Pagtaong lalawgon sa kontemporanyong literatura and sosyedad kan Kabikolan

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!

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Financing an autonomous Bicolandia

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.

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The proposed charter of Bicol Autonomous Region

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

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The Naga City Governance Institute: An introduction

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.

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CSSAC tutor is 2007 'Parasurat nin Taon'

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.

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Will history again repeat itself?

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

AT THE height of the abaca trade in the late 1800s until around the turn of the 20th century – which is about 100 years ago – Albay was the richest province in the entire Philippines, Ateneo professor Danny Gerona, Bicol's foremost historian, said in a recent lecture.

But as Norman Owen's seminal work on the subject showed, it was by and large prosperity without progress as the industry built around that key commodity enriched the traders but not the local communities that hosted the vast abaca plantations feeding it.

By the 1920s, when the Americans started promoting the establishment of abaca plantations outside Bicol and in Latin America for security reasons (abaca being a Philippine monopoly at the time), Albay's fall from its preeminent position as an economic powerhouse began. When synthetic fibers supplanted abaca-made cordage by the mid-50's, the industry's almost total collapse became inevitable.

Today, with the comeback of large-scale mining as a priority investment area in the country, Albay gets another stab at economic prosperity. This was evident from last Saturday's visit to Rapu-Rapu, the new mining capital of the province.

The port of Legazpi is now more vibrant: a cargo ship is anchored, waiting to be filled up by the precious metals mined and processed in Rapu-Rapu; a seafront property development is in full swing, said to be a hotel being put up by a local investor; the port area is now well lighted, attracting evening promenaders, and clearly looks better, helped by a high wall that fenced off adjacent informal settlements. A fastcraft now services the route daily, cutting the usual 2-3 hour boatride from Legazpi to the main island to around 1 hour 45 minutes.

On our way back to Legazpi, Emma Bolaños, the town councilor who chairs the education committee of the sangguniang bayan, wondered why majority of Rapu-Rapu's 30,000 inhabitants remain poor notwithstanding its rich mineral resources.

For instance, the town has the second highest malnutrition rate in the province, better only than that of Oas. In recent national achievement tests administered by the DepEd, its school children scored less than 30%, lower than the provincial average of about 50%.

During our workshop, the participants affirmed one of their modest dreams: to ensure that at least 10% of the population will graduate from college. Fixing the physical plant of the town's community college is probably a good place to start, to ensure access to higher education for most residents whose only other alternative are the Legazpi universities and colleges.

But a lot more needs to be done with basic education, from elementary up to high school. Statistics show that only around 7 out every 10 get to enter Grade 1. And mirroring the national situation, only around 5 of them eventually graduate from elementary.

So for most of that Saturday, our Naga-based team from the Synergeia Southern Luzon helped about 150 stakeholders, a good number coming from schools comprising Rapu-Rapu's two school districts, plan together in addressing these concerns in an education summit. In all, they identified nine strategies to make it happen.

These, however, are no quick-fix magic-wand solutions. Of greater urgency is ensuring that ongoing mining activities in the island will redound to the benefit of Rapu-Rapu residents, especially now that the national and provincial governments have welcomed Lafayette's investment with open arms, notwithstanding its documented lapses that led to mine tailing spills in October 2005.

This will require civil society organizations closely watching over government's resolve to ensure that 'responsible mining' indeed takes place, guided by the International Council on Mining and Metals' (ICMM) 10 principles of sustainable development. For instance, the call for revenue transparency – a clear accounting of government revenues from natural resources, especially how they are spent to benefit local communities – is most timely, especially now that Lafayette has paid P180 million in direct and indirect taxes for the first half of the year.

Otherwise, we will see history simply repeating itself in the province of Albay.

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The promise of Libon

IF YOU saw Cars, the seventh animated film produced by the Disney-Pixar combine, then you will probably remember Radiator Springs, the former boomtown in the movie that faded into oblivion when Interstate 40 opened to traffic.

It is where our cocky hero -- and my daughter Nokie's all-time favorite -- Lightning McQueen suddenly found himself in after being separated from his transport truck on the way to the tie-breaker race in Los Angeles.

Bicol has its own version of Radiator Springs, a town called Libon in Albay province, which is in fact home to the oldest Spanish settlement in the region. It used to be called Santiago de Libong, if I recall my Bicol history right.

But when the straight bypass road from Matacon to Polangui town proper rose with the opening of the Maharlika Highway many decades back, traffic -- particularly passenger buses and vans -- that used to pass Libon disappeared, substantially affecting the town's vitality.

Yet the proud people of Libon are quietly confident they will rise again. Under the leadership of newly reelected Mayor Agnes "Bem" Dycoco, they are betting that improved education outcomes will enable the town to recover lost ground.

Last Friday, our six-man Synergeia Southern Luzon team headed by Mayor Robredo went to Libon to help manage their first-ever education summit. I came home with many positive impressions about the town and the quality of its governance:

- They have a tradition of participation that will serve the project well. Mayor Bem's department heads facilitated the workshops admirably, notwithstanding the 15-minute briefing early in the morning that the schedule allowed us.

- The municipal government has a functional Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS), one of the only two in Albay, that the mayor juxtaposed against the DepEd data in his presentation. (We don't have one in Naga yet.) There were marked differences in the data, and Mayor Bem challenged the participants to use them in establishing the real situation at the community level.

- The town also works with seven uniquely named "leagues," which refer to a cluster of geographically contiguous villages; this arrangement facilitates management of its 48 component barangays. These leagues include Palayan (where the rice fields are), Poblacion (the town center), Coastal (those facing Burias Pass), Lakeside (along Lake Bato), Big Six(the six biggest barangays?), Six Hills (the hilly portions of the town), and Interior 8 (obviously the landlocked interior villages).

Mind you, practically all of them were represented, both at the school, barangay and PTA levels, except for one or two that failed to attend. Their presence enabled the town to come up with specific interventions unique to their own league, whose problems can be different from others.

- Mayor Dycoco's presentation of the town's state of education was the most comprehensive I've seen thus far. More than that, it started quite differently, invoking the town's illustrious sons and daughters -- including the likes of former Finance Secretary Dominador Aytona and Justice Irene Cortes. (It is also available via Slideshare below.)

It perfectly set the stage for challenging, thought-provoking questions toward the end, such as:

• "Libon's prominent intellectual personalities, can we replicate them in the next generation?
• "Do our public school children, especially those schooled in rural barangays ever have the chance to become intellectuals of our town?
• "Can our next leaders, businessmen, professionals who will shape Libon’s community in the future come from them, or will these be privilege of the few?"

It so moved Albay Schools Division Superintendent Epifanio Buela, who remarked, "You will make a very good Department of Education secretary!" No wonder, Mayor Dycoco was elected by her peers as new president of the Albay municipal mayor's league.

(Interestingly, that is a common observation of all Synergeia local chief execs who have begun involving themselves in education governance issues beyond the traditional scholarships and provision of physical facilities: they begin talking like DepEd superintendents.)

My confidence that Libon will fulfill its promise came most unexpectedly when towards the end, as the various stakeholders were asked to reflect on their outputs, the Libon district supervisor -- whose name eludes me -- asked all school principals in attendance to stand up, raise their right hands, and commit themselves ("panunumpa" was the word she used) to seeing the plan through.

This reaffirmed my belief in the Synergeia model. Two days back, Cecile Calleja of the Lafayette-owned Rapu-Rapu Minerals, Inc. -- our corporate partner for the same project in the Albay mining boomtown -- asked me point-blank: "What is really your value-added?"

I said: I will have to disabuse your mind that we have a magic wand that will cure all ills in the public school system in communities that decide to work with us. But our value-added lies in working with local governments who, in leading their communities in identifying the problems and finding the solution to their problems, can make education governance reforms work.

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Ang paradigm shift at ang mga erehe ng KWF

Ang kolum ko para sa isyu ng Vox Bikol ngayong linggo.

LABIS ang kasiyahan ko matapos basahin ang keynote address ni Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, chairman ng Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) sa 2007 Nakem conference na isinagawa sa Mariano Marcos State University noong Mayo 23, 2007. It made my day, ika nga.

Una, dahil kinilala rin sa wakas ng pamahalaang nasyunal ang pagiging multilinggwal at multikultural ng mga Pilipino. Sa talumpati ni Dr. Nolasco -- ang pinakamalinaw na policy statement ng gobyerno, sa aking palagay, ukol sa paglinang ng ating mga wika -- binigyang diin na hindi kahinaan, kundi lakas, ng bansa ang mahigit nitong 170ng wika. Pangsampu tayo sa buong daigdig na may pinakamaraming wika, aniya.

Ang ikalawang dahilan ay maaaring ma-misinterpret ng iba nating kababayan, gaya ng walang kwentang away sa pagitan ng ilang tinatawag na A-list Pinoy bloggers, na umani ng maanghang na reaksyon ni Gibbs Cadiz; sana naman ay hindi. Pero natutuwa akong nangyayari ang pagbabagong ito sa pananaw ng Komisyon sa pangunguna ng isang Bikolano, na tulad ni Gibbs ay tubong-Sorsogon.

At pangatlo, salig sa pagkilala ng ating pagka multilinggwal at multikultural, ang bagong bisyon at misyon ng KWF ay nagbibigay-sigla sa mga kagaya ko na nais ding payabungin at pagyamanin ang sarili naming wika -- ang Bikol na ayon kay Irvin Sto. Tomas "ay may 2.5 milyong neytiv ispiker (1990 sensus) ... at sinasalita sa malaking bahagi ng Camarines Sur at Albay, bahagi ng Camarines Norte, Catanduanes at Sorsogon at Burias Island ng Masbate."

Isa sa mga natutunan ko nang bumalik ako sa paaralan noong 2004 ay ang konsepto ng "paradigm shift." Inimbento ni Thomas Kuhn, isang Amerikanong intelektwal, ang ideyang ito upang ipaliwanag ang mga mga pagbabagong nagaganap ("scientific revolutions") sa larangan ng siyensya.

Halimbawa, nuong unang panahon, naniniwala ang mga tao na ang daigdig ang sentro ng uniberso; kilala ito bilang ang geocentric model ni Ptolemy. Kahit ang Simbahang Katoliko ay nanghawakan dito hanggang sa Middle Ages, anupat napilitan ang sikat na astronomong si Galileo na talikuran ang kanyang unang paninindigan na umiikot ang daigdig sa araw, kasuwato ng heliocentric model ni Copernicus.

Subalit naglaon, napatunayang mali si Ptolemy at tama si Copernicus, anupat si Pope John Paul II mismo ay nagsabi noong 1992 na tama pala si Galileo at nagkamali ang simbahan, although in good faith. Isang paradigm shift ang binuong modelo ni Copernicus, at malawakang binago nito ang pananaw ng tao ukol sa uniberso.

Maituturing din na isang paradigm shift ang bagong bisyon at misyon ng KWF sa pangunguna ni Nolasco. Sa mga puristang makikitid ang utak, isang erehe lang ang makapagsasabing, "Gusto naming isipin na lipas na ang panahon na ang mga gawain ng komisyon -- sa katotohanan o sa karaniwang pagkakaalam -- ay eksklusibong nakatuon sa wikang pambansa, sa kapabayaan ng mahigit na 170ng wika ng ating bansa at nang walang makatotohanang pagsasaalang-alang sa isa pang opisyal na wika ng bansa, ang Ingles, o sa mas eksaktong pormulasyon, ang Philippine English."

Pero ayon sa Pranses na si Victor Hugo, "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." Naniniwala akong tama at napapanahon ang landas na tinatahak ng mga erehe sa KWF. Ito rin ang landas na tinatahak ng mga Bikolanong manunulat, kabilang na ang tumutula, umaawit, nagkukwento, nagsasadula at nakikipagtalakayan sa wikang Bikol, na naniniwalang tapos na ang panahon ng mga tawong lipod sa literaturang Bikolnon.

An sabi ngani kaiyan ni Frank Peñones: "Sa panahon na ini 'dai na maninigo an metapora kan mga taong lipod sa mga parasurat na Bikolano huli ta igwa nang pag-uswag, pagdakol kan mga parasurat asin pagdugang man kan saindang produksyon.'" Sa saiyang rebyu kan libro ni Peñones, si Kristian Cordero nagsumpay: "An koleksyon na ini sarong dakulang dugang sa nagtatambo tang literatura na haloy bago nakabutas sa imahe kan mga tawong lipod na ngonyan luhay-luhay nang namamansayan, namamatian kadungan kan naglalawig na terasa kan literaturang Bikol."

Bilang tugon sa layunin ng Komisyon, pinagtibay kahapon sa planning workshop ng pamahalaang panlungsod ng Naga ang pagbuo ng isang lokal na institute bago matapos ang taon; ito ang mangunguna sa pag-stardardize ng Bicol-Naga, sa tulong ng isang modernong Bicol-English dictionary.

Hindi ba mas mainam na makita ang bawat Pilipino na mahusay sa tatlong wikang kailangan para sa matatag na kinabukasan ng bansa -- ang wikang kinamulatan, ang wikang Filipino at ang Ingles -- upang ang Buwan ng Wika bawat Agosto ay maging pagdiriwang ng kanyang kakayahang harapin ang matinding hamon ng bukas?

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The Albay-Cam Sur rivalry is back

JUST came from Legazpi City to attend a regular meeting of the Regional Development Council. It was one of the most attended meetings I saw this year, mainly because of the election of two government and private sector nominees for the positions of chair and co-chair.

Reelectionist Camarines Sur Gov. L-Ray Villafuerte had his way, overturning a new set of guidelines that originally seemed harmless, but from hindsight favored his only other rival, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda.

The new guidelines abandoned the usual open nomination in favor of a structured process calling for a nominee for each of the six Bicol provinces being pitted against each other. In case there are only two nominees, both will automatically get the same votes as every qualified voter needs to choose two otherwise his ballot will be spoiled.

When L-Ray, who obviously campaigned hard to secure another RDC term, saw through the ploy, he sought and secured a return to the old rules, eventually trouncing Salceda (who at one point walked out of the meeting, only to return later) by a huge margin--about 5:1, probably more, I think.

But still, their names, together with the two private sector reps (one of whom is Beda Priela of the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce), will be forwarded to President Arroyo who will make the final choice.

Let's see who among these Gloria boys will Malacañang bless. Or will history repeat itself with Ms. Arroyo choosing neither, opting instead for a private sector rep to chair the RDC, as Cory did with former Albay Gov. Jose Estevez, Sr.? Abangan!

Clearly though, the Albay-Camarines Sur rivalry is back with a bang.

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Local milestones the week past

1. AVENUE Square Hotel soft launch. This was 'the' social event that gathered together the upper crust of Naga's society, held at the convention center of Avenue Square last July 28. I got in thanks to a last-minute invite from Donald -- one of the perks of blogging, I suppose.

It had two main highlights: one, of course, was the public presentation of Avenue Square Hotel, positioned for the upscale market, which will open its doors by September, just in time for the Peñafrancia fiesta.

The brochure says guests can choose from a wide array of rooms ranging from Superior, De Luxe, Executive Suites and a Presidential Suite, with rates starting from P3,000 per night. Of course, the hotel is located just at the back of Avenue Square, Naga's lifestyle center along Magsaysay Avenue.

The other highlight is the launch of Allée, dubbed as the city's first lifestyle magazine, which featured University of Nueva Caceres president Dr. Dolores Sison; Atty. Leni Robredo, Naga's first lady; and interior designer and Avenue Square's managing director Gwen Cu on the cover.

The thick crowd that trooped to the event however had its downside; just ask Benny Decena, Elmer Abad, Al Ubaña and Johnny Dematera what it was.

2. Danny Gerona, Ateneo's first-ever full professor. Monday evening (July 30) was Dr. Danilo Madrid Gerona's big night at the Arrupe Convention Hall of the Ateneo, marking his conferment of the rank Professor by Fr. Joel Tabora, university president, in a celebration that overflowed with food and wine.

Irvin Sto. Tomas relates here this is a first, and a source of singular pride for their hometown, Canaman.

'Eminence' was the dominant word that evening, becoming synonymous with Danny especially in the field of local history and culture. It was more than enough to compensate for a most generous offer from the other Catholic university along Taft, who almost took away the city's foremost local historian.

His lecture on the topic The Chinese in Spanish Kabikolan: Cultural Resilience and Entrepreneurial Process was both enlightening and timely, as the Ateneo embarks on a partnership with China, starting with educational and cultural exchange programs, and possible business opportunities for the city and Bicol as a whole.

High-ranking officials of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce were among those who listened to Danny's lecture, a vintage performance that reminded me of a similar presentation before our visiting UBC graduate students, one of whom exclaimed, "You're a very good storyteller!"

3. 'Miskol.' Bikolanos again took centerstage in the annual Sawikaan event at UP last August 2-3 that brought together Filipino language scholars, teacher delegates and students. Ateneo's Adrian Remodo took the word of the year top prize with 'miskol,' followed by Kristian Cordero's 'roro.'

Cordero blogged about it, as did Aldy Manrique who thankfully pointed out it is a Philippine Star article (William Esposo should do something about the Star's notoriously unreliable links), with Irvin reacting, including a reference to Composed Gentleman's objection to the word of the year, arguing that 'miskol' is not even a word. Ah, but such is the vitality of a living language: maybe today it is not, but soon it will be.

I only hope the evolving Bikol language will be just as vigorous, even more, to capture modern concepts, ideas and realities alien to Lisboa when he wrote Vocabulario de la Lengua Bicol in the 19th century.

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Poll: Mercury or New South Star?

SATURDAY evening, I found myself at the New South Star Drug branch at the corner of Juan Miranda and Panganiban, sitting by my scooter and waiting for Lynn buy some pasalubong for the kids at the Lucky 9 convenience store. It's my favorite NSSD branch owing to its promixity to City Hall.

The branch is undergoing a facelift, with the NSSD colors now dominating the front and side signages whereas before, Lucky 9 had half of the front. The reason is obvious: just across the street, a Mercury Drug branch is just about ready to open shop, a veritable dagger strike at the heart of its newest stiff competitor.

For NSSD, whose slow rise to prominence was recently featured in the Inquirer, traces its roots to Naga City, even antedating its bigger rival which, according to Wikipedia, came into existence only towards the end of the Second World War.

What would be more strategic than go for the jugular and bring the fight right where one's rival is based? This explains why we are seeing, and will probably see more of, this tit-for-tat. For instance, an NSSD branch is the anchor tenant of the new commercial building owned by the Cabral family that is rising at the corner of Magsaysay and Peñafrancia. It is obviously in response to the Mercury outlet doing brisk business at Avenue Square.

So, for the week, why don't you indulge me by answering this little survey, which will run for the next seven days: Which drug store do you prefer, Mercury or New South Star? Again, the usual caveat that it is unscientific by its very nature. But it should be fun and enlightening, just like the last one whose final results is still available for view at the bottom of my right sidebar.

This stiff tiff however made me think: if I were NSSD, what would be my next best response? I'll probably do 24-7 door-to-door drug deliveries, similar to what fast foods do, which is what Mercury pioneered in 1948. For a small city whose farthest end is only 30 minutes away, I say this is doable.

What do you think?

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Help argue for a Bikol Wikipedia

IRVIN Sto. Tomas first wrote about it here, and his second post, almost a plea, moved me to do my part.

The objective: convince the Wikipedia Foundation board of trustees to approve the development of a wiki in the Bikol language.

I urge you to do the same, even if, like Tito Valiente, you seem to have been burned by a past effort. I may not have Tito's elegant prose, or Maryanne's, or Kristian's jagged-edge poetry, but that's how his latest column at Vox Bikol strikes me.

If you are interested, Irvin's last entry has the how-to's.

Just for the record, this is how I justified a Bikol wikipedia:

The City Government of Naga has recently prioritized the standardization of the Bicol-Naga language. Toward this end, it will initiate the establishment of a local institution that will lead the effort. (See Mayor Robredo's Executive-Legislative Agenda for 2007-10 which is available here.) This is just one indication of a renewed, much bigger movement involving many other stakeholders to push the language's development, considering its influence over a substantial segment of the Philippine population as described above. A wikipedia on the language will be a powerful contribution to these efforts, considering that it will bring together Bikolano-speaking contributors that may be dispersed all over the globe but are joined together by the internet through this web-based project.

A fair warning: Notwithstanding its very useful toolbar, Wikipedia's approach to composition is not as advanced as Blogger's, which already has a wysiwyg option, or Wordpress.

But be not afraid: When unsure of what you wrote, simply punch the "Show Preview" button. It's not elegant, but it works as a trial-and-error safety net.

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Vox Bikol and its online quiz

QUICK: What is the English word for "baligang," that dark violet bitter fruit that tastes better when shaken vigorously with salt?

• berry
• plum
• cherry
• grape

If you answered "berry," you got it right, as I did when I took this Bikol quiz that forms part of the newly built online home of Vox Bikol. Vox is the weekly newspaper I used to edit and for which I now write a weekly column.

Unfortunately, that was one of the only four I got right out of 10, prompting me this terse message: "Kaipuhan po na mag-adal pa nin bikol." (You need to study Bikol more.)

The site is still work in progress, Julma Narvadez said, thanks to the effort of Fr. Tebelin and the Ina nin Bikol Foundation, Inc. which now publishes the paper. Julma's late father, Joe, used to be the Vox publisher when I was with the paper, until his untimely demise.

But I am very happy with this development, as I have been clamoring for Vox to make its long overdue online presence felt and fill the gap in cyberspace for news, opinion and information about Naga and the Bikol region.

Why don't you give that quiz a try and share your score with me?:)

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Another footnote to the language wars

AN AWKWARD moment in the oath-taking that followed the speeches in this morning's 59th charter day celebration came when Sen. Joker Arroyo asked 10th-ranked Councilor-elect Ma. Elizabeth Lavadia to recite the "panunumpa" after him.

My favorite Bikolano senator had difficulty reading through the oath in Filipino, which how Tagalog is now known. (Although the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) knows better, admitting that "Filipino is simply Tagalog in syntax and grammar, with no grammatical element or lexicon coming from Iloko, Sinebwuano, Ilonggo, and other major Philippine languages.")

As a result, the others that followed -- from 9th-ranked Councilor Nelson Legacion up to Mayor Robredo himself -- simply went through the motions, mostly for photo-ops.

If it were in English, in which the Senate conducts its business, or in Bikol Naga, the regional standard in which Joker spoke flawlessly in addressing the crowd that mostly lined along Elias Angeles Street, the faux pas would not have happened.

The reason is generational: Joker's contemporary senior citizens are not as exposed as today's youth to mass media, especially TV which exerts a tremendous influence in developing and popularizing Filipino.

The generational divide was even evident when the senator, who also guested in the book launching of Liberato "Levy" Aureus's Sabi ni Levy, mentioned Bikol Naga's being the "purest" of the Bikol dialects. It actually made me cringe: the regional standard, yes; but the purest form?

It is certainly a debatable point, and one that the other flavors of the Bikol language he mentioned will not take sitting down. Among the literati who attended the event at the Raul S. Roco Library at city hall were leading Bikolano poet Kristian Cordero and Frankie Peñones, a Ford Foundation international fellow who just arrived in town for a much needed break from his studies at the University of San Jose in California.

Like Joker, we hail from Rinconada (the 4th district of Camarines Sur) and consider Bicol Rinconada our mother tongue. Both the multi-awarded Cordero and Peñones, in fact, have blazed the trail in elevating Rinconada literature to a prominent place in the vibrant literary scene. Yet Joker can only speak about the late Luis Dato who, like him, hails from Baao.

But policy, I strongly believe as I argued here, is another culprit. For instance, if policy and conventions allow, or better still encourage, the use of the vernacular in government forms such as the "panunumpa," consistent with the reality that we are a multilingual nation, that awkward, "wow mali!" moment starring my favorite Bikolano senator would not have happened.

In this light, the KWF's decision, under the leadership of the Bikolano Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, to finally give long overdue attention to the development, preservation and propagation of some 170 regional languages and dialects in the country is a step in the right direction.

The use of the vernacular in government forms or even laws of local importance -- the resolutions and ordinances that our sanggunians churn out regularly, which are for local consumption anyway -- can be a powerful contribution of government to this effort.

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Bungling it in the formative first years

My column for this week's issue of Vox Bikol

WHILE attending the seminar on New Public Management in Germany, I had the chance to work with two other participants: Daniel Welwel, a young lawyer from Tanzania, and Jelena Milic, a high-ranking Croatian liberal party member. When we were done arguing and finally arrived at a common group output, both Jelena and I agreed that Daniel should present it in the plenary.

The choice was grounded on the recognition that among us three, Daniel speaks the best English, as if he were a native speaker. During the break, Jelena had to ask: how come Tanzanians are so good in English? We were colonized by the British, Daniel said. I quickly threw him a related question: When do you start teaching English in school? His answer, which definitely surprised me, was: In high school.

I had to bring this up in the context of a pending petition before the Supreme Court asking for a restraining order on Executive Order No. 210 issued by President Arroyo to strengthen English as a second language, mandating among others, that it be used as the medium of instruction starting from Grade III and as the primary medium of instruction in high school. In response, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus promptly issued DepEd Order No. 36 August 2006; it will be implemented fully when schools open on Monday.

I mostly agree with the petition, especially on the ground that education research has established that “vernacular in the first years of school provides the necessary bridge for a child to learn a second language (in this case Filipino or English), and that children are less likely to drop out of school during the first years of school when instruction is in the language spoken at home.” Our personal experience in teaching our two older daughters to read proves this point.

But my bone of contention with the petition, and the whole language policy in particular as provided for under the 1987 Constitution and all other issuances arising from it, lies in the excessive emphasis on developing Filipino as a national language at the expense of regional languages like Bikol. All these efforts of forcing the issue by invoking state power, instead of allowing a national language to develop naturally, leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

If we go by the premise that use of the vernacular in the first years of school is the best way to go in developing reading skills that, to my mind, is the critical first step in learning a language, why is there no clear-cut education policy to this effect?

Why is the use of Bikol, for instance, being looked down – even discouraged -- as a medium of instruction, the most logical at that for a young Nagueño child, instead of being fostered?

And if the Constitution views regional languages as auxiliary media of instruction, why is there no policy promoting the development of basic reading materials in the vernacular – like children’s books or even translations of popular fairy tales – that will facilitate the development of these skills?

As with most Jehovah’s Witnesses, I first learned to read in Bikol well before I entered Grade I -- and like my daughters -- using a translation of the Bible in the vernacular. Every week, one of the segments that comprise our Theocratic Ministry School is public reading of 15 or so verses from the Bikol bible. That was more than three decades ago, and it has definitely served us well.

Looking at the instructional materials available today, we have barely moved forward, notwithstanding the researches and plain common sense of it all, if one really comes to think of it. While President Arroyo’s EO got it right in emphasizing the use of English in high school, consistent with the Tanzanian experience and a healthy dose of pragmatism, our education policy has bungled it all along at the formative first years in school.

That’s precisely the problem with one-size-fits-all policymaking that is decided at and imposed from the center. The result is a half-baked citizen who can probably understand at least three languages in his lifetime but lacks good command of any, which requires speaking, reading, writing and most importantly, critical thinking.

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The tragedy of Bikolandia

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

ONE OF the most fascinating lectures that we managed to arrange for the visiting graduate students from the University of British Columbia was one we never actually expected: it was leading Bikolano historian Danilo Gerona’s talk last Friday (May 18) on the Philippine and Bikol situation.

I saw Danny at Mister Donut in E-Mall the previous afternoon and still without a resource person on the topic, which is supposed to provide the larger context to the governance in Naga, I managed to cajole him to take on the offer. When I introduced him to the 30 or so UBC and Ateneo students at the audiovisual room of the Bicol Science and Technology Centrum the following morning, he was still unclear on what exactly his topic was.

But speaking off the cuff and with fire in his belly, Danny painted a breathtaking historical account of why Bicol has always been the odd-one out in Luzon, destroying a number of myths in the process.

One of these is the mistaken notion of self-sufficiency during the Spanish times, owing to the country’s rich natural resources. It is actually the opposite, Gerona said, explaining that Spain, through the famed Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, has actually subsidized its colonial operations here, to the point that they almost decided to give it up. Only the opportunity of christianizing China and Japan, using Manila as springboard, tilted the balance towards staying put. Today, one can argue that OFW remittances are effectively subsidizing Philippine society’s continuing viability and keeping our economy afloat.

Over a century ago, he added, Bicol is the richest region in the entire country, and Albay its richest province, owing mainly to abaca, which, together with sugar and tobacco, are the Philippine islands’ top three exports. No wonder, the website of the Tigaon municipal government calls the American occupation its golden years when the local principalia -- the Ceas, Molls, Gachitorenas and Fuentebellas -- contested political power, not only in the town but also at the provincial level.

Fast forward to the present, and those years become memories buried in the pages of local history books. And while the rest of Luzon belongs to the upper half of the country’s progressive regions, Bicol has been languishing at the bottom, in the company of war-torn areas in Muslim Mindanao.

Come to think of it, the tragedy of Bicol region lies in the continuing exploitation of its resources to fuel development elsewhere, without minding the need to develop local industries around these raw materials. For instance, not even one of the companies in the DA directory of abaca fiber processors and exporters is based in the region. (To its credit, Negros at least had its “sugar barons” who became a potent economic and political force in the country; all we had are the political dynasties who lorded it over Bikol for the past 100 years.)

First, it was the fabulous gold in the Paracale mines in Camarines Norte which attracted the Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo, followed by abaca in Camarines Sur and Albay from 1850 up the 1930s, and the geothermal resources of Tiwi from the 1970s up to the present. A more insidious form of exploitation, which Ateneo de Naga president Fr. Joel Tabora adverted to in his opening remarks, is the continuing brain drain that saps our human capital: unable to provide opportunities to the region’s best and brightest minds today, they end up fueling the growth of economies in Metro Manila and other parts of the world.

The persistence of this enduring tragedy makes me pause: is the cause of Bicol development then a case of what the French call "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" -- that the more things change, the more they remain the same?

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What the May 14 election results mean

NOW THAT both the Comelec and Namfrel counts have breached the halfway mark, I will venture to put forward the following observations on the election results in the context of Naga and Bikol.

1. THE LOCAL SCENE. These news stories via Manila Standard and Balita confirm the fact that President Arroyo's Team Unity candidates have dominated the local races, in spite of national media attention given to 'Abang' Mabulo (who lost his congressional bid) and Mayor Jesse Robredo (who beat back the Comelec-endorsed citizenship challenge launched by his opponent).

What does it mean to Naga? One, the Robredo administration clearly maintains a solid mandate from city residents; for the most part, it should be enough as the city has largely survived on its own -- even in the face of natural calamities -- without any support from the national government.

But two, it is effectively isolated, ringed by winning congressmen who mostly belong to the pro-administration parties. What I am worried about is the renewed brazenness that the Kampi stalwarts of reelected 2nd District Rep. Luis Villafuerte -- headed by his older son Bong -- in the recent attempts to impose their will.

The fate of the 15 Naga policemen accused by their superiors of alleged drug links -- Bong's handiwork according to his estranged brother LRay, who also won a landslide victory over his father's preferred candidate -- is a shape of things to come.

But I have a strong feeling this display of bravado betrays a feeling that the tide is actually turning, as Billy Esposo points out; what we are seeing are really opportunistic attempts to gain a beachhead in Naga while they still can. Because in 2010, they will no longer be as powerful, they won't have these same chances, and the roles can actually be reversed.

Luis Villafuerte will have been three years older; with the exception of LRay, nobody else from the clan appears ready to assume the mantle, most definitely not Bong and probably not even Jojo.

2. THE NATIONAL SCENE. What Fr. Ed Panlilio pulled off in Pampanga foreshadows a cataclysm that will, after political forces are realigned in the runup to 2010, swamp most administration bets.

The Senate race indicates the ugly national mood. I am not sorry that Joker Arroyo (fighting for one of the last three slots) and Ralph Recto (out of the Magic 12 as I write this) are doing badly.

Had he resisted Ate Glue's wicked charms to underscore his independent maverick persona, Joker would have easily made it to the Top 5. The same would have held for Ralph, whose decision to ditch the opposition actually allowed the overachieving Antonio Trillanes to join GO and make his phenomenal run possible.

Finally, if the current standings hold until the end, Bicol will end up having four senators: Escudero, Honasan, Arroyo and Trillanes. This would improve on the previous record when Roco, Tatad and Honasan served in the Senate from 1995-98.

It will guarantee that Bicol will have a fair shake in national policymaking; but it will not ensure that regional development will be accelerated to lift it up from the bottom of the standings.

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A separate Bikol grid?

WHAT Bikolano politicians failed to do over all these years, Typhoons Milenyo and Reming finally made real.

Lost in the heat of the ongoing election canvassing is this Inquirer story about Napocor's intention to set up dedicated power plants in the Bicol region. This statement by Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla deserves a closer look:

"Napocor is ready to do islanding operations in Bicol. We're working with Chevron in (the Tiwi geothermal plant) to ensure that the facilities there will not be as easily damaged by typhoons as in the past. It's very important for us to work on these things," he said.

Are "islanding operations" the same as having a separate Bicol grid? If it is, has Napocor abandoned the one-grid-one-price policy that the Ramos administration used to stymie earlier efforts to set up an independent Bicol grid separate from the rest of Luzon? I'm not sure; maybe Mamutong can give us the lowdown.

What are the upsides? The story mentioned having a dedicated power source for the area "would make Bicol less prone to transmission-related power outages during the typhoon season."

To that, I will also add improved utilization of the Tiwi geothermal resources. This concern was raised by newly reelected Tiwi Mayor Jaime "Ami" Villanueva during our Synergeia LCE retreat: the EPIRA law has effectively sidelined the Tiwi geothermal outputs, owing to the preference being given to independent power producers (IPPs) with whom the national government and the power retailers have long-term purchase agreements. As a result, Tiwi LGU's revenue from the geothermal facilities it is hosting have significantly gone down.

With the effective separation of Bicol from the Luzon grid, relatively cheap geothermal power from Tiwi and Bac-Man plants will mainly, if not wholly, supply mainland Bicol's needs. Of course, another lingering problem are the unacceptably high system losses by electric cooperatives in the region, which this other Inquirer story highlighted; but that is a separate issue that must be dealt with at the distribution level.

What I am afraid of is their effective monopoly position, which begs the question: Will a deregulated electric power industry made possible by the EPIRA law allow end-users to finally benefit from this indigenous energy resource?

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Patricia Evangelista and Joker's glass house

INQUIRER'S Patricia Evangelista has indeed come of age: from a champion public speaker, to a bratty columnist accused of writing for self-gratification, to the brave solitary voice of her generation who, unlike Tim Yap, dares to tell the world that our empress and her generals have no clothes on.

Her column today at the Inquirer is painfully spot on, particularly the following paragraphs on my favorite Bikolano senator and the glass house he has built around himself:

I interviewed Sen. Joker Arroyo, whose defense of human rights is his platform for reelection. I ask why he has been silent, and why he chooses to still run with Team Unity whose figurehead is GMA. He is offended. He was the first to speak against Palparan, he says, and the one who continually rails against human rights violations.

There are other issues, there are other issues, he repeats, labor and finance and education, and a whole host of other matters. Why must his performance on the political killings be a standard by which I should judge him? He tells me, at the end of his rant, that he expects me to be objective. I tell him I cannot be, as I am not a reporter, I’m a columnist with my own biases. And he is angry, and he walks out and tells me to do what I want.

And here I will tell you why I ask that question, why I believe that condemning political killings is the highest priority. I agree that there are other issues. I agree that labor and the economy and a thousand other matters must be considered. I believe, however, that this issue is at the forefront; and that condemning is far different from acting; and that men like Joker Arroyo, by virtue of both their records and their claims, cannot afford to be neutral in their actions, if not their words.

Patricia's prose today is dark and brooding, a stark departure from her hopeful take on the Filipino diaspora that won her the 2004 International Public Speaking competition conducted by the English Speaking Union (ESU) in London.

But as apologists for the administration and the military establishment are wont to say, we are but a reflection of our times. Only that they are inside their glass house, and we are not. And so we need not take refuge in that last argument of the indefensible.

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Politics again trumps sanity

A FUNNY, SAD thing happened in the ongoing workshop called by the NEDA Regional Office in Legazpi City to refine the Bicol Rehabilitation Plan which I blogged about here and here. I am already writing this post since my part is practically done before the lunchtime break; the other LGU participants are still wheeling around the regional line agencies in the conference room.

I sat with the group consisting of line departments that have firm funding support under the P5.025-billion kitty approved by Congress. After consulting with the Department of Health representative, it was the DPWH's turn. The agency's lady rep was very patient, accommodating and quite forthcoming.

"Are the projects listed here already final?" I asked.

"More or less," she said.

After going through the list, I said: "There's nothing on Naga here."

"That was based on the damage report submitted to us by the Second Engineering District. Maybe the national roads in your place did not really suffer much damage." Thinking back, maybe she's right; it actually was a left-handed compliment to the quality of roads built there by the DPWH, although I did not press her about the big difference between city government estimates, which is substantially lower than that of the DPWH.

"Your list also does not include a single project for the 4th District of Camarines Sur. Do you mean to tell me Super Typhoon Reming did not hit the Partido area?" Reming, it will be recalled, entered Luzon via Tiwi, Albay, which is just adjacent to Sagnay and the district.

"We're only doing what we were told," was the excuse she gave. Who did the telling, she did not explain. But the list actually supplied the answer: the congressional districts of the pro-Arroyo representatives expectedly got the lion's share -- Lagman, Salceda, Villafuerte, Alfelor and Andaya. That it's payback time is as clear as the light of day.

The big loser, aside from Naga, is that district of former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella -- the Villafuertes' traditional rival since the turn of the 20th century -- which got zilch, zero, nada. What adds insult to injury is this entry in Wikipedia on the congressional districts of Camarines Sur that brands him "corrupt" and his son "corrupt bakla." As if their fellow contemporary politicians are as clean as snow in our benighted land, and now Asia's most corrupt according to the PERC.

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