Polibiz
By Nelson Robles

Education Summit : A solution to illiteracy

We will bid goodbye to the month of March with mixed feelings. We feel relieved that, at long last, the peso is making a headway against the US dollars. From P56=US$1, the foreign rate now reads P54=US$1.

This indicates only one thing: our sluggish economy is making a dramatic climb to the financial chart despite the fiscal crisis which is actually womanmade, and despite the skullduggery of our lawmakers who shamelessly and rapaciously spent the people's money in their recent junket to Las Vegas to watch the Pacquiao-Morales boxing bout.

They are like the over-bloated member of the Sanggunian who makes a giant killing of taxpayers' money through junkets and cash advances.

And he can afford to smile as if he is a model thief.

***

Mayor Raul “Buboy” Tupas of Barotac Viejo has a very interesting solution to the worsening decline of education among elementary pupils in the province of Iloilo . The 33-year-old Philippine Military Academy (PMA) graduate is mulling the holding of Education Summit to be held sometime in April or May this year.

It is disheartening to note that most of our elementary pupils who will or have graduated this semester do not know how to read and write.

This has alarmed our leaders, including education Sec. Florencio Abad, who is apparently in favor of the proposal made by the young Tupas. Mayor Tupas will collaborate with Miag-ao Mayor Gerry Flores and Concepcion Mayor Raul Bañas in the brilliant idea of holding the first-ever Summit for education.

In this gathering meant to arrest the declining mental prowess of our kids, it is hoped that the problem will be addressed through the active participation of the parents and school officials—superintendents, principals, teacher.

It seems there is a need to initiate the overhauling of our system, the need for the introduction of a program and the creation of curriculum that would inject fresh blood to the otherwise arid educational system.

I expect both the pro and anti-Tupas administration to support this noble project of Mayor Tupas.

I heard that even Mayor Richard Garin of Guimbal is amenable to the Summit . After all, he is also an active officer of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Iloilo Chapter, prime mover of the project, which is headed by Mayor Tupas as president.

In the crusade to improve the knowledge of our society and to save our children from the jaws of illiteracy, it is best suggested that politics must be set aside.

I am happy by the gesture shown by our hitherto warring politicians who have banded together to push this Summit .

***

Some practicing lawyers are actually agents of extortion. I, of course, admire a lot of them. I have many friends who are lawyers and they always excite me because I always consider them as notches higher than many dysfunctional characters who abuse their power and influence.

I am just alarmed by reports that a cellular phone company is being eyed as “victim” of a prominent lawyer who prides himself as human rights advocate and public servant.

The lawyer has sued the company through a dummy and they are demanding a huge amount of money from the company enough to give Mayor Jerry Treñas a run for his money in the 2007 election.

We should be wary of these characters. I'm afraid they are the wolves who hide or camouflage themselves with the sheep's clothes.

And like the fat member of the Sanggunian, this fellow also smiles and laughs a lot, especially in the coffee shops.