but to an outsider like me the lack of development in the Diversion Road, which has been open for the past 25 years, is an indictment. I heard the former big landlords of Naga would rather sit on their land and see its "value" rise year after year. I see that beyond the highway the marks of the former haciendas are still around. Why not convert it into a value-added enterprises? I think they should learn a thing or two from outside developers. Or are they simply waiting for outside developers to drop by?

I heard one land owner was dissuaded from putting up a warehouse across Avenue Square because it would ruin the ambience of the strip. Good move but it reminded me of Concepcion Grande which became a center of warehouses. In some cities, rather than putting up warehouses they would rather build buildings for IT purposes.

Which brings up my question. Where is the IT park of Naga? I have learned from a former restaurant owner in Naga who is now an operations manager of a big BPO company that putting up a call center is no big deal and it does not need foreign capital or enterprise to put it up. Why is it that the known call center in Camarines Sut is in Pili and Naga people have to be shuttled there?

In the South, leaders do not talk of bringing in foreign or outside investors. Of course, they will be happy if those kind of people come. They just talk more on how local business leaders should invest so that the city will grow (here in our place they are prepared to just break even in the first ten years but they know they are investing for the future). And of course they will try to look where they fit in in the government's Medium-Term Development Plan (and Cagayan de Oro is very good in this).

Do the local wielders of capital in Naga get together to talk about and pool their resources to plan for the projects of the future? Are Naga landlords willing to become capitalists instead of just relying on rent seeking? Or Naga will just wait for the next Enrile or Astillero?

In Ormoc City, Koreans come in droves and help in the development of the city. All for the love of golf and the sea (their seas are frigid and their weather is cold). Ormoc is developing and I don't think many people will vouch for the competence or cleanliness of its government (so it seems a city can be sold beyond this). Do Naguenos wonder now how can the formerly-derided Camarines Sur Watersports Complex (CWC) became such a hit?

Every time I come to Naga I notice that radio anchors all devote their time for criticism. But of course some are obviously paid hacks of some powers-that-be. But how does hawk-eyed criticism relate to development?

Maybe the city needs to put up a think tank for future options so that it will have a vision and an action for the 21st century economy. And that is not about attracting Indian-owned call centers that pays just a pittance for stressful work.

The piece, I think, deserves a lot of soul searching and action by the local society.

'Lola Oas'

2008-11-26T13:10:00.006+08:00

TWO DAYS ago, we finally laid her to rest at the Bagsa cemetery in Oas, Albay, beside her husband she outlived for 18 years, the last 13 of which she spent with us in Pacol.

During the funeral discourse given by Ramil Martinez, our circuit overseer, I couldn't hold back my tears, as I do now while writing this post, as we sang "The Resurrection Joy." Ordinarily, when attending the funeral of other Jehovah's Witnesses, I would sing that melancholy song with gusto, fired up by the biblical hope of resurrection, knowing that our sorrow is but a fleeting pain we all must bear.

But that warm afternoon, my voice gave up right at the end of the first line. I ended up sobbing quietly and wiping my tears on my little Nokie's red dress. When the talk ended and it was time for us to close her casket and take the two-kilometer journey to Bagsa, my wife Lynn and other kins were crying hard, especially Nana Puyet, her younger sister whose house in Tobog hosted Mama's last two nights in her hometown.

My Sofia and Pep were crying inconsolably, especially the latter who doted on her "Lola Oas," as the late Corazon Recongco Reoveros came to be known among my children and close family friends. The night before, a relative installed a karaoke at Nana Puyet's frontyard, where anyone, for five pesos, can sing any available tune in the songbook to his heart's content. I asked Pep to sing "Panalangin" once more, knowing how special that song is to her grandma.

Alas, what that song yearned for was not to be, at least in this earthly life. For glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the deadliest and most devastating form of brain tumor, took her life. Death came rather quickly, though not suddenly. Last summer, we took the car and drove to Manila, where I brought Mama and Ophelia Bianca to Tata Tol (as we call her brother Melchor), in San Pedro, Laguna. Despite her advancing age, she was still vibrant and full of life and love for her grandchildren, especially my seven who literally grew at her feet. Little did I realize that it was to be their last time together as siblings.

About a month back, she was still her usual self: the overly protective lola who will never allow anyone at Grandview Elementary to mess with her grandchildren, the able overseer of the Prilles of Pacol household while I and my wife are away for work, the steadfastly faithful witness of her God, the glue that for 13 eventful years held our family together. Until one fateful Saturday morning in mid-October, when after securing our daily fill of tsamporado, macaroni and pansit from the neighborhood joint, she inexplicably slipped and hurt her head.

As Mama wouldn't get well as she used to, two CT scans confirmed the unthinkable: our Lola Oas was dying from brain tumor. When she was discharged from the hospital on November 1, her doctors wouldn't tell us how long. But we did not realize Mama would leave us so quickly.

Last Wednesday afternoon (early evening at the US West Coast), as we were preparing to board our return flight to Manila from a San Francisco conference, Lynn's text message came swiftly: Mama has passed away. Pep's slighted grandma was 75 when she left us, but God willing, we look forward to seeing her again, in her usual hopeful, zestful and vibrant self, in the near future.

'Sa Gabos na Panahon'

2008-09-17T15:24:00.011+08:00

GOT this email early this morning from Hablondawani aka Fer Basbas:

Last night, we finally wrapped up the Naga City Creative Media Center's Penafrancia offering and should be showing soon on ABS-CBN Bicol's TV stations in Naga, Legazpi and Daet. The special premiere has been slated on September 21, 2008 on MagTV Na Oragon.

"Sa Gabos Na Panahon" is an animated presentation touching on the Bikolano's devotion to the Regional Patroness, Nuestra Sra. de Penafrancia. It runs for about 6:00 minutes.

For this project, we tried on a different style, seeking a fresh perspective to animation. Although the technique is no(t) entirely new, we hope that it would at least bring new flavor to the offerings from the city studio.

Done in a space of a few months and with everyone grappling with all sorts of challenges in the various aspects of producing the show, we know that it would have some shortcomings. For all that we'd like to thank everyone who have been part of the making of the show and we hope that at the very least, people would enjoy watching it.

This morning, after our ManCom meeting, Reuel Oliver of the NCIB/IPAC, Metro Naga and EDP units, previewed a raw copy of said animated feature. Suggestions were made, especially regarding the audio and the subtitles.

The city website is expected to carry the final cut after its launching, tentatively set for tomorrow.

I have some screenshots here. A short review will follow.

Plaza de Nueva Caceres

2008-09-16T17:36:00.009+08:00

AFTER hurdling scrutiny by the Sangguniang Panlungsod, both at the committee level last week and at its regular meeting this morning, the city government is converting the current island between the Naga City Public Market and Atlantic Bakery into Plaza de Nueva Caceres.

The Arts and Culture committee hearing chaired by Councilor Badette Roco featured interesting comments and suggestions by historians Dr. Danilo Gerona and Jose Barrameda, Jr.

Jose "Jojo" Barcena, Jr., descendant of Federico Barcena who crafted the Plaza Quince Martires monument, conceptualized this new historical landmark meant to celebrate the beginning and end of Spanish reign over Naga. Its scale model is shown above.

The project site and Jojo's descriptive text of the proposed monument, which he calls "Oragon," follows after the jump.

We hope to finish it in time for the opening of the 4th National Filipino Heritage Festival, which will be held in Naga on April 29 and 30 next year.

In the drawing boards is another monument dedicated to the Arejola brothers Luduvico and Tomas, which will rise in front of Advent Theater. (Although JoeBar suggests that their statues be placed at the two corners of Plaza Quezon near Kinastillohan.)

Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Marquez deserves another shot at Pacquiao

2008-09-14T18:08:00.006+08:00

THE WAY Juan Manuel Marquez slowly softened and eventually demolished Ring Magazine champion Joel Casamayor today all the more convinced me that the Mexican champion is the real measure of Manny Pacquiao's true worth.

Like a number of Pinoy boxing pundits, I happen to believe that Marquez was the real winner in their last fight, which was replayed on a bus VCD player on my way to Naga from Libon, Albay.

I watched today's fight at our home in Sagrada, together with my wife, my father and younger brother, all of whom are Pacquiao fans and avid boxing enthusiasts.

Actually, I was looking forward to a win on points by either fighter, and did not expect Marquez to knock Casamayor out, given the latter's own skills worthy of an former Olympic champ of Cuban heritage when they were still the best of the amateur boxing world.

But the closing seconds of the 11th round gave Marquez the opportunity to cash in on the barrage of combinations he sent Casamayor's way, and fashion a scintillating knockout win that is the first thorough defeat inflicted on the Cuban champ.

Win or lose against Oscar de la Hoya, Pacquiao cannot retire without fighting Marquez for the third and hopefully final time. The final episode of this new trilogy will help conclusively settle the issue as to who is really better -- and put to rest nagging doubts about their bout last March that fortunately went Pacquiao's way by the narrowest of margins.

Fun with QGIS and GIMP

2008-09-11T14:48:00.011+08:00

ONE of the two reasons holding me back from totally shifting the city planning operations from Windows to Ubuntu was the absence of a decent (read: user-friendly, which therefore requires a GUI or graphical user interface) geographic information system (GIS).

Until yesterday, when I discovered -- via Wikipedia -- installed and got Quantum GIS (QGIS) running in my Ubuntu Hardy-powered desktop. (It's a dual-boot system, but I rarely use the Windows Vista that went with the machine these days, except when editing Powerpoint presentations for my principal.)

I'm having problems opening the QGIS website today, but installers can be accessed in the cached version of its download page.

The pictures here show how I plotted the proposed redistricting of the province using datasets available at the Naga GIS webpage, courtesy of Senen Ebio, former EDP head and a neighbor at our Grandview community in Pacol.

Together with a Google map showing Camarines Sur's terrain, I then used Ubuntu's native GIMP Image Editor to superimpose the PNG image that QGIS yielded over the terrain map.

QGIS, by the way, is also available for Windows. The last picture is from the QGIS interface installed on another computer running on a Mac-customized Windows XP Home.

But there is that remaining roadblock to the full adoption of Ubuntu in the office: my staff have gotten so used to Microsoft Office Suite they're having trouble adapting to the Open Office alternative.

It's some sort of Windows dependency syndrome, especially if it is what you've grown up to and used all your life.

The next 'Nora Aunor'

2008-09-10T16:28:00.004+08:00

JAY 'BUGOY' Bogayan of Ocampo, Camarines went home yesterday and dropped by his alma mater, Universidad de Sta. Isabel, among other places. The daughter of my officemate, an Isabelina, said Bugoy was blindfolded when he was brought to USI, and the drama of coming home to the school where he used to work as student assistant (even as janitor, according to some) surely made him cry.

(Although there's more than meet the eye here, if my source is correct. But let's not spoil Bugoy's upcoming final battle royale.)

All over the city, streamers have sprung up, all encouraging texters to send him the needed votes. This weekend, he, and five other finalists of the Pinoy Dream Academy Season 2, will be facing the moment of truth.

Incidentally, I posted the following in the Naga.Gov community forum last week:

Ano daw kun makaigdi si Bugoy before the Traslacion, and hold a media-covered event that ABS-CBN will televise all over Bicol, to drum up support for his bid?

Kumbinsido ako ki Bugoy -- he's the next 'Nora Aunor' -- and the PDA people knows it. But at this stage, it's no longer about pure talent, which he has, but the support of our text votes.

Somehow, I'm happy the PDA staff did find a way of bringing him over to drum up support.

If you're from other planet and don't know what I'm talking about, check out what this Ilonggo wrote in his blog.

And don't forget to let those text votes coming:

To vote Bugoy text

PDA BUGOY
to the following access numbers:
2331for Globe, TM and Bayan Wireless Landline subscribers
231 for Smart and Talk N’ Text subscribers

On the Naga-Camaligan-Gainza merger

2008-09-08T08:56:00.003+08:00

FILIPINAYZD aka Irvin Sto. Tomas's comment reminded me of a long-overdue assignment for the Sangguniang Panlungsod -- our initial evaluation of the proposed merger between Naga City and neighboring towns Camaligan and Gainza.

You can find the document -- which we are submitting to the Sanggunian secretariat today -- here. The following part of the conclusion deserves to be highlighted:

As a matter of strategy, notwithstanding the short-term costs, there are three reasons why it will make sense for the long term.
One, it gives Naga a bigger population base of 190,678 as of last year’s census. This makes the city Bicol’s biggest in that respect, giving it an edge of more than 10,000 over Legazpi City.
Two, a bigger population base puts it in a better position to influence the election of its congressional representative, especially if redistricting takes place.
Finally, at a constant annual growth rate of 2%, the unified Naga will exceed the 250,000 population threshold by 2021 (instead of 2030, thus accelerating the process by 9 years), qualifying it for HUC status and its own congressman by the time election takes place the following year – assuming of course that current rules remain the same, and the proposed merger is approved by the electorate of Naga, Gainza and Camaligan in the first place.

A new provincial geography

2008-09-06T11:22:00.005+08:00

HOW the geography-oriented configuration of Camarines Sur's six congressional districts looks like.

Aside from the historical (1) Partido and (2) Rinconada districts, it will also have

(3) Central Plains
(4) the Bay Area (fronting San Miguel Bay)
(5) the Gulf Area (the Ragay Gulf towns), and
(6) the Southwest Coast (towns fronting Burias Pass).

If I recall it right, the DPWH is building a new bypass road skirting the current Maharlika Highway -- from Naga all the way to the provincial boundary in Bato up to Polangui. Snaking alongside that coastal mountain range, making it less susceptible to flooding, it will connect the southwestern coastal towns from San Fernando up to Oas, Albay.

Redistricting revisited

2008-09-05T22:34:00.005+08:00

THE recent brouhaha involving Senators Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino and Joker "The Joke" Arroyo could have been avoided if the latter actually batted for the creation of two, not just one additional district in Camarines Sur.

It's too obvious that the proposal is meant to accommodate Rep. Dato Arroyo, the president's youngest son, and Budget Secretary Nonoy Andaya, previous occupant of the former's current post who is planning to reclaim it in 2010.

If The Joke only bothered to check, Camarines Sur is already entitled to six districts, on the strength of its 1.69 million population as of August 2007 -- about 140,000 higher than the 2000 figures but a tad lower than what I projected here.

But when he called up the NSO regional office, according to people there who met us potential users of the planned 2010 Census on Population and Housing (CPH) this morning in Legazpi City, Senator Arroyo was only asking about a fifth district.

He could have told Noynoy why he is so interested about Camarines Sur: the sixth district, if it materializes, is where he plans to run after being term-limited in the Senate.

Which got me thinking: what are the other possible configurations of Cam Sur's two additional districts now that we already have the official count? I came up with two, shown after the jump.

What do you think?

Desktop tales

2008-09-04T15:09:00.007+08:00

SOMETIME in June, I wrote about my "Dawn of Ubuntu" desktop sitting on an ancient Mac-customized three-year old laptop.

The following pictures have recently made me very happy. Care to hazard a guess why?:)

Lessons from 'Frank'

2008-06-23T16:52:00.006+08:00

AS IS THE case every time a powerful typhoon that lashes our god-forsaken country leaves many dead on its trail, we are once again going through the ritual of fingerpointing and buckpassing, led by President Arroyo no less, and by telecon from the other side of the globe. (Her party won't come home yet; the Pacquiao fight wouldn't happen until Sunday morning.)

When another crisis erupts and grabs the headlines, the tragedy is swept under the rug, policy prescriptions remain just that, and the lessons quickly forgotten.

And what are these?

One, local officials (like Albay Gov. Joey Salceda) should not be so stupid as to rely on PAGASA's forecasts alone in making their decisions. Fortunately for us, websites like the Naga-based Typhoon2000.com have been in existence for at least a decade now. The treasure trove of information there should be required reading for local disaster councils and alter egos of governors and mayors.

Two, while some areas are certainly more fortunate than others (like most of Mindanao which, according to a Cagayan de Oro relative I visited last week, are alien to what we regularly experience in Bicol), most of Luzon and the Visayas should know how disastrous typhoons can be.

We should therefore should leave nothing to chance, especially with the recently erratic climate and this 2008 forecast from the City University of Hong Kong that western north Pacific (which includes the Philippines) will have slightly above-normal overall TC (tropical cyclone) activity this year.

The path taken by 'Frank' -- the first salvo of the the wet season -- is unusual, and portends that natural disasters will probably cover a wider swathe this time around.

Oddly enough, having been so used to being at their receiving end, we were prepared as usual. Although thanks to the Typhoon2000, I already had an idea by last Friday evening that 'Frank' path will change and spare us just for once.

My new desktop

2008-06-10T17:04:00.006+08:00

THE best of three worlds:

- My all-time fave Dawn of Ubuntu wallpaper, sitting on a Mac customization of the good ol' Windows XP.

- On my three-year old Celeron M 1.40GHz Asus A3L that is crying out for an upgrade.That eePC 901 or Acer Aspire One looks nice.:)

Courtesy of Carabs and Naga's good ol' EDP boys.

'Where in the world is Willy now?'

2008-01-28T17:09:00.000+08:00

TWO COMMENTERS have asked the question, the first one evoking the computer game involving Carmen Sandiego. Porfirio, the other one, asked whether I got sick or went out of the country.

Well, I'm still in Naga, in that lovely little spot in the world we call Pacol.

I didn't get sick in the physical sense of the word, thankfully -- although I am close to overcoming a persistently durable cough (commonplace here, I am told, at this time of year in a climate gone crazy), and some episodes of arthritic attacks that make plain walking a terrible ordeal.

But I did get sick in a different way.

With the way things are in our country, I get this feeling as if evil has triumphed. And everything we do is for naught. So why bother? Why write, and why blog for that matter?

Until I read Juan Mercado's column last week. Especially the following quote from the fallen El Salvadorean bishop Oscar Romero:

“We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of God’s work. Nothing we do is complete. We simply plant the seeds that one day will grow. We cannot do everything. But this enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete. But it is an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We are workers, not master builders, servant-leaders, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”

The article took some time to sink in, but gently reminded me of the good so commonplace that I refused to see.

My seven wonderful blessings -- a source of boundless joy in our cramped little home filled with a cacophony of voices whose laughters, cries, shouting and even hushed conversations become a living symphony -- without whom life would be nothing.

Sixteen years of solid, happy, eventful and productive marriage to a most loving wife.

A community that may not be the richest, the cleanest nor the mostly orderly in our part of the city -- but is vibrant, dedicated, colorful and alive.

The sweet, pleasant early mornings that greet me everytime I would don my ancient sneakers and negotiate the bends and turns around Grandview and Green Valley.

Work that is fulfilling, with people ready and committed to give their all, in a city government where public service remains what it should be.

All I had to do is look a little bit closer and count these blessings.

And blog about them.

Home to heroes

2007-12-17T12:23:00.000+08:00

MONDAY I found myself in Libmanan on invitation of its youthful Councilor Alexander James Jaucian, chair of the town's sanggunian education committee.

Jaucian wants to bring Synergeia's Reading program -- ongoing in Iriga City and Libon and hopefully soon in Rapu-Rapu, Albay -- to Camarines Sur's biggest town, and I explained before the sangguniang bayan what the foundation is, what we do, and how communities like Libmanan can improve the quality of education if only its local leaders will commit themselves to it.

The journey, my first ever to the town, was nostalgic in some ways. Many years back, I fell in love with a lass from the place but alas it was not meant to be. Then there's the legendary Handiong, the first king of Ibalon who is said to have built his capital in the Libmanan delta, laying the foundation for the first Bikolano civilization, in partnership with former nemesis and lover, the snake goddess Oryol.

It is also the main theatre of the guerilla warfare documented in the World War II book written by historian Jose Barrameda, Jr. on the Tancong Vaca Guerilla Unit (TVGU), which I wrote about in a column last month. Incidentally, it is also a highlight of an ongoing exhibit on the local guerilla movement -- whose title eludes me -- at the Ateneo de Naga university library. JoeBar would later email me a kind note with the following clarification:

"One, my father joined the resistance movement in Baao, Camarines Sur (for which reason I also dedicated the book to him) but he survived the war. Two, there was another big accomplishment that the TVGU chalked up, so that there were three of them in all. This was the second liberation of Naga in April 1944. The TVGU actually headed the liberation force through Major Juan Q. Miranda who was elected the overall commander the force. Moreover, the liberation was done by Bicolano guerrillas alone. The U.S. Army reached Naga some two weeks after it had been wrested by the sons of Handiong from the Japanese."

In that quick visit, I saw a town that seemed to be as ordinary as any other in Bicol, at least the ones I've been to. The streets are narrow and some stretches of the concrete road leading to the poblacion have seen better days, but who would ever imagine that it would bring forth mythical and real heroes that would define the Bikolano at his very best?

As Edwin Aspra, our office driver, and I negotiated the 35-km trip back home along the national highway, I told him during the war, Libmanan's link to Naga was via the snaking Bicol River and the railways, which played a prominent role in JoeBar's opus. The road we are traversing has yet to see the light of day. Unfortunately, both have been sidelined by the emergence of cars, buses and trucks as the primary medium of transport.

More unfortunate is the fact that Libmanan appears to have fallen for the siren song of the politician's empty promises that have driven them to desperation. That in the last elections they have reposed their trust on a stranger, who happens to be a son of the President, to represent them in Congress is a clear indictment of his predecessors.

Will their fortune change this time? I want to be hopeful, but the odds are stacked against it. For one, President Arroyo has just appointed Albay Gov. Jose Clemente "Joey" Salceda as new chair of the Bicol Regional Development Council, replacing Camarines Sur's Luis Raymund "L-Ray" Villafuerte, Jr., notwithstanding the latter's 38-6 advantage in the August 14, 2007 voting. In fact, in last Friday's (Dec. 14) RDC meeting, many governors -- who all voted for L-Ray -- were shocked to see Joey presiding. That renders the promised international airport in Libmanan to nothing less than a snake oil salesman's pitch.

The restoration of Philippine National Railways (PNR) service, a casualty of Supertyphoon Reming a year ago, would have been a more realistic and logical advocacy. But there are indications funding is not being prioritized in the national budget.

In the national convention of the Personnel Officer Association of the Philippines (POAP) I attended a week back, a PNR representative expressed his fears about it, and asked me if the Naga city government will support an effort to secure more funds for the PNR. I said restoring PNR services is always in the best interest of any Bikolano, and we will therefore do our part, but people like Dato Arroyo and Ower Andal are better positioned to make it happen.

I hope Libmanan once again rediscovers its inner strength and pride, and remembers its lineage as home to Bikol heroes. Because at the end of the day, nobody else will help it reclaim its glory but its own.

Accountability, American football and forecasting

2007-11-25T06:09:00.000+08:00

AS A Green Bay Packers fan, I frequent the Yahoo! Sports website a lot. In its NFL section, one finds a six-person panel of experts who predict outcomes of all games for the entire season.

Actually, the panel comprises of more than six because the sixth man represents the Yahoo! user, or more accurately, football enthusiasts all over the world who have an account with Yahoo! and have signed up for its Pro-Football Pick'em service.

And guess what? As of last Thursday's final game (Friday morning in the Philippines, as everyone here is anxiously waiting for 'Mina') between the Colts and the Falcons, the average football enthusiast is actually doing quite well compared to the five other *experts* that include Cris Carter, a former Minnesota Vikings star.

In fact, they have the same record as Carter (104-59 correct-incorrect picks), which is better than two of the other *experts* in the employ of Yahoo!

I have to mention this because this waiting game for 'Mina' has become one big football game -- where you have a veritable panel of international experts and enthusiasts on storm tracking (the JTWC of the U.S. Navy, the IFA of the University of Hawaii, the TCT of the University of Wisconsin, the TSR of the University College of London: they're all in Mike Padua's website), a Naga-based enthusiast who had been tracking typhoons for 10 years now, and of course, PAGASA, the official state weather agency.

With Bicol now safe from 'Mina', it is clear that PAGASA -- notwithstanding DOST Undersecretary Graciano Yumul's strained explanations -- bungled this one. This morning's Inquirer story asks correctly: What went wrong?

Of course, his boss -- Secretary Estrella Alabastro -- was correct in saying that PAGASA forecasters in fact mentioned two possible scenarios in regard to 'Mina': one running smack into Bicol and exiting via Mindoro (which brought us sleepless nights), and the current one, which spares the region and hits Northern Luzon and Cagayan Valley instead.

The problem is, they chose to play out the former, when all the other experts are saying otherwise. My two previous posts highlight this. Thus, massive preemptive evacuations had to be made in Albay and Camarines Sur, involving hundreds of thousands of residents, prompted by this Inquirer banner: "1 million Bicol folk told to flee".

If there is one thing I agree with Yumul, it is when he said that PAGASA forecasts are "accountable." Some accountability here would definitely help, because as Irvin Sto. Tomas, who has not been posting lately at Filipinayzd, pointed out, "In the end, you can't point the finger at the enthusiast."

Now we wait, pray, prepare for the worst

2007-11-23T14:27:00.000+08:00

IT APPEARS we will have to wait for Typhoon 'Mina' a little bit longer.

The latest tracking maps available as I write this show that the typhoon has slowed down, and will pass closest to Bicol mainland by around 8 am tomorrow.

But the bad news, according to Typhoon2000.com, is: Mina will gain more strength, with gustiness up to 260 kph when it passes north of Naga. That is dangerously close to that of Reming.

What path it will eventually take is still up in the air: the contrasting forecasts between PAGASA and the international meteorological entities that Typhoon2000 depend on, in fact persist.

From the top map above, the state agency is projecting Mina's eyewall to go through Albay Gulf -- with Rapu-Rapu and Legazpi City directly on its path -- towards Mindoro. On the other hand, Mike Padua's 11am storm track maintains a path that will barely graze Bicol mainland in the general direction of Baler, Aurora. That's a differential of about 250 kms!

This prompted Porfirio Rubirosa, a regular passerby of this weblog, to quip: "Apparently, different meteorological stations/weather report outfits have their own versions of tracking a typhoon. What does it tell us? That weather forecasting/typhoon tracking isn't really an exact science, it's all tentative."

When all of these is over, it will be interesting to see which one called it more accurately.

A battle of forecasts

2007-11-22T19:28:00.000+08:00

WHAT'S wrong with these graphics?

Well, they are contrasting forecasts as to the path that Typhoon 'Mina' (international name: Mitag) is supposed to take as it passes through the Philippines. Incidentally, they are what City Assessor Mon Albeus showed me this afternoon as we were lining to punch our timecards at the City Hall lobby.

The one on top came from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the state weather forecasting agency.

The one below came from Typhoon2000.com, a tropical cyclone tracking website -- the country's first, according to its tagline -- being maintained by Michael David "Mike" Padua, a Naga-based enthusiast who had been tracking storms since I can remember.

With Supertyphoon Reming's terrible force still fresh in our minds, we sighed with a measure of relief after waking up early in the morning to find that Mina's projected path has inched up upwards. Two days ago, the initial projection is that it will largely take the same destructive path that Reming took last November.

The PAGASA forecast -- which came out late in the afternoon -- was a downer and cast a pall of gloom. It has not veered from the projected track two days back. That it was broadcast over the 6:30 pm primetime news by the two leading TV channels surely kicked up our people's worries several notches higher.

Locally, Mike has become the favorite whipping boy of several radio broadcasters with a political agenda who can't reconcile themselves with the fact that in this age of the internet, weather forecasting -- albeit unofficially -- is no longer the exclusive domain of central state agencies like the PAGASA.

Now, which one do we believe? Mon asked me. That, I think, is the uneasy dilemma facing most city residents today as we prepare for Typhoon Mina.

I said I will stick to Mike's projection. Somebody from the City ENRO agreed, saying other meteorological websites linked to by Typhoon2000 carried largely the same path.

Just to show you, I also uploaded here the forecasts of the Honolulu-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), and the University College of London-based Tropical Storm Risk (TSR), in that order.

But then again, the best position should be to prepare for the worst. Which, incidentally, was the message emphasized by Vice Mayor Gabby Bordado when he presided over a meeting of the City Disaster Council just before lunchtime.

Tomorrow morning, Mayor Robredo will preside over an emergency meeting of the city government Management Committee (ManCom) to finetune local preparations before Mina will start lashing Naga beginning Friday midnight.

Gutsy Gibbon rocks!

2007-11-20T13:01:00.000+08:00

UPDATE (4:00 pm): I have also resolved the VCD issue by installing MPlayer, as suggested by the blog Only Ubuntu Linux.

WELL, WHAT can I say, except that Ubuntu 7.10, also known as Gutsy Gibbon, far exceeded my expectations.

Dom's package (together with a nice blogger's t-shirt - thanks, Dom!) came in at around 9 am yesterday, and I wasted no time to get the upgrade up and running.

By around lunchtime, I was all set -- meaning, my Konica Minolta laserjet is hooked up, and painlessly at that; my wireless internet connection to the access point at the office worked seamlessly; and my VLC media player played most everything I threw its way: DVDs, my Windows Media video files, and even my Welcome to the Black Parade Divx file.

More importantly, I can now see all my files in my Windows hard drives -- something I couldn't do under Dapper Drake and XP. And software upgrades are both painless and seamless, especially if you get the hang of Ubuntu's synaptic packages.

The only drawbacks remain to be the office network winprinter (the Canon LBP-800), its inability to play VCDs (not a major issue in these DVD days, but inexcusable because XP handles it so well), and my internal Conexant modem (which prevents me from logging on at home using Blast dial-up). But what the heck! One cannot have it all.

Which means there is still a place for Windows in my computing life -- at home where it is the only OS that my wife and kids know about. But even that may change, especially if I convert the home desktop into another dual-boot system.

Maray nang dai ka maestoryahan!

But why am I only writing this a full day later? Well, I had to do a clean reinstall to totally remove Dapper Drake from my system, as the first install actually yielded a triple-boot machine. And manually configuring the resulting partitions was a pain in the ass.:)

My (difficult) Ubuntu life so far

2007-11-16T15:48:00.000+08:00

WHILE awaiting the Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon installer that Dom Cimafranca offered, I deliberately spent most of the week logging into my Dapper Drake system, eschewing the Windows I knew practically all my computing life.

For instance, early today, I composed my Vox Bikol column for the week in OpenOffice Writer, emailed it through my Gmail account via Firefox, and uploaded it to my Blogger site.

I have also resolved my printing problem -- in fact, I let out a loud, triumphant cry when I finally did so -- with my Konica Minolta PagePro 1400W laserjet after tracking down Manuel Schiller's PagePro 12xxW printer printer drivers for Linux, downloading and finally installing it -- but not after overcoming side issues related to the absence of a compiler and make commands in my system.

But I still have problems with the Canon LBP-800 network printer in the office. The appropriate PPD driver -- courtesy of Massimo Del Fedele -- has been installed, which means I will be able to use it as a local printer. But network printing appears to be impossible, as this note from the Open Printing database of the Linux Foundation shows.

The driver issue I mentioned previously involving my Conexant modem remains unresolved to my satisfaction: after finally tracking down the correct driver, the modem has been detected, the process of logging in and out takes place quite seamlessly, but it is mostly an exercise in futility with connection speed capped at 14.4 kbps. Linuxant, the outfit which developed the driver, will only remove the restricted if one coughs up $20 for the license.

But what currently stumps me is my inability to play a simple VCD movie, notwithstanding the updates I made on the VLC Media Player that I downloaded, either as a synaptic package or through the Terminal. The same holds true with the WMV videos I have in my hard drive, which are practically useless in an Ubuntu environment.

Truth to tell, I am being frustrated by twists and turns of my Ubuntu experience thus far in trying to duplicate what I can do, and actually do and enjoy with Windows. Which actually makes me pine for the ease and simplicity of XP, its bugs, worms and viruses notwithstanding.

I am not exactly a techie, and I am not conversant at all with Linux. But having used a lot of DOS line commands and the WordStar word processor before Windows 3.1 came about, I can follow basic instructions on how to go about with Linux line commands in the Ubuntu Terminal.

I can only imagine how a total newbie will manage in the face of these difficulties.

But I have not given up yet: I love my "Dawn of Ubuntu" wallpaper, and I only hope Gutsy will live up to expectations.

JoeBar does us a great service

2007-11-16T11:34:00.000+08:00

IN MY column during the Independence Day week last June, I mentioned the generation and information gaps behind our weak sense of local history. The former stems from the fact that only around 2% of the city population as of 2000 had a clear recollection of World War II. The latter refers to our “skewed, if not lack of total, appreciation of what happened during those fateful years” -- arising from the absence of information magnified by a dumbing down of local history in the DepEd curriculum.

Historian Jose V. Barrameda, Jr., popularly known hereabouts as JoeBar, performed the city and Bikolanos in general a tremendous service with the recent publication, under a grant from the National Historical Institute, of his opus entitled In the crucible of an asymmetrical war in Camarines Sur 1942-1945 – The story of the Tancong Vaca Guerilla Unit. My friend and colleague Joe Perez of the Bicol Mail lent me his copy for two days and it proved to be a gripping well researched read.

Focusing on the exploits of the Tancong Vaca guerillas (named after a watershed in Libmanan and Pasacao, also known as Mt. Bernacci in U.S. maps) against the Japanese invaders, Barrameda -- whose father fought and died during the war -- debunks the conventional belief that Bicol had the least organized resistance movement against the invaders.

To the contrary, what stands out from the entire account is a tough, stubborn, durable and well organized force that refused to lay down their arms like other guerilla units in the aftermath of General Wainwright's surrender on May 6, 1942; survived the best shots unleashed by the Japanese Imperial Forces and their local cohorts; and outlasted them during the four-year period notwithstanding losses it sustained along the way.

Moreover, the guerillas -- led by the triumvirate of Juan Miranda, commanding officer, who would later become a congressman of the 2nd District after the war; Leon Aureus, executive officer, who would later become Naga's first postwar city mayor and Bicol Mail founder; and Elias Madrid, finance officer who actually founded the unit -- can lay claim to two key victories over the Japs.

One is the successful assault on Naga City in partnership with other guerilla units and Agta bowmen in Camarines Sur and Norte in May 1942, two months after the invaders arrived in Bicol. It led to the short-lived recapture of the provincial capital and the release of American prisoners, a feat emblazoned in the book cover itself.

The other is the ambush at Taguilid Pass in Pasacao, which is said to have netted a Japanese general and hero from the just concluded Bataan campaign that ultimately led to Wainwright's surrender.

Along the way, it also sheds light on a key controversy that hounds Nagueños up to this day: the brutal death of then Gov. Mariano Villafuerte and companions, who fled Naga in the aftermath of the May 1942 attack in the company of Japanese forces. Belying Aureus's account, which Barrameda dismissed as propaganda, he attributed the murder of Villafuerte, his wife and son and a Japanese officer to remnants of the Camarines Norte-based Traveling Vinzons Guerillas (TVG) headed by Francisco “Turko” Boayes.

The Boayes partisans were in Vito, Siruma during that fateful day arranging a sanctuary for their compatriots who have also launched a failed attack on Daet, Camarines Norte, which took place simultaneous with the one on Naga. The Notes to the main text, which could have been improved with better chaptering, actually reveal far more details about the tragic incident, which Barrameda categorized as a war crime given its context.

Boayes himself would later figure in many other sordid episodes, including a conflict with Miranda over the latter's bride Constancia Estrada that stretched from the camp of guerilla leader Teofilo Padua in Mt. Isarog -- Miranda was there for a unification talk, only to be wounded after a surprise Japanese attack -- to the coastal towns of Lagonoy and Parubcan (now Presentacion), where he withdrew to recuperate. It culminated with a potentially bloody confrontation between Miranda and Boayes in the shores of Catanduanes that was only averted by the former's quick hands, enabling him and his two other companions to disarm their opponents.

Heroism. Betrayal. Tragedy. Love. Self-sacrifice. JoeBar's Tancong Vaca account has it all -- elements of a movie, or even a TV series, that can surpass Cesar Montano's The Great Raid.

A first-timer's travails with Ubuntu

2007-11-10T22:08:00.000+08:00

My column for this week's issue of Vox Bikol.

ABOUT a month ago, my aging notebook PC was waylaid by a worm called Brontok that skipped past the defenses of my otherwise reliable antivirus AVG. To make the story short, I had to move all my data files to a secondary drive, reformat my primary drive where Windows XP is installed to snuff out Brontok, and install a new copy of the operating system.

I wrote an entry about that experience in my weblog, and it attracted a number of comments. Some suggested a superior antivirus software, which I eventually did; Maryanne Moll and Dominique Cimafranca, alumni of the prestigious Silliman writers conference, on the other hand suggested something else -- abandoning the virus-prone Windows for Apple and Ubuntu, respectively.

Now, a Mac -- which I understand is the preferred weapon of choice by artists -- would be fantastic, except that a new laptop is out of the question these days. Much of my salary have already been “obligated” -- to borrow the language of a budget guy like City Administrator Frank Mendoza who doubles as acting budget officer of the Naga City government.

That left me with Ubuntu -- which claims to be “the Linux for humans -- as the other fallback. Which is not exactly a hard choice to make, as I happen to believe in the open-source paradigm.

Taking away the part which had me backing up my files into another hard drive, and clearing enough space to allow a dual-boot system on a my 40-GB hard disk, installing Ubuntu actually was quite seamless and painless. Well, I have to qualify that “painless” part: it was so with my laptop but not the office desktop which I used as guinea pig the first time around last Thursday.
The relatively old desktop, powered by a first-generation AMD Sempron processor, appeared to have hit a blank wall when the installation progress bar hit 84%. So I cancelled the entire thing, and ended messing it up -- and the Windows XP system already in place. So I had to reinstall XP, and Ubuntu after that, and a little patience eventually paid dividends because for one reason or another, it is able to read even the partitions containing the Windows system.

The version I had working right now is the so-called “Dapper Drake,” and its interface and stability certainly gives Windows XP -- and come to think of it, even Apple -- a run for its money. And it had everything the office needs mostly to get its job done: the OpenOffice suite that handles its Microsoft counterpart with aplomb, and more because of its capability to save documents in PDF format; as well as the Firefox browser, which is superior to the Apple Safari for Windows Beta that I have also been trying.

Unfortunately, Ubuntu remains hampered by Windows' tremendous edge in third-party support. For instance, the Konica Minolta laser printer I am using is unsupported. And so is the onboard Conexant-made modem of my laptop. (I will have to shell out $20 to download a fully functional driver file.) Which is why on my first day of using Ubuntu, I am writing this piece in OpenOffice Writer and will save it on my flash drive. But once done, I switch it off and go back to my good old virus-prone Windows XP so that I will be able to log on to the internet and email it to May France, who is already laying out this issue.

I guess this dual-boot scheme will be staying on with me for quite some time.

"Dark night" comes to Naga

2007-11-07T11:32:00.000+08:00

THE ONLINE version of Vox Bikol is not yet updated, but columnist Fr. Andrew Recepcion has penned a gem entitled "Dark night in the Philippines."

The expression "dark night" is traced to St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle which is characterized as "a period of intense purification in which the soul seems to feel abandoned by God." The same is true with the Philippines, he argued. But let me zoom in on the following paragraph:

One of my foreigner friends who have been living here in the Philippines for the past fifteen years sent me a text message a couple of weeks ago about the most organized criminal organizations in the world. The text message enumerated a long list of criminal organizations by country, including the Italian and Chinese mafia, etc. I was about to delete the message but my attention was caught by the last item on the list of the world's criminal organizations -- Philippines: Government! I was amused but I thought that from a foreigner the Philippine government could be perceived as the most organized criminal organization in the Philippines today.

Juxtapose that with the open letter written by the leading lights of the Naga City society to President Arroyo -- which appears on page 8 of today's issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer -- and what do you get?

Clearly, the "dark night" has come to the "Maogmang Lugar" itself, with the PNP regional leadership -- whose officer-in-charge is backed by Rep. Luis R. Villafuerte -- not only doing nothing, but authoring the breakdown of peace and order itself!

Two days ago, the "dark night's" latest manifestation came at high noon. The incident described in the letter's post script is still fresh in our minds -- the robbery of Jollibee Panganiban in broad daylight, which claimed two lives in the process.

That foreigner's text message was probably originally intended as a joke, but this cruel joke is clearly on us.

Mayor Jesse Robredo, blogger

2007-10-31T14:05:00.000+08:00

SOMETIME last May, I wrote about the plight of 15 policemen being given a raw deal by no less than their superiors at the PNP Regional Command. If you want an update, take it from no less than Mayor Jesse Robredo, who has joined the blogosphere and whose latest entry should be a required reading for new PNP chief Avelino Razon.

The choice cuts, to my mind:

This is what is happening given the kind of leadership that we now have at PNP - Bicol Region. This should be a test for the new PNP Chief Avelino Razon, Jr. Can he insulate the police organization from the unnecessary interference of politicians? I recall asking some senior police officers why the the police leadership do not stand their ground and protect their fellow officers in uniform. The timid answer was they can not count on their superiors when the going gets tough. The previous unsuccesful attempt to relieve and the recent relief of the fourteen (14) police officers from Naga City demonstrated that the PNP leadership is incapable of putting the interest of its men and the people they are serving, when pressured by influential politicians.

Who is then undermining the efforts to maintain peace and order in Naga City? The buck stops at the door of the PNP leadership in Camp Crame. In time, the community will realize that the police organization has failed them and rightfully put the blame on where it should be. I hope it will not take a serious incident to happen before the PNP comes to its senses.

This should make my boss probably the only local chief executive-slash-blogger in the Philippines. Which makes Oddball -- the title of his weblog -- most appropriate.

Work on SM Naga set to start

2007-10-31T09:04:00.000+08:00

IF PLANS push through, excavation work for the planned SM Naga City mall will begin by mid-November, high ranking officials of the company bared in a presentation before the Sangguniang Panlungsod last October 22.

Also in attendance were ranking members of the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as department heads of the city government.

Annie S. Garcia, vice president for operations of the SM Group, said they are aiming for a March 2009 opening. Joining her were Engr. Antolin Paule, senior vice president for engineering; Glen Ang, assistance vice president; Ronald Tumao, vice president of the business development group; and other ranking officials of the construction group.

Paule and Ang previously represented SM in a meeting we arranged last month with the chamber and property owners at the Central Business District 2. At the time, they said they are already in the process of securing the needed permits from national government agencies.

Work, originally planned to commence early next year, was advanced after the company was able to secure the necessary environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for the mall development project, a copy of which they showed to us.

The two-storey mall will rise on a 4.7-hectare property between the existing Filcab terminal and St. Joseph School. It will have a gross floor area of 73,300 sq. meters, 54,400 of which are leasable.

Together with a department store that will occupy almost 12,000 sq. m and a supermarket (6,300 sq. m), the mall will feature four cinemas, a food court and 759 parking slots. It will also accommodate as many as 170 short and long-term tenants.

The project was delayed after the SM Group decided to put up a full-scale mall, instead of the original hypermart-type development.

By the way, the company is already hiring key management position for SM Naga City, which you can access here.

Daily lesson planning, Part 2

2007-10-30T13:37:00.000+08:00

My column for last week's issue of Vox Bikol.

LAST WEEK, I ran a survey on the question "Do Filipino teachers really need to write daily lesson plans?" Though unscientific by its nature, I feel the opinion shared by my readers are worth sharing.

Mi, a student-teacher, said in defense of lesson planning:

"I've always been rebellious with regard to lesson planning and following these plans, but one thing I learned -- they are helpful. If you make a lesson plan, you'll have more confidence in delivering your lesson, you know what you want to happen.

"This would be most true to student-teachers and new teachers, as more seasoned ones should have their plans by heart already."

Schumey, a fellow blogger and Michael Schumacher fan, took the opposite view: "Lesson plans are detrimental to the whole teaching-learning process. One has to consider the pace and capacity to comprehend of your students. This is the reason why our students fail miserably during evaluation tests. We need quality not quantity."

Porfirio Rubirosa, on the other hand, agreed with the Wikipedia item I quoted last week: "Lesson plans should be for rookie teachers only who are still groping in the dark, and needs constant reminders. But for veteran teachers, they should already know it by heart (the subject matter), and maski na pagbalilabaliktarin ini, they still have the mastery over it."

From the 14 who voted in the poll, 42% (6) said there is a need for daily lesson plans, 21% (3) said they're not needed, while 28% (4) said there is a better way.

On the surface, it appears that daily lesson plans do have a place in the learning process. Mi, I think, captured its essence: "The point is the lesson plan is a guide for you as a teacher in such a way that you know what exactly are you going to teach, what are the important points to bring up, and what you intend to accomplish."

But viewed differently, the seven votes cast by those who don't think so and those who believed there is a better way, taken together, outnumber the six who unequivocally voted for the daily lesson plans.

Who does it imply? One, daily lesson planning remains a contentious issue. Two, there is a need to treat seasoned, experienced teachers differently. There is sense in cutting them some slack and trusting on their experience to get the job done.

Thirdly, there is a strong sentiment for continuous improvement, of finding a better way in monitoring and evaluating teacher performance. Come to think of it, lesson plans are merely tools to facilitate the teaching-learning process. To rigidly require them of teachers is to fatally mistake an output for an outcome.

I believe the paramount outcome of the learning process must be measured on the student: Has he truly learned what he is supposed to learn inside the classroom? Or in teacherspeak, did he gain the minimum learning competencies at the end of the school year?

This is where Schumey's point precisely comes in: the need for evaluation tests to determine whether the public school system is indeed giving our young Juan de la Cruzes the quality education they deserve. This, I think, is how our teachers and the DepEd should be measured at the end of the day, not whether their daily lesson plans were faithfully prepared.

Tragic

2007-10-27T05:58:00.000+08:00

THE scoundrel pardons the lemon.

They both need it, today and beyond 2010.

We don't.

Can't this country come up with someone better?

DepEd justifies the CEP

2007-10-24T15:15:00.000+08:00

FROM our TEDPloop e-group, moderator Nap Imperial of the NEDA central office -- the one in Pasig, not along the Pasig:) -- shared the following DepEd justification for the controversial Cyber Education Project (CEP) in an email last night.

I am sharing it with you in toto, and please feel free to share your comments. DepEd after all "welcomes more dialogue to further improve on the project design and implementation."

Distance education is gradually being introduced for younger learners. Institutions around the world are realizing that through correct systems, distance education can produce substantial benefits for elementary and secondary school students. This has been the cue that DepEd has taken from other countries and even local initiatives.

The diagram above explains the theoretical model that Cyber Ed observes. The triad (teacher-facilitator-student) ensures that learning will take place even for young learners. The presence of standard content, customized reinforcements and active learning work together to maximize the learning experience in the classroom. Some political entities may mislead the public by oversimplifying the concept of Cyber Ed, and saying that it will not be effective. However, this theoretical model clearly shows that both the on-site facilitator and the students will have ample support for the teaching-learning process and the satellite teacher will have representative feedback on the lessons that are being discussed.

Incidentally, the debate on whether ICT in education is effective or not is irrelevant. It will just lead policy makers to an endless cycle of citing references and academic journals, the winner being decided by the sheer volume of evidence that can be presented. However, the truth is, while basic resources should be given priority, and other supplementary interventions should not be forgotten, integrating ICT in education is really part of the solution to the woes of the public basic education sector. No one can deny this. And a country like the Philippines cannot afford to be further left behind in using ICT in improving the educational system.

The clamor for greater diversity, community control and respect for the efforts of the many is not mutually-exclusive to the goals of Cyber Ed. In fact, Cyber Ed will be a major tool in promoting diversity in classroom teaching by providing the necessary support to teachers to make them more confident in handling more interesting and engaging lessons. Cyber Ed will promote greater community control by eliminating information asymmetry and inviting more local participation through improved performance, transparency and accountability. Cyber Ed will ultimately improve respect for the efforts of many local successes in education by ensuring nationwide collaborative learning among teachers and other stakeholders which will lead to instantaneous sharing of best practices and dissemination of brilliant ideas and school-based projects.

Lastly, it is very tempting to counter numerical arguments with other numerical perspectives. Let us assume that 400,000 teachers (300,000 elementary and 100,000 secondary) need retraining for 1 subject. Let us assume further that the number of training days necessary to provide the full competencies for 1 grade/year level is 40 (1 day of training for 1 week’s worth of lessons). Lastly, let us assume for the moment that honorarium for trainers and all transportation costs will not be included in the analysis. Using the COA guidelines of PhP1,200 per participant per day, training 400,000 teachers for 40 days for 1 subject area in 1 grade/year level will require a cost of Php19.2B (1,200 x 40 x 400,000). Now, comparing this to the Php26.5B price tag for 5 years puts things in proper perspective.

Then let us relax some assumptions and admit the real needs of DepEd. First, more than 500,000 teaching and non-teaching staff have to be trained. Second, they have to be trained on more than 1 subject area (especially for elementary teachers, who are the majority). Third, the transportation and other incidental costs to the training vary and depend on where the training will be held. However, there is no doubt that when viewed in the perspective of half a million personnel, the required additional cost will be very substantial. Fourth, even if DepEd has this money, this magnitude of training will take a substantial number of years to achieve (assuming 10 teams of trainers who will train 50 people, it will take them 1000 batches of training worth 40 days or 110 years including weekends and holidays to train all DepEd personnel). Now, rather than grappling with the idea that this seems impossible, why not accept that technology in general and Cyber Ed in particular can make a substantial dent in this daunting task?

DepEd understands that Cyber Ed has inadvertently stepped on the toes of some partners and entities with agenda that may or may not jive with the thrust of the Department. This might be the source of the perceived arrogance, insult, waste, insensitivity and poison. DepEd recognizes the fact that most of the resistance is well-meaning and it welcomes more dialogue to further improve on the project design and implementation. However, we implore critics to acknowledge a brilliant opportunity for change when it hits them right on the face. Instead of uncoordinated grandstanding at the expense of the project, why don’t we all pool our talents together and come up with the most appropriate solution to the country’s education crisis? In the same manner that Cyber Ed aims to harmonize all fragmented ICT initiatives in the sector, it is about time that all the bright boys and girls unite to bring our individual talents to focus on the same issues and solve them in a coordinated manner. The time is now. The opportunity is presenting itself. Don’t shy away from something that could potentially be great.

What do you think?

Daily lesson planning, anyone?

2007-10-22T14:53:00.000+08:00

My column for last week's issue of Vox Bikol.

OCTOBER is the month when public school students go into a week-long break ending the first semester of the school year. The break also allows their teachers to attend training arranged by their respective division or district offices.

I was reminded of this after my wife, who teaches geometry at Camarines Sur National High School, was extra-busy last week -- as Math club president, she had to oversee their departmental in-service training and aside from that prepare something to share to fellow math teachers.

There was something in one of our conversations last week that grabbed my attention, and I took mental note of it. It had something to do with a sharing by a fellow teacher on the new Cyber Education Project (CEP)-compliant lesson plan format, for which a week-long training was recently arranged by the DepEd.

From a simple format that requires only five sections, the new lesson plan now has 13, ostensibly in preparation for CEP’s eventual implementation. The sharing drew sharp reactions from the audience: instead of simplifying matters, lesson planning has just become more complicated if this P26.4 billion project really pushes through!

This reminded me of the Rapu-Rapu Education summit we facilitated last August 25 under the auspices of the Synergeia Foundation. If there is a search for the most unpopular task ordinary Filipino teachers must grapple with, preparing lesson plans day in and day out will be the hands-down winner.

In that Rapu-Rapu event, the dynamics between the teachers and their supervisors again came to the fore, mirroring all other events I have previously attended where the issue came up: is there really a need for these daily lesson plans in the task of educating the Filipino child?

On one hand, supervisors argue lesson planning is part of the job description, as teachers are given only six loads daily, with the two others allocated precisely for that task. Further, they are essential tools for the monitoring function of supervisors.

Teachers, on the other hand, argue they will be most thankful to DepEd if ready-made lessons can be provided them, or other alternative schemes are implemented, and these two hours be devoted instead to efforts to improve their delivery of the lessons.

Well, being a non-teacher, I scoured the net and ended up with an item on “lesson plan” from Wikipedia, part of which says

“In today's constructivist teaching style, the individual lesson plan is often inappropriate. Specific objectives and timelines may be included in the unit plan, but lesson plans are more fluid as they cater to student needs and learning styles. As students are asked to engage in problem or inquiry learning, rigid lesson planning with title, behavioral objectives, and specific outcomes within certain time constraints often no longer fit within modern effective pedagogy. Today, formal lesson plans are often required only of student teachers, who must be demonstrably familiar with the components of a lesson, or teachers new to the field, who have not yet internalized the flow of a lesson.”

Now, you tell me: Is there really a need for these daily lesson plans in the task of educating the Filipino child?

For five days, I am running a poll on the above question until Sunday. Feel free to join or better still post a comment, especially if you happen to believe that there is a better way.

It’s a generational thing

2007-10-15T15:04:00.000+08:00

My column for last week's issue of Vox Bikol.

DURING weekends, it has become a family tradition to motor to my hometown in Sagrada, Pili for our weekly worship and a visit at the old folks.

For about three months, the trips became an ordeal as the electronics of our 10-year old car that survived Reming’s wrath, though bruised and battered by flying purlins that twisted in the winds, suddenly conked out. But everything is back to normal now, our weekly pilgrimage even made better by the rediscovered versatility of the car CD player.

You see, that three-year old CD player can play MP3 tracks. If you can’t grasp the difference, think about this: while traditional CDs can only have 20 singles -- my Ultraelectromagneticjam for instance had 17 -- a blank CD can have around 140 MP3s on them. That’s more or less seven music albums in one serving.

Since I started burning MP3 songs and playing them the past three weeks, with all my seven kids on board, with their mom and grandma to boot, I noticed that if there is one other thing that binds our family together, it is our common love for music.

Last Sunday, for instance, we sang our heart out to the booming beat of Spongecola’s Bitiw and the mesmerizing Tuliro. The former is one of the reasons why I believe the original version of Pedro Penduko (starring Matt Evans) is much better than that forgettable urban sequel that featured the so-called Engkantaos against the evil Calagua.

Our tastes are rather eclectic. My eldest daughter Sophie, for instance, shares my passion for Santana’s Smooth, for which she now scores 100 in our aging Magic Sing, something she previously did for Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, John Denver’s Annie’s Song and Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive. (She keeps a notebook where the codes of these “signature songs” are readily available.)

But they are also generational: she couldn’t relate to Maria! Maria!, another cut from Santana’s Grammy Award-winning Supernatural album. And while I also sing myself hoarse to My Chemical Romance’s Welcome to the Black Parade in unison with them -- an MTV in Divx format is conveniently tucked among some movies in my now Brontok-free laptop -- I find myself crooning by my lonesome to Matt Monro’s haunting version of If You Go Away (at least the parts in English) that includes most passages from the French original.

The immortal love songs that sustained me through melancholic lovelorn episodes of my youth, they call ancient. Her grandchildren will probably call them fossils, my wife quipped heartily.

These trips are both educational -- they recently discovered, for instance, the greatness of the Eraserheads, the band their father grew up in college with -- and edifying. In these days of quiet desperation, when all seemed lost and hopeless, the power of music is a soothing salve to a weary heart.

We'll carry on / We'll carry on / And though you're dead and gone believe me / Your memory will carry on / We'll carry on / And though you're broken and defeated / Your weary widow marches on / Do or die / You’ll never make me / Because the world will never take my heart / Come and try; you’ll never break me / We want it all, we want to play this part / Do or die / You'll never make me / Because the world will never take my heart / Go and try; you'll never break me. / We want it all, we want to play this part./ We'll carry on!

An outsider looking in

2007-10-07T06:24:00.000+08:00

My column for this week's issue of Vox Bikol.

WHEN Kristian Cordero approached me to do a review of Fr. Andrew Recepcion’s “God’s Global Household -- A Theology of Mission in the Context of Globalization,” I hesitated initially, considering that I belong to a different faith: I am a Jehovah’s Witness.

Kristian, however, said the author wouldn’t mind having a non-Catholic do it; after all, we are neighbors at the Vox Bikol opinion page. (Come to think of it, the book launch is practically a get-together of the paper’s staff.) Having said that, let me proceed to my main task this afternoon.

One, as can be expected of most published dissertations, the book is not an easy read. In this age of infotainment -- which is how some senators characterized, for instance, the recent hearings on the ZTE broadband deal -- the generation who grew up with Harry Potter will find it “heavy” stuff.

Nonetheless, if you are that Harry Potter fan who found great relief in the fact that -- after Book Seven -- the young wizard and his friends survived Voldemort and his minions, and good ultimately triumphed over evil, there is a strong likelihood that you must already be in college and will be asked to research into the phenomenon called “globalization.”

Well, have no fear: the first third of Recepcion’s book neatly summarizes the various aspects of the debates on globalization, something that Wikipedia does not offer. In 50 or so pages, he will tour you around the critical issues attending the debate, including Huntington’s now famous clash of civilizations thesis; the theories that attempt to explain it; as well as the paradigms that help clarify our present understanding of the phenomenon.

The bottomline, if I’m not mistaken, is represented by that ancient Indian fable about the six blind men of Hindustan -- better understanding can only be made possible by looking at an issue from multiple dimensions. Or better still, the synergistic concept that the whole is greater than sum total of its parts, especially when informed by knowledge from the Divine.

Of course, the book will certainly be a most useful guide for most mainline Christian churches insofar as modern missionary work is concerned. But it is precisely with the rest of the book that I am ambivalent about, mainly because of the reason I pointed out at the outset.

On the one hand, I find it remarkable that the Catholic Church has rediscovered “missionary theology” only in recent times, when smaller denominations in the margins have been doing so, driven by the mandate to “preach the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.” (Mat 24:14)

On the other, the theology of mission it proposes -- built around the doctrine of the Trinity -- is quite alien to us inhabiting the fringes, unitarians as we are whose beliefs are more akin with those advanced by Arius of Alexandria. In a big way, therefore, if the objective is to promote dialog across various global divides, this approach is rather exclusive.

Nonetheless, notwithstanding the absence of a long tradition of catholic scholarly work -- to which Recepcion’s opus properly belongs -- we outsiders looking in find great comfort in the following passage from Mark’s account of the Gospel:

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"The most important one," Jesus answered, "is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-31)

Come to think of it, living out these commandments can bring about at least two probable outcomes: (1) at the very least, the same global household envisioned by Recepcion in an increasingly globalized world, and (2) beyond that, for us who believe differently -- if rewarded by the risk we took on taking the road less traveled, to borrow from Frost -- the scriptural promise of everlasting life in an earthly paradise.

Remarks during the God’s Global Household book launch held at the Madrigal Center Amphitheater, Ateneo de Naga University, on October 6, 2007.

Pogs and an object lesson on power

2007-10-01T13:58:00.000+08:00

My column for this week's issue of Vox Bikol.

LAST Saturday, I had to motor to the city center to attend two meetings, one with the University of Nueva Caceres General Alumni Association (UNCGAA) headed by Engr. Elmer Francisco, and a personal mission -- to buy my kids additional pogs.

My task would have been infinitely easier if Hong’s -- that popular store along Calle Caceres where chinese-made goods can be had for sometimes obscenely low prices that will probably make Alex Lacson (of the Twelve Little Things fame) unhappy -- still carried pogs with a diameter of more or less two inches. Unfortunately, when I inquired, what they had are the ones twice bigger.

So I ended up scouring practically the entire CBD, and that on a limping rheumatic right foot. From Hong’s, I went to Novo, another similar store beside Aristocrat Hotel, went through Divisoria Mall beneath the Bichara Complex, and then Master Square: but all for naught. At Master, I chanced on Erning Elcamel and family buying school supplies; “sa mga bangketa, igwa kayan,” Mrs. Elcamel said when I told them of my quest.

So, off I went to the Naga City Public Market, at one time the single biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia before the advent of the malls. I checked practically all sidewalk stalls from one end up to where Calle Caceres pierces through the market to join Jaime Hernandez Avenue, again to no avail. And practically all of them carried yoyos made in China, of all shapes and sizes and all colors and designs. But no pogs. Until one lady volunteered: “Probaran mo sir duman sa 2nd floor, sa may hagdan. Yaon duman an mga wholesaler.”

To cut the story short, my journey on foot looking for pogs one lazy weekend that started at Hong’s, bringing me through most of CBD in the process, ended at the public market, up the stairs along Prieto Street that I already passed by.

In an ideal market condition, I would have been spared all the hassles if information about the wholesaler had been made available right at the outset. But life in reality is never ideal: information asymmetry exists and sellers are not always rewarded handsomely as economic theory says.

In another place and time, that wholesaler would have sold me a sheet containing 88 pieces of pogs at P50 -- twice than what I got them at Hong’s -- and I still would have bought them lest I want to face again brooding, sulking kids who have been promised many times over. But then again, as yoyos have displaced pogs as the toys of the season, he was only too happy to give it to me at P20.

Now, compare that with how the Arroyo regime has gone about conducting its business on the now infamous NBN and CEP deals and you will see the irony of it all -- under an economist, who is supposed to know how markets work better than most, they were conducted in secrecy and the absence of competition. Which should be making her economics professors weep and peers gnashing their teeth. And worse, Bikolanos are part and parcel of the cabal now trying to either deodorize the whole thievery and now prevent the stink from reaching the palace, thwarting truth’s unraveling at every turn and making the state of information more asymmetric than ever before.

That, I think, is an object lesson on how power corrupts -- the change does not happen overnight; rather, it chips away incessantly at moral fortitude of even the best of men like steady waterdrops weathering the hardest of rocks.

On the other hand, that unnamed lady sidewalk vendor, trying to make ends meet in a public market that has seen better days, is infinitely better than all of them in many respects: with no eye towards personal gain, she singlehandedly eliminated information asymmetry in one fell swoop, in the process helping a father vainly searching for pogs and affirming his faith in the both the market and the inherent humanity and goodness of the Nagueño.

'Brontok' waylays my pc

2007-09-28T17:07:00.000+08:00

SPENT the whole day resurrecting my PC, no thanks to the Brontok computer worm.

Since last night after attending (and proxying for Doc Butch Borja, our city health officer, who's supposed to be one of the ninongs) the wedding of my cousin Jason, I noticed all my USB flash drive folders already replicating executables. Then my always-up-to-date AVG antivirus software was decimated. Checking the web for solutions, I discovered and ran this Brontok remover, but it was all for naught -- batutilan an hinayupak na virus!

When I brought the machine to EDP, we tried other approaches -- booting from a Windows 98 command prompt (could not read my infected hard drive), booting from my UBS flash drive (did not work), and using Bart PE (did not work either).

That left us no other choice but to implement the old fashioned solution: reformatting my hard drive to extinguish Brontok to oblivion. Fortunately, it was partioned so it involved only transferring my data files to my Drive D, reformating C, reinstalling a new OS, reinstalling most of my applications, and upgrading my antivirus to NOD32 Control Center.

As I write this, my PC is now faster and I think I'm back to 75% of its original functionality. And I hope that's the last encounter I will have with Brontok the batutilan.:)

Sol Santos on becoming a Nagueño

2007-09-26T16:54:00.000+08:00

NOTE: While the 3rd Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the controversial NBN project is still going on, I am giving due course to lawyer Sol Santos's reflections on the Mayoral Recognition Award he received last September 19, in the company of several others.

Becoming Nagueño: Reflections on receiving a Naga City Mayoral Recognition Award for 2007

SOLIMAN M. SANTOS, JR.
25 September 2007, Quezon City

As luck would have it, I was one of 11 individuals and five groups given Naga City Mayoral Awards for 2007. These were auspiciously conferred on 19 September 2007, the 109th anniversary of Naga’s (or Nueva Caceres’) liberation from the Spaniards. Coincidentally or not, the 2007 Distinguished Mayoral Awardee, one might say the primus inter pares (first among equals) among us, happened to be named Liberato “Levy” S. Aureus for Literature. That anniversary particularly resonates with me because I once used the pen-name “Eli Angeles” as an activist columnist (“Heart and Mind”) for Vox Bikol, a Naga weekly newspaper, during the last two years of the Marcos dictatorship. Elias Angeles (after whom Naga’s main street is named) was a Tagalog corporal who led the local Guardia Civil mutiny that fateful day in 1898. The perspective of history or the passage of considerable time is also relevant here. Allow me some reflections, with a little help from remarks of some friends.

In general, we can say recognition is important, as an affirmation or positive reinforcement of the recipient and his/her/its work, which redounds likewise to the prestige or glory of the grantor and serves as an example or inspiration for others among the general public, in this case the citizens of the city. An award is only as prestigious as its grantor or its recipients. In the case of the Naga City Mayoral Awards, coming as it does from Mayor Jesse “Jess” M. Robredo, who is himself multi-awarded nationally and internationally, this is self-evident. There is something special about a good local award because it connotes the scrutiny then approbation of one’s peers and it beats the syndrome that “one cannot be a prophet in one’s own place.” My good friend from Tabaco, Albay, Francia “France” C. Clavecillas, a veteran community organizer of COPE Foundation who herself pioneered urban poor organizing in Naga, remarked that this Naga Mayoral Award has a “mas makaging an tanog” (more solid, resonating sound) than an international award.

The recipients too should be a reflection of the prestige of an award. For the Naga Mayoral Awards 2007, we had aside from Levy, for the individual awardees (in no particular order): Rev. Msgr. Luis R. Ayo, for Education; Ricardo A. Regmalos, for Public Service; Jean N. Llorin for NGO Work/Peace Advocacy; Nelson Henry R. Mejia, for Sports; Ben B. Secretario, for Academic Excellence; Julie Lucille H. del Valle, for Academic Excellence; Rev. Nelson B. Tria, for Community Service; Atty. Ricardo A. Diaz, for Public Service; Carlomagno B. Manuel, for Medicine/Community Service; and myself, for Peace Advocacy. The group awardees were: San Isidro Development Cooperative, for Cooperatives; VCA Cecilio Printing Press, for Culture/Print Media; Arejola Foundation for Social Responsibility, for Literature; Naga White Volunteer Fire Rescue, for Civic and Community Service; and Universidad de Sta. Isabel, for Community Service. As Mayor Jess himself characterized this batch, there were “none from the business sector.” The accent was on various forms of public, civic and community service. He emphasized the importance of having heart to serve the people, so apt for a city which is “The Heart of Bikol.”

Aside from the honor of being in this good company, I personally like this Batch of 2007. Levy was a former co-worker of mine at the Ministry/ Department of Labor and Employment while I was a working law student at the University of Nueva Caceres, with Ric Diaz as a fellow law student, in the early 1980s. “Mommy” Jean Llorin is a long-time colleague in peace advocacy, particularly with the Hearts of Peace (HOPE) [Mayoral Awardee for Civic Involvement in 1989], who deserves as much credit for the declaration of the Naga Peace Zone in 1988. I can relate too to the Naga City People’s Council (NCPC), for which its several-term Chairman Fr. Nelson Tria was awarded, because of a book on and a rapid field appraisal of the NCPC I had worked in 1998 and then in 2002, though no longer based here (the “heart and mind” kept returning). I can relate even distantly with Msgr. Luis Ayo, who is the uncle of another good friend Judge Antonio Camillus “Junet” A. Ayo, Jr., because of the 1968 Supreme Court (SC) decision Msgr. Ayo won for the Capalonga (Camarines Norte) Parochial School, upholding the right of parents to choose the school for their children, particularly the choice for a Catholic education.

As we said, the passage of considerable time. That SC decision was nearly four decades ago. Ricardo Regmalos was awarded for his four decades of excellent public service as a barangay official. Dr. Carlomagno Manuel was awarded for being the only one from his class at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Medicine who chose to work in the country after graduation and for pioneering the first private hospital in Catanduanes, both more than four decades ago. The test of time, no less. This can only mean that these awardees kept clean of any derogatory record during several decades, which could have militated against any award. There is a special significance, therefore, about awards after the test of time. They also show that the city does not forget the good which its citizens do, even if it may sometimes take longer than usual to remember. But even for the much younger awardees like the three students Mejia, Secretario and Del Valle, their awards become a challenge maybe not only to keep clean (lest they stain their awards and the city) but also to do even better in the coming years and decades. Indeed, the theme of the 2007 Mayoral Awards was “The Quest for Excellence Never Ends.”

It will never end for Naga because it has a bountiful well-spring of good people, the Nagueños, who are the city’s best natural resource as Mayor Jess puts it, many of whom may still be unrecognized as they do their good work quietly. There are and have been Nagueño giants, like Attys. Ramon R. San Andres, Luis General Jr. and J. Antonio M. Carpio, to name a few whom I have had the privilege of personally knowing, learning from and working with, who are more oragon (great, or translate as you wish) than most of the better-known (because) Manila-based national figures. They are, or should be, truly the orgullo kan Naga (pride of Naga). They, other Nagueños like them, the people, the city and the contributions of Naga, all make one “proud to be a Nagueño” -- as Levy proudly declared in his response to the conferment of his award. Mayor Jess, alluding to the citizenship issue which had been repeatedly raised against him every election time, remarked that there may be doubts about his Filipino citizenship, but there is no doubt about his Nagueño citizenship. In my case, though Manila-born, I have chosen to consider myself a Nagueño, because of my first four years of schooling at the Naga Parochial School and because of living and working here for my best 18 years soon after graduation from UP and getting married to Doods. I guess the Mayoral Award “legitimizes” my claim to Nagueño citizenship. Besides, Naga has long been our domicile (the place one always intends to return to, or keeps returning to), and one can only return to one’s roots.

I wish to give credit to the Awards Committee as well as the Search Committee for my award which recognizes not only “full-hearted advocacy for peace” but also “people empowerment, and the advancement of human rights… and militancy that, among other cause-oriented initiatives…” In this time of anti-terrorism, it is to credit of the courageous leaders of Naga City to recognize something like “advancement of human rights,” “militancy,” and “cause-oriented initiatives.” Alas, there is still a role for this.

The contraposition of “cause-oriented” with “cost-oriented” came to my mind again when Levy commented on how he wished that the Mayoral Award came with a “cash reward,” just like Mayor Jess’ big-time Ramon Magsaysay Award, as if to say “your giving us credit through recognition is good but we need cash.” Levy said in typical levity, but actually at least half-serious, that he would not object if, in the future, the Mayoral Award would come with a cash award that would be made retroactive to 2007. Indeed, it seems unfortunate that genuine public, civic and community service often involves a “vow of poverty” where the best income is the “psychic income.” But the heart is, in real hard life, part of a body and soul that must be kept together. Maybe there is a role here for the business sector.

In ending, allow me a few personal acknowledgements. There are my comrades in various peace, human rights and other cause-oriented groups who were there with me in the work I am being given recognition for, notably Naga for Popular Democracy (NagaPopDem) [later renamed the Red Wine Party of Naga (RWP-Naga)] and HOPE. Elmer S. Casillan, who nominated me, and “Mommy” Jean, who endorsed me, were both with HOPE. Atty. Atty. Henry Gerald P. Ysaac Jr., who also endorsed me, is with NagaPopDem/RWP-Naga. And of course, there is my wife and best friend Doods, herself also a Manila-born Nagueño by choice, who has taught me what recognition is really all about, and that the best kind is the one which one does not chase after because there is no need to. I dedicate my award to Doods and other comrades -- for the love, inspiration, friendship, support, and camaraderie in this Happy Place, An Maogmang Lugar. Maogma man ako. Dios Mabalos saindo gabos -- gabos-gabos, ubos-ubos!

Solutions right under our nose

2007-09-25T14:12:00.000+08:00

THE SCIENCE Education Institute (SEI) is one of the 19 agencies attached to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), which has been operating on a budget of P2.4 billion last year and P3.5 billion this year. This amounts to less than 1% of the total (0.27% in 2006, and 0.31% this year to be exact).

Compared to DepEd's P126.8-billion (11.2%) or the DOTC's P16.4-billion (1.4%) budget for 2007, to say that the DOST's getting peanuts is putting it too kindly. To add insult to injury, it does not seem to enjoy the confidence of NEDA, the national government's gatekeeper of the ODA. Among others, NEDA evaluates any project for foreign funding through official development assistance (ODA).

Consider this story that appeared in the Inquirer last September 7, portions of which deserve to be highlighted:

The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) had proposed a broadband project but this was rejected by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), which wanted to build the network through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.

In 2001, (Science Secretary Estrella) Alabastro said they submitted a proposal to NEDA for the construction of a P5.2-billion Philippine Research Education and Government Network (Preginet) that would link up research and education institutes in the country.

But NEDA rejected this proposal, prompting the DoST to fund the project from its own budget.

“At that time, their view was that it has to be done [through the BOT scheme] and that there were many things that they wanted us to submit, which was very difficult for us to do...They just never approved it [DoST proposal] so, since we thought it was very important, we said: ‘Why don’t we do it slowly? Start with whatever small amount,’” she said.

Albastro said they were hoping to get funding from Overseas Development Assistance money but their request was never processed by NEDA.

“So, we went ahead and funded this locally. [We are funding ] this from our own legal budget and as of now, we have about 80 institutions in the network,” she said.

I am mentioning this to point out the following:

(1) Government, using its own resources, has put in place a broadband network without the need for a controversial, secretive $329-million loan from China.

Of course, 80 agencies is a far cry from the 25,844 barangays that the NBN proposes to cover using a Wimax-based network. But if it will scale coverage down, and leverage its P4-billion annual telecommunications budget to encourage private carriers to provide the same kind of service, powered by the same technology -- which is what government is now eyeing to do in the heels of the ZTE debacle -- there's no reason why it can't be done.

(2) Government, at the same time, can also come up with exciting ICT-based modules that are superior to the dull lectures that can be expected of the DepEd national master teachers through the more expensive $460-million Cyber Education Project (CEP) being pushed by Secretary Jesli Lapus.

I have been trying the Modules in Science in Mathematics for Elementary Schools, which consists of two CDs and a teachers manual, together with their one-CD high school counterpart entitled "Learning Resource Materials for Mathematics and Science for Secondary Schools." Both were prepared by the SEI under the leadership of Dr. Ester Ogena, in partnership with the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI), a sister agency.

Dom Cimafranca previously alerted me to it in my entry on the CEP; several weeks back, I saw a colleague from the Bicol Science Centrum being interviewed about it on TV Patrol Bikol. This morning, I borrowed a set from Nestor Villanea, BSTC officer-in-charge; I'm bringing them home so that my kids can give it a try.

Offhand, I am greatly excited by the elementary modules -- they're more engaging, have plenty of 2-D animations, and uses characters from our lores to boot, like Mariang Makiling, Bernardo Carpio and Lam-Ang. The Macromedia Flash-based animated lessons are colorful, informative and instructive. Review questions are de rigueur towards the end, although improvements can be made on the audio.

The strong influence of the Lords of the Rings and Kingdom Hearts are evident, particularly characters that look a lot like the bow-and-arrow-armed Legolas, the axe-bearing Gimli and the keyblade-swinging Sora. Which are in fact a plus because kids will definitely love them.

Nevertheless, the high school counterpart, although equally informative, are -- too put it mildly -- a big letdown in terms of pizzazz and creativity. The people who put them together do not seem to be as inspired as the team behind the elementary modules. They definitely need a lot of improvement, presentation-wise.

Another downside (which is actually an opportunity, come to think of it, given Naga's edge in 2-D and 3-D animation) is the limited lessons covered. In Science, for instance, there is only between 8 to 12 topics available for every grade level (from 3 to 6); math has more or less the same number for all six grades.

I also believe the lessons for the first three grades will get across better if they were in Bikol; unfortunately, the lessons are mostly in English, with a sprinkling of Tagalog.

The problem with government, especially under this administration, is the lack of coordination among its agencies -- in both cases, the cash-strapped DOST has the demonstrated track record and expertise on the NBN and a promising product relative to the CEP, but it has largely been sidelined. Secondly, there's that bias to loan out humongous amount of tied money from foreign sources which are sure to send Johnny de la Cruz deeper down in debt, when proven, viable alternatives are there right under its nose.

But of course, it's not their personal money to bleed anyway. And there's lesser dough to be made on a low-budget agency like DOST.

On that NBN-CEP overlap

2007-09-24T13:50:00.000+08:00

IN MY previous entry, in the second-to-the-last paragraph, I wondered

"...why Secretaries Lapus and Mendoza did not try to reconcile their respective programs...and come up with a unified initiative that will focus on distance education as another killer application that will justify the humungous financial requirements of the NBN."

If these two gentlemen did not, it appears from the minutes of the NEDA special Investment Coordinating Committee (ICC) meeting a week before President Arroyo approved the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) project that their colleagues at least explored the possibility -- 44 of them in fact, according to the GMA news story that went online last Friday evening, before Arroyo suddenly suspended the contract the following day.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves presided over the meeting held on March 26, 2007 at the BSP Complex. It was attended by six Cabinet secretaries, four undersecretaries, a BSP director, and 33 other executive officials and staff personnel.

They included Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso III, who took the cudgels in explaining their project during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing last Friday. In fact, Paragraph No. 50 says:

Assistant Secretary Formoso confirmed that there is an overlap between the NBN and CEP projects, specifically with regards to the communication/transmission aspect, that the Department is trying to resolve. He added that the NBN is versatile enough to handle VOIP, e-governance and education applications, as well as election-related reporting.

Which makes the following entry in Manolo's liveblog all the more puzzling:

8:18: Cayetano asks why CyberEd is required at additional cost when there’s NBN. Formoso can’t answer.

M (Probably DOTC Secretary Mendoza): Sec. Lapuz will reply on that. (Italics mine)

Formoso and Cayetano discuss why CyberEd is needed when NBN can carry video also; Cayetano asks why Formoso has spent hours trying to convince the public to support NBN, when he hasn’t tried to explain to Sec. Lapus that he could save 25 billion by using NBN instead of setting up CyberEd.

Read through the minutes and you will find sanity, or a semblance of it, still pervading government decisionmaking process: serious questions still being asked about an initiative (the NBN), and its clear overlap with another previously approved one (the CEP), about the wisdom of entering an industry where services are already being provided by the private sector.

And you will also clearly see what UP economists Fabella and De Dios decried in their paper, which former NEDA director general and now Inquirer Business columnist Cielito Habito also criticized here and here: the undue influence exerted by "tied" Chinese money in our policymaking, on the pretext that "beggars cannot be choosers."

I think there is more to this clear NBN and CEP overlap than meets the eye: this insistence on a separate system for the public schools, and not the alleged negative impact on our children that he rues about here, is what Secretary Lapus should explain.

A Frankenstein project

2007-09-21T06:17:00.000+08:00

I'VE BEEN reading through the transcript of yesterday's Senate committee hearing on the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN), courtesy of Manolo's liveblog over Inquirer Current, including the resources he pointed to, like PCIJ's transcript of ASec Lorenzo Formoso's powerpoint and Yuga's take on the project itself.

And in the end, I get the feeling that just like the CEP, the NBN started out as a good idea that later metamorphosed into some sort of a Frankenstein project, no thanks to the usual suspects in the Arroyo regime.

Why is this so? Let me offer the following:

1. If I'm not mistaken, it is intended to be a purely government network, connecting the center (Manila) to its subnational branches (regional, provincial and city) all over the archipelago. If this were the original intent, then both the AHI and Arescom proposals will fit the bill, since what remains of these agencies post-devolution in 1991 (with the exception of DepEd) are concentrated at the urban centers of the country.

But then somebody decided to include all municipalities into the picture, and when the smoke cleared, tadaaah, only ZTE fits the bill!

2. It is apparent that VOIP calls within the network is the only compelling service -- the killer application, if you will -- that government agencies will derive from project. In this context, having VOIP capabilities will make sense, eliminating the cost of long-distance NDD calls among central and sub-national offices. But then one must ask: how much of the current P4 billion government expenses for telecommunications go to NDD calls? I have a feeling this has been going down, eaten up by spending on mobile communication (which the NBN does not cover).

3. One selling point for the NBN is the connectivity it will bring to the Community e-Centers, giving far-flung communities "affordable access to a variety of services using ICT, such as Internet, e-mail, fax, computer training, distance learning, online services and other kinds of services/information beneficial to the community." In short, an internet cafe in the most distant barangays of the country.

These are fine, but then again, one must ask: is the national government really serious about providing online services to its constituents in these far-flung areas, which is what the CeCs should equally provide as frontline service?

Just check Malacañang's portal for instance. Under online services, the following are available: Passport Application and Renewal; Driver’s License Application and Renewal; Birth, Marriage, Death Certificates; Taxpayer Identification Number; Tax Payments; and Reporting Complaints.

Try them out and what do you find? A dead link for passports, and only one truly online service (NSO's birth, marriage and death certificates) that allows online payment by debit and credit cards, and door-to-door delivery of the certificates applied for. The rest do not involve financial transactions or are merely informational: clients will still need to visit the nearest government branch, deal with government workers, fill up papers forms, pay the required fees, et cetera et cetera. To think that the Philippines passed its E-Commerce law in 2000 yet!

4. Most, if not all, of the discussions thus far have viewed the NBN from the top -- from the point of view of Malacanang and its departments, from Congress and even the Manila-based media. But how about the bottom, or the grassroots if you will?

If many Filipinos anyway seem to prefer trying their luck in foreign shores, isn't it logical that the basic services relative to getting a job abroad -- like passporting and the POEA and OWWA certifications -- should be prioritized for online delivery?

Or if information about job opportunities is critical, these are made available online -- a localized JobsDB.com search services, particularly for seasonal work, easily comes to mind as a potential killer application. Imagine if this is made available to all towns and cities, or even provinces to start with.

5. Finally, if the DepEd remains as the only national government department with presence at the community level, it boggles the mind why Secretaries Lapus and Mendoza did not try to reconcile their respective programs-- as Senator Alan Peter Cayetano correctly pointed out -- and come up with a unified initiative that will focus on distance education as another killer application that will justify the humungous financial requirements of the NBN.

Which is why I do not trust this administration at all.

CSSAC tutor is 2007 'Parasurat nin Taon'

2007-09-19T18:26:00.000+08:00

JUDITH Balares-Salamat, a teacher at Camarines Sur State Agriculture College (CSSAC), is this year's grand prize winner for the just concluded 2007 Premio Tomas Arejola para sa Literaturang Bikolnon (PTALB).

Her essay entitled “Ringgaw nin Imahinasyon, Kawat sa Pagtukdo,” a first stab at creative writing which related Judith's experiences in teaching her students at CSSAC, entitled her a total cash prize of P12,500 (P10,000 for being the "Parasurat nin Taon") and a PTALB gold medallion.

Judith, who hails from my hometown Pili, Camarines Sur, bested my fellow Vox Bikol columnist Victor Dennis Nierva and Tabaco City's Jaime Jesus Borlagdan, who tied for the top awards in poetry. Nierva won with his “Antisipasyon asin iba pang mga rawitdawit” while Borlagdan, a previous PTALB winner, earned the nod with his “Ini, an mga buhay ta.” Each took home P2,500 and a PTALB gold medallion.

Writer Abdon M. Balde, Jr., a native of Busac, Oas, Albay who now writes from Las Piñas, was also on hand to receive the Premio Tomas Arejola Lifetime Achievement Award, together with cultural advocate Leonor Dy-Liaco.

Balde has won prestigious national literary awards, including the Palanca, Gintong Aklat and the National Book Award. Although written in Tagalog, Balde’s tales are set in the region and distinguished for their celebratory Bikol sensibility.

The awarding rites were held at at the St. Vincent de Paul Auditorium of the Holy Rosary Minor Seminary in Naga City in a two-hour program that started at around 3:30 pm and featured readings of the winning pieces of the three finalists.

Other honorees during the occasion, whose entries qualified for the PTALB, are available here.

In her closing remarks, Arejola Foundation for Social Responsibility vice chair Fabiana Arejola announced that the 2008 PTALB (the fifth edition of the literary awards) and the accompanying Juliana Arejola-Fajardo Workshop sa Pagsurat-Bikol are now open to interested participants.

nagueño.com, without the eñe

2007-09-18T14:25:00.000+08:00

1. NAGUEÑO DOT COM. After nine emails with Ederic Eder, editor of Tinig.com which co-sponsored the highly successful Wika 2007 blog writing contest together with the Pinoy Bloggers Society (PBS), my own domain name -- www.nagueno.com -- is now up and running.

I would have preferred "nagueño.com" -- with an eñe -- but sadly, it is unrecognized in the English language. So, nagueno.com will have to do.

A one-year webhosting and domain registration was my consolation prize for participating in the contest through this entry. The other big winners can be found here.

Happy with my Blogger account, I asked Ederic to help fix some technical problems in redirecting that web address to this blog and he gladly obliged. I'm still thinking how to put to good use that Dreamhost account he set up for me. Any bright ideas?

2. WITHOUT THE DOT COM. Incidentally, Nagueño is also the title of a collection of short stories by fictionist Carlos Ojeda Aureus, who teaches at UP, which Kristian Cordero recently gave me as a gift.

Lynn rollicked with laughter when she went through some of Aureus's lighter short stories during the Peñafrancia fiesta break; she previously gave Kristian's prize-winning poems a try but eventually gave it up, finding his poetry too dark for her taste.

3. OTHER GOOD NEWS. Mango RED-Infinity wins as the 2007 WPPP (Wedding & Portrait Photographers of the Philippines) Rookie of the Year. Out of curiousity, I checked the winning Photographer of the Year, who also has a blog; I may be biased but I think Randall and company's fantastic imagery is simply better.

Ansel rattles off the numbers for the Naga city government website. The upside: At number 323, it still is the top LGU website in the country. The downside: newer, better and more appealing websites have come out over the years, dropping the website from its top 100 ranking several years back. Which means lots of work and long hours ahead for the staff-challenged Naga EDP.

Finally, my series on the Cyber Education Project was recently featured in Martin Perez's popular weblog Akomismo.

The world's longest?

2007-09-17T14:46:00.000+08:00

LAST Friday, I overheard somebody say this year's military parade should already be the longest of its kind in the world.

According to Gil de la Torre of the Sanggunian secretariat, the parade involved more than 430 high school and college men and women contingents from all over Bikolandia -- from the prominent ones like the marching units of the Naga City-based schools like UNC and the Ateneo, to the most distant public high schools who braved the heat and the long wait.

Why don't we limit them? I asked Councilor Nathan Sergio early today. That would be difficult, he said. You're talking about extraordinary commitment -- every decision made to join the parade is not a spur-of-the-moment kind. It is made months before -- kids, parents, teachers, trainors, school administrators and other bit players have to purchase their uniforms, train hard for the big day (and these would take months), wake up early, prepare logistical support, arrange transport et cetera just to be able to get their moment before the reviewing stand.

And you will deny a bid and everything that goes with it? That would be heartless.

According to reports, the parade started past 7 am and finished at around 4:30 pm -- that's nine straight hours! Rizza Mostar of ABS-CBN was announcing the winners just in time for TV Patrol-Bikol, and it was already dusk.

Wikipedia here has this to say on its entry on "Parade":

The longest parade in the world is the "Marksmen's Parade" and takes place in Hanover every year during the Schützenfest. The parade is 12 kilometres long with more than 12,000 participants from all over the world, among them more than 100 bands and around 70 floats and carriages.

Do the math, and I think the recent military parade has a fighting chance: At about 100 persons per contingent (three platoons of 21 each, plus officers, plus drum and bugle corps, plus the majorette squad), we're talking of an upper limit of 43,000. The Hanover event, on the other hand, only had 12,000.

I'm not sure though about the length. Would anybody have an idea just how long would the 430 participating teams in the recent parade stretch?

Photo courtesy of the Naga.gov gallery

2007 mayoral awardees bared

2007-09-17T14:14:00.000+08:00

ON WEDNESDAY (Sept 19), the city government will honor its outstanding citizens and organizations with the conferment of this year's Mayoral Awards at Starmark Royale along Juan Miranda Avenue.

As this news item revealed last week, "one distinguished mayoral award, three special mayoral awards, and seven mayoral recognitions will be given to outstanding Nagueños...in time for the celebration of Naga’s liberation from the Spanish rule which took place some 109 years ago."

The awardees:

Distinguished Mayor Award

1. MR. LIBERATO S. AUREUS – Literature

For uniquely preserving the Bicol language through his writings now in book form “An Sabi ni Levy”

Special Mayoral Award

1. MR. RICARDO A. REGMALOS – Public Service

For four decades of dedicated public service as a barangay official, making him a model for younger generations

2. REV. MSGR. LUIS R. AYO, H.P. – Education

For steadfastly fighting up to the Supreme Court for the establishment of the Capalonga Parochial School – a landmark decision that mapped out the future of Catholic education in the country and affirmed the right of parents to choose the school for their children

3. MS. JEAN N. LLORIN – NGO/Peace Advocacy

For her unselfish dedication to the crusade for women empowerment, social concern and volunteerism

4. VCA CECILIO PRINTING PRESS – Print Media/Culture

For preserving Bikol literature, culture and language through the publication of Bicol compositions, religious articles and novenas, as well as original translation of novels and stories.

5. SAN ISIDRO DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIVE – Cooperativism

For being one of the few successful cooperatives in the city. Twenty-six years since its founding, it has expanded its services and benefits to members in Naga as well as neighboring towns.

Mayoral Recognition Award

1. MR. NELSON HENRY R. MEJIA – Sports

For being the only Bicolano gold medalist during the 2007 Palarong Pambansa, duplicating his feat in the 2006 edition of the country’s premier national games

2. MS. JULIE LUCILLE H. DEL VALLE – Academics

For being one of the Top Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines for 2007

3. MR. BEN B. SECRETARIO – Academics

For being one of the Top Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines for 2007

4. REV. FR. JEFFREY NELSON B. TRIA – Community Service

For dedicating part of his priestly life to the service of the city and its people as chair of the Naga City People’s Council (NCPC)

5. DR. CARLOMAGNO B. MANUEL – Medicine/Community Service

For being the only one in his class at UP Medicine to remain in the Philippines, pioneering the establishment of first private medical hospitals in Virac, Catanduanes and Sipocot, Camarines Sur

6. ATTY. RICARDO A. DIAZ – Public Service

For launching an honest-to-goodness war against criminality and illegal drugs during his short stint as NBI regional director, thereby pushing its ranking from 8th to 3rd among regional NBI units in the country

7. ATTY. SOLIMAN SANTOS – Peace Advocacy

For strongly advocating peace and human rights through his works, writings, scholarships actions and affiliations

8. NAGA WHITE VOLUNTEER FIRE RESCUE – Civic work

For effectively responding to call for emergencies since its establishment in 2002

9. AREJOLA FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY – Literature

For promoting Bikol literary arts and culture through the annual Premio Tomas Arejola para sa Literaturang Bikolnon and the Juliana Fajardo Workshops

10. UNIVERSIDAD DE STA. ISABEL – Community Service

For spearheading two nationally renowned initiatives -- community extension service and student affairs and services program -- that brought honor both to the university and the city.

Explaining a historical puzzle

2007-09-08T06:13:00.000+08:00

DANNY Gerona's From Epic to History, the definitive history of Naga, mentioned something about the original San Francisco Church being different from the current structure, not only in terms of built but also its layout.

The old church in Nueva Caceres (the settlement built by the Spanish conquistadors), it said, faced Naga River as if to convey the message it is ready to serve the native population of Naga, the ancient village located across the river in what is now presently the Tabuco-Lerma area.

This is also immortalized in the stained glass representations of the church's history that adorn the structure itself. The first one, if I still recall correctly our visit with a Palafox Associates team (the ones I had breakfast with), shows a structure made of wood and indigenous materials, including what looks like tiklad roofing.

How would one reconcile that with accounts that place the original church to be parallel, instead of perpendicular, to what is now Peñafrancia Avenue? Our conversation the day before with Joe Obias, my former Vox editor and a local historian, provided the answer.

In those days, he said, Naga River is not the largely straight waterway we see today; it actually meandered into Nueva Caceres, into the current CBD, in a semi-circular fashion consistent with Gerona's account. The graphic above represents how everything probably looked like, with the old church in orange superimposed over the current one in blue.

A strong typhoon probably carved up a straighter route, similar to what happened to the current Balatas landfill many decades back. In conversations with Engr. Joel Martin and Jerry Abainza of the city environment office during our initial meeting with the visiting Czech consultants, I found out that some portions of said landfill is hollowed -- reminder of the river's original route until natural forces again carved up a more convenient, less sharp path.

Joe added the name of barangay Dinaga, Naga's smallest village smacked right within the city center, is actually derived from the word "pagdaga" (to fill up with earth), referring to the successful effort to reclaim the old waterway that became redundant when the new, straighter river path came about.

By the way, if you wonder why there are two major plazas (not three, because Plazas Rizal and Quezon used to be one single plaza before) within one small CBD comprising of just a few blocks, it is because what is now Galeria de San Francisco used to be the site of Naga's city hall. In this light, the placement of Plaza Quince Martires would entirely make sense, being right in front of the main city government building.

The same is true with Plaza Rizal: it is also located in front of where the old provincial capitol used to be, what is today's LBRDC Building (which houses Robertson and Land Bank) before it was destroyed by fire.

Do you know other differences between Naga as we know it today, and the Naga/Nueva Caceres of yesteryears?

Para sa satong mga kaakian

2007-09-07T07:27:00.001+08:00

Kolum ko para sa isyu kan Vox Bikol ngonyan na semana.

KAN nakaaging Miercoles, nagtiripon sa kaenot-enoteng pagkakataon an mga alkalde kan pitong ciudades igdi sa Kabikolan para sa sarong sharing workshop. An tiripon na idto ipinaapod ni Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal, pamayo kan League of Cities of the Philippines igdi sa Bikol, asin ginibo sa Villa Caceres Hotel.

Inda kun tano ta naisip kong ponan an programa sa lenguaheng Bikolnon, alagad sa heling ko, tama an desisyon na idto. Siempre, dai nalikayan an paggamit nin Ingles durante kan okasyon, alagad nagin mas sabot an paghiras kan mga programa asin eksperyensya kan pitong alkalde sa sadiri nindang tataramon.

An mayor na pagkukulang ko iyo an pagtagama sana nin 15 minutos kada alkalde duman sa ipinadarang imbitasyon: kulang na marhay palan iyan sa sarong pulitikong ginaganahan.

Pigsambit ko an pangyayaring ini tanganing idoon an duang punto.

Enot, an lenguaheng Bikolnon sarong pusog na basihan nin pagkasararo. Igwang naiibang birtud an pagtaram asin pagkomunikar sa kinagimatan na tatataramon -- mahalnas an bulos kan mga ideya huling dai na kaipuhan pang itradusir hali sa ibang lenguahe. Asin sarong kangangalasan an labi karikas na reaksyon kan mga nagdadangog -- automatiko an pagkasinarabotan, haros mate mo an pagtadom sa puso asin isip huli sa kawaran kan mga kudal na dara kan estrangherong dila.

Ikadua, kun garo palyado an satong lenguahe, arog kan saboot ni Tito Valiente, iyan huli ta tinotogotan ta ining magdanay na siring.

Habo kong tawadan an dakulang naginibohan kan satong mga parasurat, nangorogna an mga miembro kan grupong Kabulig. An totoo, orog na nagkusog an sakong pagtubod na nagbabalik na an buhay asin bagsik kan literaturang Bikolnon huli sa panibagong onrang inako kan satong mga parasurat, kaiba na diyan sinda Alvin Yapan asin Marne Kilates. Yaon man an Premio Arejola, na nasa ikalimang taon na nin sigidong pagtulod asin pagrokyaw kan lokal na talento sa pagsurat.

Saro ining peryodo nin ‘renaissance,’ kun haen pinapanoan an kakulangan kan satong mga pulitikong pangenotan an paghawas kan ronang Bikol sa dalnak nin pagtios.

Alagad an mga ini elemento sana kan production side; an mayor na problema yaon sa distribution side -- an pagsierto na an mga obrang nahahaman kan satong mga parasurat makakaabot asin pakikinabangan kan lambing ciudadano asin kan satong sosyedad.

Sa saiyang weblog, pigtuyaw ni Dean Jorge Bocobo an propuesto ni Senador Aquilino Pimentel na gamiton man bilang medium of instruction an mga lenguahe rehiyonal kan nasyon sa elementarya. Balido an nagkakapirang rason ni Bocobo, nangorogna an kawaran nin mga babasahon asin autoridad sa mga tataramon na ini.

Alagad para sako, dakulang oportunidad an propuestong ini na atubangon an isyu asin simbagan an mga kakulangan sa presente. Ano an sakong naheheling? Nagkakapira, alagad gabos nakasentro sa satong mga kaakian: Pagprodusir nin literatura asin babasahon na pan-aki, nangorogna idtong matabang sa saindang makanood magbasa (kaiba an binikol na mga fairy tales); asin nin mga instructional materials sa Bikol para magamit kan mga paratukdo (arog baga kan caton na pig-iimprenta kan Cecilio Press sa Sabang). Asin tanganing masusteniran an saindang interes, pagsa-pelikula kan mga ini, gamit an teknolohiyang 2-D asin 3-D animation -- bilang alternatibo sa mga animeng Hapon na haros iyo na sanang maheheling sa telebisyon.

Kun oogkoron, gabos na kaipuhan nganing magibo ini yaon na sa Naga.

Peñafrancia webcasts sked

2007-09-07T03:37:00.000+08:00

DAVE first explored the idea of beaming scenes of this year's Peñafrancia fiesta using 3G-powered video calls in a comment to a previous post.

He will probably like this email I got yesterday from Reuel Oliver, head of the Naga EDP unit:

Greetings from An Maogmang Lugar!

The City Government of Naga, in cooperation with Bayan Communications, will be carrying live webcasts of major Peñafrancia activities from 07 to 16 September. Among these are the traslacion, fluvial procession, civic and military parades, and the Voyadores festival.

This forms part of our efforts to bring festivities in honor of our INA to Nagueños and Bicolanos living and working outside the region and the country. Our common devotion to the Virgin of Peñafrancia is one of the ties that continue to bind us together.

You may view the webcasts by visiting our website (www.naga.gov.ph; click on the Penafrancia icon on the upper right corner of the main page). We are also putting these in an archive so that you can view these whenever you want.

We would appreciate it very much if you could disseminate this information to your friends, relatives and other Bicolanos.

Dios Mabalos!

Ansel, by the way, has a short entry on building up the city government's Peñafrancia site, including a detailed program of activities lined up for the next 10 days.

The following major video events will be beamed via webcast. All times are standard Philippine time (GMT +08:00). The first on the list is a little over eight hours away as I write this:

(1) Traslacion - Sept. 7, 12:30PM
(2) Miss Bicolandia - Sept. 12, 9:00 PM
(3) Civic Parade - Sept. 13, 7:00 AM
(4) Voyadores Festival - Sept. 13, 2:00 PM
(5) Military Parade - Sept. 14, 7:00 AM
(6) Fluvial Procession - Sept. 15, 3:00 PM