Noynoy as Clark Kent: Another look at the US trip

CALIFORNIA, United States—I’m all for separation of Church and State when it comes to the finer points of democracy. However, can you really ever separate the Church from the Filipino?

I wondered that recently as I waited for President Benigno Aquino III in Mission Dolores Church, the very church I attended as a boy growing up in San Francisco’s Mission District.

The Basilica, as the church is called, seemed much smaller than I remembered. As an 11-year-old, to me, the domed ceiling seemed huge. Now it seemed barely large enough to contain the egos of statewide community leaders, local elected officials, and the high spirits of a few hundred select Filipino Americans. They all wanted to do the most important thing you can do with the president of the Philippines: Pray.

Realistically, when you’re an overseas Filipino, besides sending back billions of dollars in remittances, what’s the next best thing that you can do for your bedraggled ancestral homeland and its new leader?

And when he comes into town, what do you really want to hear from him? Aquino can recite all the platitudes about rooting out corruption and cleaning up the Philippines to Filipino American benefactors. But in the end, nothing quite moves the credibility meter like seeing the leader genuflect at mass, stand for the gospel, and say amen. OK, it’s nothing as dramatic as seeing Imelda on her knees at St.Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, but you get the picture.

Seeing a president at mass at least assures us that if he really screws up, in the end, we do have the eternal recourse option.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going Jerry Falwell and Moral Majority on anyone. But the Filipino culture is deeply religious. We put it aside when it comes to considering policies and what’s right for a society. But we can come right up to the line. In the end, faith has to count for something.

When you’re thousands of miles away, barking at the headlines might work. But prayer may be just as effective.

So, of all the events on the West Coast, the only must attend event for me was the afternoon mass that Sunday for Noynoy, P-noy, whatever you’d like to call him.

Frankly, by now the whole nicknaming thing is getting to be a tad annoying. It’s like his handlers are trying to create a new processed cheese made of part-Cory, part-Ninoy, and part the other guy. Too bad Aquino is a Trois and not a Deux, then we could settle it all by calling him Jun.

It would fit with how handlers like to position him. On this trip, the message to Filipinos here was “Look, manong, I’m just an Average Joe.” That is to say , not a dictator, a general, a movie star, or a loud tiny gal in a red dress. (Although the red dress would have made a splash in San Francisco).

Aquino’s the kind that eats at In-N-Out, and stays at the Sofitel, not the Waldorf. Not exactly sleeping on a banig in a Motel 6. But here’s a regular kind of guy, the kind who comes to America and gets lost in a crowd of Filipinos at mass.

There’s some good to be had with that approach. The problem is the Philippines’ troubles require the talent, strength, and vision of a super-human to fix. A regular guy could be overmatched. Just as a current documentary suggests that US public schools need Superman, the Philippines is no different.

The RP doesn’t need mild-mannered Clark Kent. So maybe we’re just waiting for Noynoy to find a telephone booth?

In the age of cell phones, it may take longer.

It’s just the first hundred days. Let us pray.

Release of hostage report put off again

President Benigno Aquino III was supposed to release on Wednesday the report of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC), along with the review by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Eduardo de Mesa.

But Malacañang said the President had decided to put off the issuance of the IIRC report until after his report on Thursday of his accomplishments in his first 100 days in office. No new date was mentioned.

The President is expected to deliver a speech on Thursday about the “significant” accomplishments of his 100-day-old administration in a “town hall” gathering at La Consolacion College near Malacañang.

After the speech, dubbed “Isang Daang Araw Sa Isang Daang Matuwid: Report Kay Boss” (100 Days in One Straight Road: Report to the Boss), Mr. Aquino will entertain questions from the audience, the Palace said.

A day after giving him high marks for his first 100 days, Sen. Joker Arroyo Wednesday criticized Mr. Aquino for vacillating in releasing the recommendations of the five-member IIRC headed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

“That is indecision. Further delay is not good,” Arroyo said.

The President has not only dilly-dallied, but he also has yet to give the Senate a full version of the IIRC report, which the Chinese had obtained two weeks ago, Arroyo said.

Eight Hong Kong tourists were killed during the 11-hour standoff at Rizal Park that sparked outrage in China and its southern territory last month. The hostage-taker, dismissed Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza who was seeking dismissal of extortion and robbery charges against him, also was gunned down.

Let IIRC do job

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile Wednesday suggested that to avoid further delay, Mr. Aquino should return the IIRC report to De Lima and let the Department of Justice decide who should be charged for the embarrassing incident.

“I don’t want to say this, but if I were in the place of the President, I will refer the recommendation to the secretary of justice and tell her to proceed as you recommended and who will not be prosecuted because the function of prosecution belongs to the secretary of justice, not Malacañang,” Enrile said.

He said the IIRC report should be read by the President simply as “a source of information” and not a prelude to a conviction of individuals.

“I created you, you investigate, you do your job, prosecute everybody. After all, you are not condemning them, they’re going to be in defense, they have the courts to prove their innocence and represent themselves. You’re not pronouncing them guilty,” Enrile said.

He said the President could be taking long in reviewing the report because the IIRC could have rushed its fact-finding job.

Asked by Palace reporters when he would release the IIRC report, the President simply texted back “after” without specifying when that would be.

“We’re busy preparing for the first 100 days report,” Mr. Aquino further explained in another text message.

‘What we’re trying to do’

Mr. Aquino has said he had adopted most of the IIRC recommendations and had confirmed to the Inquirer that close friends Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno would be among 13 people to be held administratively or criminally accountable.

“We just want to focus on the first 100 days report and then move on to the report on the IIRC recommendations,” spokesperson Ricky Carandang said in a phone interview without elaborating.

Mr. Aquino on Tuesday night said that his report on his first 100 days would not run more than 10 pages. “So we want to take only the most significant and demonstrative of what we are trying to do.”

In a Palace statement, Mr. Aquino said his report would include improvements on the country’s growth, job creation and “look at what has happened so far.”

Aquino to teachers: You give time, sweat, even your lives

ONLY ONE classroom was built last year at Taal High School in Bocaue, Bulacan, where up to 75 students have to squeeze into a room in each of two shifts.

Despite the shortage of classrooms in her school, Principal Teresita de Martin gained new hope upon hearing President Benigno Aquino III’s promise of more investments in education in marking World Teachers’ Day yesterday.

“We are so thankful for that, especially when it materializes. And we are so hopeful that it can be done for the sake of our students,” De Martin told the Inquirer on the sidelines of the Teachers’ Day celebration at PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

“Government gives us support but not immediately, maybe because there are also so many schools,” she said.

At PhilSports Arena, the President vowed substantial spending for the training of teachers and construction of classrooms.

“You give your time, sweat and, at times, even your blood and lives, in performing your duties as a sign that you love your job and as a partner in promoting our objective of genuine change,” Mr. Aquino said before some 5,000 teachers.

He said his administration inherited many problems in the education sector but added that he would address these issues.

“Foremost in our government’s program is the improvement in the quality of education in the country,” he said.

Mr. Aquino noted that his proposed national budget for 2011 contained substantial allocations for the training of teachers, the construction of classrooms and the adoption of other education programs.

Access to private schools

He said the Department of Education (DepEd) had identified areas that need more classrooms.

The President also said that the government would improve access to private schools through the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education.

The program gives financial assistance to poor students so they can study in private schools and decongest public schools.

Recalling his campaign promise of eradicating corruption, Mr. Aquino said there would be no need for teachers to make more sacrifices if the funds meant for education were not diverted to selfish interests.

Lack of focus

Rep. Antonio Tinio of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers found Mr. Aquino’s remarks wanting.

“President Aquino did not say much in his speech. What teachers were waiting for were remarks about their salaries, their problems at the GSIS (Government Service Insurance System), which he knows about,” Tinio said.

He said the President failed to establish his administration’s focus on education. The DepEd-proposed P207-billion budget, for instance, falls short in addressing critical shortages in the education system, according to the party-list lawmaker.

“We did not see that he was giving priority to education needs. Only a fraction of [the needs] would be funded by the 2011 budget. You also won’t see, at that rate, how [they will] address the resource shortages within the term of administration,” said Tinio.

Street protest

Amid heavy security, about 30 student activists staged a protest near PhilSports and called for a higher education budget and the scrapping of government’s plan to add two years to the 10-year basic education.

Tempers momentarily flared when members of the League of Filipino Students marched near the arena an hour after the President had left.

The protesters, among them students in uniform, were slowly pushed back by a thick wall of police dispersal officers by noon.

“Just stay in school so you’d finish,” a police officer said in jest.

Among the lowest-paid

In the Senate, two lawmakers batted for higher pay for teachers, among the lowest-paid in the region.

“Despite the enormity of their tasks, the hard reality is that our Filipino teachers are heavily underpaid, compared with their counterparts in neighboring countries, and, even among our own public servants,” Sen. Loren Legarda said in a privilege speech.

A Filipino teacher has a starting salary of P14,000, including allowances, compared with an entry-level teacher in Singapore (SGD$2,600 or P122,400), in Japan (JY156,500 or P77,889) and in Malaysia (RM1,300 or P17,806), according to Legarda.

Grade 20

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, in a statement, batted for a doubling of the paychecks of public school teachers for elementary and high school from salary Grade 10 to salary Grade 20. This would increase their basic pay from P8,600 a month to P29,052.

Trillanes proposed that any salary adjustments should be based on the teacher’s qualification and length of service.

Legarda said teachers also deserved an increase in nonwage benefits and continual training so that they can fulfill their duty as the “surrogate parents” of the youth.

She considered the P862 million allocated by the DepEd for teacher-training programs as miniscule compared with the agency’s proposed P207-billion budget in 2011.

Problems with GSIS

Aside from low pay, Legarda said public school teachers were being unduly burdened by the GSIS’ refusal to honor the P6 billion in payments they made in their individual accounts, an issue which has delayed their ability to avail themselves of their benefits.

She said the teachers complained about unexplained deductions in the maturity claims or retirement lump sum of members; unexplained deductions in their salary loans; nonpayment of dividends to members; nondeduction of loan payments; deductions of loan payments even if the loan had been paid; and nonpayment of funeral benefits and education plans.

Election honoraria

If he had his way, Commission on Elections Chair Jose Melo would grant teachers better pay when they performed election duties.

Melo said he particularly supported increasing the honoraria for those serving as members of the Board of Election Tellers (BETs) in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Oct. 25.

“That seems reasonable to me. I hoped it would have been like what happened during the May 10 (elections),” Melo said in an interview with reporters.

However, the Comelec chief said the election body could not unilaterally increase the honoraria for teachers because it was the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that set the allocation for them.

“What was proposed by DBM is not enough. It’s just P1,000 (per day),” Melo said, adding that they would ask DBM to increase the teacher’s pay.

Melo made his comments after the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition appealed to the Comelec to increase the honoraria from the current P2,000 for two days of election work.