The Triangle System

“There are three types of people in this world: The Rich, The Poor and the many others who are in between…” This used to be the social class during the time of Karl Marx, the time of industrial revolution but as the time pass by it seems that the system has changed – The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is what the triangle system have altered in our social class, a type of evolution that created a vicious cycle of oppression in all aspects, all because of greed – for power, fame and wealth.

            The triangle system: the triangle represents the entire population. The upper part represents a small population of affluent, prominent people in the society and the lower part represents the mob. The resources are shown in percentage.

            If you’ve heard the song entitled “Tatsulok” by Bamboo, you’ll have a glimpse of this kind of system. You see, only the well-off minority who belonged to the top of the triangle who enjoys that vast of our rich resources – all the leisure and pleasure life has to offer while majority of the poor population that is represented at the bottom of the triangle sharing and compromising the small amount of resources, only what is left and available from those who belonged to the top. Classic examples would be a conyo having an overpriced cup of coffee in a renowned highly prestigious coffee shop while an indigent is struggling to stretch a peso to survive a meal for a day; A rich kid hit a vendor on a street, yet escapes justice while justice is not serve on the poor man’s family because they can’t afford a lawsuit and while a politician has all the best doctors to cure his disease, many people are dying because they can’t afford treatment. So what’s the difference? They’re both people, citizens of the Philippines under in one constitution, living under the same flag, the same authority and sharing the same Filipino blood but a huge difference in terms of the standard of living and treatment.  There’s definitely a disparity in the distribution of resources from a logical point of view. Only the rich can have a good life while the indigents suffer, funny how it seems that we seek for justice in an already unjust system.

            Our taxes have been gone to the pockets of the authorities whom we gave their positions and in return, public service has never been more dull that it is serving its people. What are the offices been doing?  Build and destroy good roads?  Debate over craps? Or practicing their lousy speech? Then what about those  people who needs attention to healthcare; the assurance to safety and security; and the vast indigents who lacks education and the many other government services that only who could afford the red tapes are well-served. Even justice could be bought.

            Now this is a call for change. Change doesn’t happen in a snap, change happen because we want to and so we decide. We are all aware that whether we like it or not, we’re part of this unjust system but then we just shrug it off and become apathetic. We think that just because everybody’s doing it then a small change wouldn’t matter. We continue to hope but do nothing. Blame cannot make change. We cannot do change by ourselves but we could start little by little.

            I believe that the youth is capable to bring about this change, the most awaited change by the great people of our history – being the most dynamic and advance member of the society, the youth is surely an ideal catalyst. I believe that we’re productive enough to make a move. We choose our leaders and they should serve us well. We know the rules then we should follow. We are more aware in our society that the past generation are. The period of perennial monopoly are long gone after Martial Law and the following EDSA revolutions. Freedom is at hand, we should be responsible with it. Our lives can be far greater that be wasted on vices and we’ll never realize our full potential unless we push harder to the edge.

            Past is past but the future can always be change. Nothing will happen unless we start doing something, until then, the vicious cycle will continue, the situation will get worse and we’ll remain trap in this triangle system.

He's Just A Boy

       

        He’s just a boy, another bully in school but oftentimes bullied. He got no friends, not a single one would stick around him. He is a nerd, got a world of his own. He wears the same old shirt and jeans everyday like he’d never change. He’s emaciated. He eats lunch alone, in the isolated areas in school – either in the toilet or near the garbage dump where no one could see him. He was often rejected in groups and games. He walks to school alone. He is an outcast.

          He’s just a boy. Nobody knows what he’s holding back. He seems to lose his childhood. His eyes were filled with anger and bitterness but sometimes express a glint of being fearful. He is not progressing, not even in grades or attitude. He is good for nothing, a teachers’ burden. He pays no attention to his studies. He is not even listening to his teachers. Many times he was caught scribbling images of blood and violence. He is a war-freak, a problem child; A frequent in the principal’s office and a regular in the detention. Not a day in school that he won’t get himself in a fight that explains the bruises, contusions and scratches he earned every day.

          Everyone wonders – Parents and Teachers alike – but nobody cares to ask. No one knew him deeply except for the fact of being hated.

          One day he was absent. They just think he might be sick. A week followed, he missed their class’ Christmas Party. Classes already resumed for the new year and still he’s not present. A rumor broke that he was expelled from school. A month later of his absence, his adviser decided to pay a home visit to discuss school matters and his absence and there she found out.

         There he was… resting peacefully six feet below the ground. The name that used to be in the teacher’s class record was now beautifully carved on a polished rock. He eventually went to a place where there is only happiness. A world that was once existed only in his dreams, probably reunited with his mother. A place of comfort, a paradise he’d never experience a thousand years in this mean world. A place where he is accepted, not judged. Somewhere he can enjoy his childhood – have friends and playmates to play with. A place where he is loved.

          On that night of December 16, 2012, his last day of attendance in school, he was ruthlessly beaten by his drunken stepfather like he’d always do almost every night. The neighbors hear him cry but choose to be deaf, they can see the damage, the trauma but they choose to be blind. Nothing was done because they were scared, far more scared than the boy enduring for his life until that fateful night… He caught a fever after the cruelty. He rested for his last breath and fell unto the wings of an angel who cuddled him peacefully. Until then, he left the cruel world and eternally refuge in a life he always wanted but never had.

          It is only then that they realized that the boy was often misunderstood. He is neglected, a victim of abuse. A frail soul caught in the bondage of cruelty. After all, He’s just a boy….

©Grace Gift T. Chua

Double Standard: A Dilemma on RH Bills

The Reproductive Health Bills, popularly known as the RH Bills, are Philippine bills aiming to guarantee universal access to methods and information on birth control and maternal care. The bills have become the center of a contentious national debate. There are presently two bills with the same goals: House Bill No. 4244 or An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and For Other Purposes introduced by Albay 1st district Representative Edcel Lagman, and Senate Bill No. 2378 or An Act Providing For a National Policy on Reproductive Health and Population and Development introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. While there is general agreement about its provisions on maternal and child health, there is great debate on its key proposal that the Philippine government and the private sector will fund and undertake widespread distribution of family planning devices such as condoms, birth control pills (BCPs) and IUDs, as the government continues to disseminate information on their use through all health care centers. The bill is highly divisive, with experts, academics, religious institutions, and major political figures supporting and opposing it, often criticizing the government and each other in the process. Debates and rallies for and against the bill, with tens of thousands participating particularly those held by the opposition, have been happening all over the country.

One of the main concerns of the bill, according to the Explanatory Note, is that the population of the Philippines makes it “the 12th most populous nation in the world today”, that the Filipino women’s fertility rate is “at the upper bracket of 206 countries.” It states that studies and surveys “show that the Filipinos are responsive to having smaller-sized families through free choice of family planning methods.” It also refers to studies which “show that rapid population growth exacerbates poverty while poverty spawns rapid population growth.” And so it aims for improved quality of life through a “consistent and coherent national population policy.

The Church and the State

The majority of Filipinos are in favor of family planning. The Church teaches the necessity of responsible parenthood and correct family planning (one child at a time depending on one's circumstances), while at the same time teaching that large families are a sign of God's blessings. It teaches that modern natural family planning, a method of fertility awareness, is in accord with God's design, as couples give themselves to each other as they are. The RH bill intends to help couples to have government funded access to artificial contraception methods as well. Just recently, President Benigno Aquino III, who delivered his State of the Nation Address before the Congress, has implied support for responsible parenthood although not necessarily the RH bill. Such a statement however puts Aquino at odds with the Catholic Church, which has staunchly opposed passage of the RH bill. Church said proposals to make sex education and modern contraception options available are against its teachings. Opponents of the bill have also said the proposed RH bill will legalize abortion, which it does not.

Personal Stand

       Personally, I support the RH Bills of the main purpose if its implementation is for the betterment of our economy as well as to promote responsible parenthood. We can’t deny it, statistics shows that rapid population growth and high fertility rate, especially among the poor, exacerbates poverty – and with the poor prognosis of our country’s economy, what kind of future can we give to the next generation. If we can’t assure to provide a decent future for the unborn, then better prevent the conception. Preventing life rather than raising a wasted one is better. Preventing is not abortion; it is not murder nor considered a crime...

            Each one of us has a role to play, not just the government, not just the church, but all of us including ourselves as individual citizens. The government, although they have been recipients of countless criticisms about RH bills, we can’t solely blame them, probably because we leave them no choice but to mandatorily promote responsible parenthood. Long before the RH Bill was proposed, Family-planning program already exist in health centers and seminar about it is one of the requirements before legal marriage, but then again, what happened? Population still continues to rise. Are we even responsible to secure these children’s future, feed them well and send them to school, for a few maybe yes – for the lucky ones that were carefully planned but how about these children roaming in the streets, begging, involving in child labor and worst – some in up in prostitution and illegal jobs – They too deserve a good future. The Church keeps on opposing… Can they provide future for these children? Or better yet, Can Tradition provide future for these children? “Go and multiply” is one of their stands. Can it be at least “Go and multiply responsibly”? Come on church, if what you’re teaching to your people were internalized by heart, then we don’t need the RH Bill – there would be no PMS and parents would be responsible enough to raise a secured life of their children. Church, you need to do something, something productive rather than opposing for change, walk the talk and don’t just make your people become ritualistic, something that would result to change of behaviors – responsible parents that would raise responsible teenagers. If Sex Education should be taught at an early age, it should start primarily at home and it should be taught by parents grounded to Christian values, as Philippines claimed to be a Christian Nation. Should Sex Education be taught at school, emphasis on Abstinence should be promoted and encouraged. I still believe that sex is sacred – a submission of oneself to the individual whom you truly love and spend the rest of your life with, God designed it that way… not casual as commonly depicted by media. Any malicious disinformation may lead one to become promiscuous. That is why understanding should be carefully assessed.

            To the government, yes, I may be a Pro-RH Bills but that doesn’t mean I agree with all the terms enlisted in the bills. Its structure is quite vague and it doesn’t give a clear picture what the bill really intends to do. Say for example, the bill states that “abortion remains a crime and is punishable by law” yet on the later part, it also declares “the government shall ensure that all women needing care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner” Isn’t that tolerating abortion? Where is then the “punishable by law?” So which is really which? The latter is obviously a contradictory to the prior statement. The bill lacks appropriateness and prudence. Probably if they’ll revise it a little bit and make a consistent structure out of it, then maybe, it may become more acceptable to the society.

            Lastly to us citizens: parents, teenagers and socially aware individuals, let us be responsible for ourselves. We can’t keep blaming the government and other entities whenever something wrong happens, the government nor the church, is not responsible to look after us but rather to work hand in hand with us. We are the ones responsible for ourselves. Oftentimes we complain but for once, have we asked ourselves? Have we done our part? Again, if we did, then what the RH Bills is for, why do we see children roaming in the streets by irresponsible parents and why is there an increasing rate of teenage pregnancies, HiV positives and cases of abortions? When we go to church on Sundays, do we really learn from the sermon or we simply just hear and forget about it? Do we only go to church for the sake of tradition? Everything we heard from the church is necessary, otherwise they wouldn’t be preached. They are essentials so we shouldn’t take it for granted; we should learn it by heart and be reflected in our lifestyle. For the Filipino Families, gone are the days of the perennials. You’re now living in the new era, so stop thinking about that talking about sex at home is considered taboo. You need to do something, you need to be open-minded. The media is so rampant about liberated lifestyle and you need to keep up with it; you should be the primary source of sex education before your children get the wrong idea and be misinformed. It should be integrated with morality and Christian values so in the long run; they would be responsible teenagers and practice responsible parenthood like you do. Another thing, sex is the right of married couples, no one is against that but both couples should be responsible in engaging in such activity – plan birth spacing and the number of children you are capable to raise, in which you think you could secure a good future and provide sufficient needs and not just a baby-making factory of futureless children. To the teenagers, I’m sorry to say but reality is you’re becoming impulsive and immature – you dive in sexual acts without even thinking about the outcome and the consequences and later on you regret, but it’s too late already, you’ve thrown away the future you should’ve enjoyed in exchange for a moment of pleasure. My piece of advice: think and re-think for the best outcome and not a life of suffering…

            Until then, arguing can lead to nothing until each and every one, may it be the government, the church and us, the people - will stop talking and start doing something that could contribute to our progress as a nation. After all RH Bills are just RH Bills, like any other mandates. What matters is the responsibility and discipline of each and every one of us.

Still Not Ready For a Change

K-12

Since the origin of education in the Philippines, the basic span of the curriculum has always been 10 years compared to the global standard of 12.The K-12 Program, the flagship education program of the Aquino administration, has added 2 more senior years to the current education curriculum to improve the quality of Filipino high school students prior to entering college or the workforce. This will cover the official integration of kindergarten through the Republic Act No. 10157 entitled “An Act Institutionalizing the Kindergarten Education into the Basic Education System and Appropriating Funds Therefor”. The act indicates the curriculum to have six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school. This makes the Philippines the last country in Asia to adopt this system and the antepenultimate from Angola and Djibouti. A subject of intense debate long before its implementation, the reaction to the K-12 Program has been mixed. This June, the first batches of Grade 1 pupils and first-year high school students officially underwent the program.

            Looking through R.A. 10157, the revised curriculum has also good points for one to become globally competitive. Paraida Orangot, Assistant Principal at East City Central School, said “With [the] series of trainings that we conducted, we were able to come up with a good result with full optimism from the teachers and parents. They were able to accept the changes so there are minor complaints in our city [Cagayan de Oro]”.

            One of the features of the said curriculum is the implementation of the Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education [MTB-MLE] indicating that public schools will be using their mother-tongue language from Kindergarten up to Grade 3. DepEd has specified 12 languages including Tagalog, Maranao, and Cebuano – some agreed since the subjects could easily be understood by applying vernacular in the teaching methods. The K-12 education vision also states that graduates of this revised curriculum will acquire mastery of basic competencies; be more emotionally mature; be socially aware, pro-active, involve in public and civic affairs; be adequately prepared for the world of work or entrepreneurship or higher education; be legally employable with potential for better earnings; be globally competitive; and lastly, Every graduate of the Enhanced K-12 Basic Education program is an empowered individual who has learned, through a program that is rooted on sound educational principles and geared towards excellence, the foundations for learning throughout life, the competence to engage in work and be productive, the ability to coexist in fruitful harmony with local and global communities, the capability to engage in autonomous critical thinking, and the capacity to transform others and one’s self.

            Sounds too good to be true but no matter how convincing it may seem, it can never outweigh the criticism of the public – most especially from the burdened parents. Most popular complaints among the K-12 critics are the educational costs. Majority of the Filipino’s standard of living is average or below average and for some unfortunate, most are even below the poverty line. If some families, especially the large ones have difficulty sending their kids to school or some couldn’t even afford to let the kids finish elementary or pursue high school, how much more with the extended years of primary and secondary education? The would only make education more inaccessible and in return, will be producing more undereducated individual that will end up to mediocrity. If there are surplus of college graduates in which according to the survey turns out to be unemployed and underemployed, then tell me in what way the government will provide jobs  for the K-12 graduates whose number would certainly be greater than college graduates?

            Well I say that this is about politics – with the proposal of K-12 curriculum, comes with a sanguinity of loan approval from the World Bank for reasons that once it is implemented, more resources will be needed: Financial, Infrastructure and Manpower but how sure are we that the budget that comes with the proposal will really be allocated to what it is originally intended to. Even before K-12, the government couldn’t even resolve the problems we face with the 10-year education – the lack of classrooms, inefficient learning materials, teacher-student ratio disproportion and many more. They say it’s for the people but do the people really benefit from it or they just benefit for their selves. Would it be better if they would give attention first to these glitches before adding another crumple to already crumpled system?

               I have nothing against K-12 program. In fact I commend that the curriculum has a good structure for development but the question is, based on the current economic status of the Philippines, Are we even capable to push it through? Personally I’m not disregarding the program but I say to give this program a rest until such time that we Filipinos are ready and equipped enough to bring about this change. One of the rationales stated in the K-12 program is that “The poor quality of basic education is reflected in the low achievement scores of Filipino students”, then maybe, instead of prolonging the distress of already burdened parents, the government could just improve the quality of education by improving the curriculum instead of adding additional years, provide an environment more conducive for learning and make education accessible for every Filipino. I believe that Filipinos are great only with a good system. In fact, we are the most sought after race when it comes to manpower overseas.

            In the K-12’s transitional stage, opinions are bound to come up. Whether good or bad, the effects of the issues raised shall only be evident in the long run. Until then, we’ll cross our fingers and hope that K-12 Program will be an answer to many of our country’s problem answer.

Source:

“The K-12 Basic Education Program”,

Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines (http://www.gov.ph/)

Visabella, J.D. (2012). “Kamusta Naman Ka K-12”. The Crusader.

Vol. 39. No.1 July 2012. page 24.