PEOPLE POWWOW: PROFESSIONALIZING TECH VOC

Professionalizing ‘tech-voc’

BY HERBERT VEGO

Thursday, March 16, 2017

ARRIVING from a two-week stay in Sydney, Australia, Regional Director Toni June Tamayo of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) talked to this writer about the importance that the Australian government attributes to technical-vocational education.

“Tech-voc graduates there command respectability,” he said, “because of the expertise they possess after studying in a TAFE institution.”

TAFE stands for Technical and Further Education. It’s an Australian government-run system that provides college-level education after high school in vocational areas. It focuses on specific skills – say, welding or carpentry — for a particular workplace. Entry into this system usually requires students to have finished at least grade 10. 

Incidentally, auto mechanics in Australia now earn the equivalent of P225,000 a month.

Tamayo added that the high demand for tech-voc skills locally may yet lead to conversion of TESDA into a department. A bill now being hatched by Rep. Raul “Boboy” Tupas calls for the creation of the Department of Technical-Vocational Education.  Hat’s off to Boboy for that. When departmentalized, TESDA’s present budget of P6.9 billion could probably double or triple.

This writer, in fact, has been saying that instead of the K-12 program or “compulsory kindergarten to grade 12,” the government should have defrayed more funds for TESDA to solve the problem on dearth of technical vocational workers. The job market does not look for college graduates who have spent more years in high school; it looks for skilled workers regardless of the number of years they have spent in school.

Therefore, the claim of the previous administration’s Education’s Secretary Armin Luistro that “we have been left behind” by other countries which require six years of high school as against our four is misleading. On the contrary, we have “brain drain” here because our professionals and skilled workers go abroad.

More years in school means more expenses, hence aggravating the dearth of college graduates. To reiterate the latest statistics, out of every 100 students who enroll in the elementary school, only 33 enroll in college. And of these 33, only 14 finally graduate.

To mitigate this problem, some private high schools have partnered with TESDA as venues for short-term technical vocational courses (two years or even less) that would attract poor students desirous of entering the job market.

The Lyceum of Alabang in Muntinglupa City, for example, offers two-year courses in Information Technology, Electronics, Bookkeeping and Tourism, among others. There are even three-month crash courses in Bartending, Cookery, Housekeeping, Food/Beverage Services, Baking and Computer Hardware Servicing.

The popularity of short courses truly mirrors the longing of poor parents to enable their children to live a more comfortable life sooner than later; and of children themselves to relieve their parents of financial burden.

It’s about time for TESDA to “graduate” into a department, having gone a long way since its inception as the National Manpower and Youth Council (NMYC) under the Department of Labor and Employment in 1970.

In 1994, the NMYC turned into TESDA with the signing of Republic Act RA 7796 by President Fidel Ramos. Thus began a new educational division aimed at harnessing the technical-vocational skills of the Filipino youth.

 TESDA aims to eradicate the labor-supply mismatch that involves students who complete college but don’t find jobs appropriate for their educational attainment because they do not have the required skills.

In 23 years, TESDA has reduced that mismatch. It has identified the employment-generating tech-voc courses as those related to construction, tourism, electronics, logistics and agriculture.  As of latest survey under the leadership of Director General Guiling Mamondiong, 68 percent of TESDA national certificate holders get employed whether here or abroad./PN

PEOPLE POWWOW: Is Treñas really quitting politics?

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

THIS WRITER had thought of opinionating on information aired by businessman Rommel Ynion concerning Rep. Jerry Treñas’ “death threat” against Councilor Plaridel Nava. The alleged source of the yarn (suspected drug lord Melvin Odicta) having died, however, it would go down as mere hearsay. Moreover, clashing opinions have already muddled the issue in the social media.

This corner would rather discuss it from an apolitical standpoint. Whether true or false, it would do no harm to Treñas because, after “graduation” from the House of Representatives in 2019, he would not seek another public office.

Skeptics, however, anchor their disbelief on no less than the congressman’s re-filed bill aimed at dividing Iloilo City into two legislative districts. With two districts, his allies – Mayor Jed Mabilog and Vice Mayor Jose Espinosa III – could both run for congressmen without clashing against each other, while he himself could run for mayor.

Otherwise, with only one district, he would have to give way to “bilas” Espinosa for mayor, thus preserving their strong triumvirate.

Treñas’ House Bill 1219 proposes the division of the city into two legislative districts, one comprising Jaro, La Paz and Mandurriao; the other comprising Villa Arevalo, City Proper, Molo and Lapuz. With two districts, the city would enjoy additional infrastructure allocations.

The bill argues that redistricting complies with all the parameters set forth by Section 5(3), Article VI of the 1987 Constitution, which requires a city to have a minimum population of 250,000 to have a representative. It does not have to increase its population by another 250,000 to be entitled to an additional district.

In fact, the Supreme Court has resolved the issue with regard to two Metro Manila cities. Makati had a population of around 450,000 when it was divided into two congressional districts; Marikina, 424,000.

Since Treñas’ bill has already gained a counterpart in the Senate, authored by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, it’s a cinch it would turn into law.

Anticipating that possibility, would that restore the political appetite of Treñas?

With due respect to doubting Thomases, I don’t think so. Having been a councilor, mayor and congressman in the past two decades, Treñas at 60 would no doubt prefer to return to private life without worrying about his family’s future.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens,” he quoted the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1) on the day he announced his decision to quit politics and allow younger aspirants to take over.

“I want to enjoy the time left with my loved ones,” he added. “Time cannot be bought.”

Even the congressman’s wife, businesswoman Rosalie Sarabia-Treñas, has slowed down in order to hand over to their children the responsibility of taking care of the family business so that they, too, would rest on their laurels in old age.

Family business refers to the RJT Group of Companies.  RJT – which stands for “Rosalie & Jerry Treñas” – comprises Carlo’s Bakeshop, Ang Kamalig and Wild Bamboo restaurants. It is not surprising that today, all five children of the couple play specific roles in running the three establishments. They all have earned diplomas in various food-related courses ranging from Hotel and Restaurant Management to Culinary Arts and Pastry and Confectionery.

Put up by Mrs. Treñas 30 years ago, Carlo’s has morphed into one of the biggest local bakeries with 11 branches in Iloilo City, Capiz and Antique. Daughter Raisa is now its chief executive officer; son Carlo, director for store operations; and son Paolo, head of marketing and business development.

Strange as it seems, none of the Treñas siblings are interested in politics./PN

Panay News | PEOPLE POWWOW Boracay goes ‘green’ again

THE OTHER night, a TV newscast played a video clip of the beach of Boracay in its greenest “splendor”. The white sand thereat had disappeared, covered anew by a carpet of moss splashing ashore. The newscaster sounded fair when he echoed the assurance of the islanders that it was just a “temporary” aberration characterizing the onset of summer.

But the news was not really news; I had reported it in this corner three years ago while on a three-day vacation in Boracay. Suspicious that it was aggravated by worsening pollution emanating from nearby septic tanks and poor drainage, I begged of the municipal government of Malay, Aklan to solve the pollution problem. It was around 9 a.m. one morning when photojournalist Ric Octavio and I tried to see the then mayor, John Tan, but in vain; the security guards said he was still asleep in his room at Casa Pilar.

Until now, the hoteliers, restaurateurs and shop owners leave it to their staff to rake up the accumulated “green carpet” every morning. But the moss always tends to add up with every wave breaking over the beach.

It is alarming that three years have passed with no solution to the problem emerging. Moss is not “natural” in a tourist haven that is supposed to attract swimmers. Because it is not in its normal habitat, moss on the beach is clearly a pollutant, even on the assumption that it’s not toxic by itself.

Moss is a fibrous plant that normally grows on damp stone and wood, or even on a shipwreck under the sea. No matter how infrequent it appears, it is never a welcome site on a tourist “paradise”; it could discourage first-time tourists from coming back.

Of course, objectors may shrug off the warning by citing statistics. It is no secret that Boracay is the biggest contributor to the income of the province of Aklan, what with an unprecedented 1.7 million foreign and local tourists recorded in the entire year 2016.

If I heard it right from Regional Director Helen Catalbas of the Department of Tourism, thousands of international tourists on three cruise ships are coming to Boracay between now and the end of this month.

Do we have to wait for reversal of tourist volume to act decisively?

Let this be another wake-up call to local authorities. Either they act now and prevent further degradation of the island, or lose the tourists who lay the golden eggs.

If truth be told, the island no longer projects the ambiance of a natural hideaway. High-rise and air-conditioned hotels like those in Metro Manila now line the beachfront, replacing the bamboo-and-nipa cottages. Were it not for the surrounding white-sand beach, the place could be a mistaken for any other Philippine city where no one could escape air pollution belched by tricycles running on narrow roads that betray poor infrastructure planning.

The shopping area known as The Mall reminds us of the crowded shops in space-starved Divisoria and Baclaran markets in Metro Manila. The narrow roads, barely able to accommodate vehicles coming from opposite directions, betray the place’s lack of development planning.

Boracay is no longer what it used to be when Panay News founder Danny Fajardo and I first visited the island in 1982. There was not yet a single concrete building lining the beach front.  Spaced far between were a score of bamboo-and-nipa huts and carinderias. We rented a two-bedroom hut for an overnight stay at twenty-five pesos only.

Change has indeed come to Boracay.  But as to whether it’s an environment-friendly change, your guess is as good as mine./PN

Uncertain post-Duterte scenario

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

TWO unpalatable facts haunt President Rodrigo Duterte: disease and old age. By his own admission, he suffers from the spine-degenerative Buerger’s disease which he caught from years of cigarette smoking; and which, according to Dr. Irene Vergara of the University of Santo Tomas Hospital, forced him to quit smoking. It causes arterial swelling and blood clots, thus restricting normal blood circulation.

To free himself from pain, he takes Fentanyl, a regulated, stronger-than-morphine opioid.

Is Buerger’s the reason why he has repeatedly “joked” about dying? A case in point was when he told an audience of Filipinos in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Dec. 13, 2016, “This is my last hurrah. I am not sure if I will still be around by the end of my term.”

Based on the latest finding of the World Health Organization, the average person residing in the Philippines has a lifespan of 68.5 years.  Duterte is older at 71 going on 72 come March 28.

The President’s health and age, no doubt, are primordial reasons why both his political allies and adversaries worry over their own future.  Although the issue on presidential succession is well defined in the Constitution, “spare tire” Vice President Leni Robredo faces the possibility of being booted out because of the “electoral fraud” protest lodged against her by contender Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

We therefore don’t see the “vice” stepping up over and above the diverse pro-Duterte political forces who would scramble for power among themselves in case Duterte fades away amid a supposed destabilization plot which Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez attributes to “allies of former President Aquino.”

But how could the opposition Liberal Party (LP) seize power when most of its members have already jumped over the administration bandwagon? It could only do so in convergence with disgruntled elements within the Duterte circle, including sympathizers of incarcerated Sen. Leila de Lima and dismissed National Irrigation Authority administrator Peter Laviña.

The “courage” of Sen. Antonio Trillanes, steadfast in accusing Duterte of stashing away P2.4 billion in hidden bank accounts, implies undisclosed strong connections – say, with his “mistahs” at the Philippine Military Academy who now occupies high positions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Then, too, the confession of a retired police officer, SPO3 Arthur Lascañas on his involvement in the Davao Death Squad (DDS) killings when Duterte was still mayor of Davao City – in effect reversing his denial before a Senate inquiry – bolsters the earlier testimony of another self-implicating cop, Edgardo Matobato.   

It’s a paradox that the two have found “safety” in holding Duterte liable for ordering them to eliminate suspected drug pushers and critical broadcaster Jun Porras Pala; and for having also named the other cops in the alleged operation.  Why would they risk their lives if they were not telling the truth?

The Matobato-Lascañas exposés are among the fodders that two prestigious human rights organizations – Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – have used in urging the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to investigate the “human rights calamity in the Philippines.”

A defiant Duterte talked back last Thursday, “When you kill criminals, it is not a crime against humanity. The criminals have no humanity.”

Rather than cultivate “killings fields”, shouldn’t the President have sought the intervention of his Chinese friend and counterpart, President Xi Jin Ping? As admitted by spokesman Derrick Carreon of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, “The majority of the meth we have come from China.” 

Remember, China is the ally Duterte has embraced at the expense of the United States.

But then, let Digong Duterte be reminded that the Americans had played a part in the unexpected downfall of used-to-be popular President Ferdinand Marcos./PN

Will the truth set DepEd officials free?

Panay News Editorial

Dated: Sept. 13, 2014

Will the truth set DepEd officials free?

THE Department of Education’s Iloilo division superintendent, Dr. Myrna Castillo, has spoken in a press conference, “My conscience is clear.”

She was clearing herself of any anomaly committed by her office’s direct involvement in the Little League Softball World Series, where high school and elementary school girls from Zarraga, Iloilo competed in the major league softball in Portland, Oregon (August 7-13, 2014) and junior league in Kirkland, Washington (August 10-16), respectively.

Well, whether her conscience is good enough to “clear” her is one thing. Whether the investigating bodies — the DepEd regional office and the Sangguniang Panglunsod — agree with her is another matter.

Let us take her word at face value: Despite the help of Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr., she and other delegation officials had not raised enough millions of pesos demanded by their USA trip, and so they had to pick their own pockets.

If they are that rich, we hope they would not be liable for unexplained wealth punishable under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. No doubt any ordinary DepEd employee would not waste more or less $2,000 for a round-trip fare.

Let us also take Dr. Castillo’s word at face value: Only her son Nonie Mark, not her daughter Marian Grace, went with her as “comforting coach.” Has Marky, a college student, ever played a game of softball?

We now agree that Marian Grace Castillo–Suiza was not able to join the trip for whatever reason, but we don’t agree that she had no participation in soliciting funds. The letterhead of their solicitation letter listed her as “finance officer.”

She must have given way to Ruby Theresa Palmaira, a DepEd supervisor detailed in the division office who made it to Kirkland, Washington as “assistant team manager.”

A school principal (name withheld upon request) said Ruby had worked hard in reminding 180 school principals and 52 district supervisors to send in their donations. It remains to be proven, however, whether each of them was really forced to cough up public funds ranging from P5,000 to P20,000, unless they eventually “sing” at the risk of being implicated.

In the list of donors that Castillo gave to the media, no name of supplier or contractor appeared. But these suppliers and contractors were the biggest “pressured” donors.

In fairness to the division superintendent, she is not the only “nepotistic” official in the junior league delegation. Lina Dordas, principal of Zarraga National High School, had her daughter, Arvek Clydel Dordas, listed as player in the junior league.

As regards the claim of team manager Antonio Oquindo that the Iloilo team had defaulted only one game in Oregon, the Little League website shows that they had defaulted two — against Northern California on Aug. 7 and against New Jersey on Aug. 8. They lost all of their games against Canada, Louisiana and the Czech Republic. True, they placed 5th in the pool of five teams in pool B. Therefore, after losing to the 5th placer of pool A (Czech Republic), our team was as good as 10th placer.

Demoralization could have devastated our “coach-less” team in Portland, Oregon. Believe it or not, the “comforting coach” was no real coach. If it was any consolation, our team in Kirkland, Washington won one game. As to why Castillo did not even announce what team they had defeated, we don’t know why.

We agree with Novie Guazo and Regan Arlos of RMN Radio: the delegation officials were primarily motivated by their quest for a US visa, not for a medal for the 24 Ilongga players. Jun-Jun Sornito of Aksyon Radyo, on the other hand, echoed the ruling of the Civil Service Commission that public funds could not be used for private activities.

Bombo Radyo and Super Radyo likewise questioned her “fund-raising.”

The Commission on Audit was right in disapproving the Division Office’s request for a million-peso donation to be sourced from the school board fund. As we have noted in a past editorial, the Little League World Series is a private US-based sports organization with no formal DepEd linkage. It should have coordinated with the Philippine Sports Commission.

Incidentally, sports are no longer within the domain of DepEd, which used to be known as Department of Education, Culture and Sports, or DECS. DepEd has bigger problems to attend to, such as dilapidated and unrepaired schools.

PEOPLE POWWOW: A misleading indicator of productivity

As Published in Panay News

Dated: Sept. 12, 2014

PEOPLE POWWOW: A misleading indicator of productivity

By HERBERT VEGO

EACH time President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III paints a glowing picture of the country’s “prosperity” because of tuwid na daan, the poor can only shake their heads, wondering whether he is referring to New Zealand.

Well, how can we argue against the Philippines’ 7.8 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth? GDP refers to the annual domestic output of a country, including exports. The climbing percentage is therefore measured against the previous year’s output, hence not indicative of the general population’s economic productivity.

In fact, nine of the top 10 GDP performers in the latest list of the Economic Intelligence Unity of the United States are “poor nations” by world standard.

As published in a recent issue of the Washington Post, here are the 10 countries that are expected to have the most economic growth in 2014, ranked from first to last by percentage of GDP growth:

(1) Mongolia, 15.3 percent;

(2) Sierra Leone, 11.2 percent;

(3) Turkmenistan, 9.2 percent;

(4-5) Two-way tie: Bhutan, 8.8 percent; Libya, 8.8 percent;

(6-8) Three-way tie: Iraq, 8.5 percent; Laos, 8.5 percent; Timor-Leste, 8.5 percent;

(9) Eritrea, 8.0 percent;

(10) Zambia, 7.9 percent

You will note that all of these countries, with the exception of Libya, are very poor. In most of them, economic growth is driven by oil or any other natural resources. Many of the booms come from the sale of those natural resources to developing countries.

A very poor country growing rich because of a single natural resource is nothing new, to cite Saudi Arabia as the best example, which has been transformed by a half-century of selling oil to Western countries.

Top-ranked Mongolia has been the world’s fastest-growing economy since 2012, resulting from the massive sale of its mineral resources to China. The country’s families that have been nomadic for centuries have now homes of their own.

But on the local front, as far Juan dela Cruz who does not feel the trickles of prosperity is concerned, the President’s glowing boast sounds Greek.

We have heard enough of broken promises from PNoy.  We have seen enough of graft and corruption, but not a stretch of tuwid na daan.

I wonder how many of us remember the words he said when he ran for President against his cousin Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro in 2010. He said, “This will be a fight of good versus evil.”

The allusion to “evil” was in the sense that Teodoro was the candidate of the then outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Gibo, were he not a gentleman, could have reminded PNoy that the battle between good and evil only refers to the battle between God and Satan.

Has PNoy vanquished Satan in four years of his administration?

Considering the current population of the country which is a hundred million people occupying an archipelago of 115,830 square miles, the fact is that with more mouths to feed than we can afford, our average per-person income or gross national product (GNP) – that is, value of all goods produced annually divided by number of people – is only around US $1,000 or P44,000 per year or P3,666 per month. Oh no!

Worse, since 90 percent of the country’s wealth is in the hands of only 10 percent of the population, the poorest of the poor cannot eat three square meals a day.

Compare our GNP to that of Denmark, a smaller nation with a population of only seven million people, and you will gasp in awe. Denmark has a towering GNP of US $27,000. That’s 27 times of our own!/PN

PEOPLE POWWOW: Raul Gonzalez Sr. was also a journalist

As Published in Panay News

September 10, 2014

PEOPLE POWWOW: Raul Gonzalez Sr. was also a journalist

By HERBERT VEGO

IN the wake of the death of former Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. Sunday night, we heard Ilonggos from all walks of life reminiscing the “good old days” with him. Even his political allies-turned-enemies could only count the ways – as private citizen, congressman and Justice secretary – the old man had helped them.

I was no longer close to the man when he ascended the political ladder. But I would like to share with you readers how we had crossed path in the past because of our common passion for journalism. I am sure most Filipinos do not yet know that, aside from being lawyer, politician and Cabinet official, Gonzalez used to be an active newspaper columnist.

The first time I saw his byline was sometime in the early 1970s when he was writing a column for the now defunct “We-Forum”, at that time a hot weekly critical of martial law and President Ferdinand Marcos. Being also a Manila-based journalist, I knew then the bigger risk he had undergone when he stood as lawyer to then Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. who was facing subversion charges before the Marcos-controlled military tribunal.

The first time I saw Raul Gonzalez Sr., he was at the check-in counter of the Manila domestic airport. I sidled up to him and introduced myself as a fellow journalist.

“I’m going home to Iloilo City to deliver a speech before a civic organization,” he said while giving me his calling card.

It would take many more years before I saw him again. I contented myself reading his columns and reading about him.

It came as no surprise when the next President – Ninoy’s widow, Cory Cojuangco Aquino – handpicked him as the tanodbayan in her revolutionary government in 1986. The said new position was the equivalent of today’s ombudsman.

Sometime in 1992 or 1993 while I was holding office as editor of the weekly Visayan Tribune at the Iloilo-YMCA Building, a surprise visitor came in. He was Raul Gonzalez Sr. who had gone back to private life.

He offered an idea I could not refuse. He would write a column for the paper for free.

From then on, he paid me a weekly visit to submit his typewritten column.

More often than not, he was tackling local, rather than national issues, in his columns. He would often criticize the congressman at that time, Rafael Lopez-Vito.

One afternoon, he asked me to list down the names of all the 180 barangay captains in Iloilo City. This done, he issued a check for a year’s subscription of each of them to our weekly newspaper.

Later, he also wrote columns for Panay News, which was still a weekly.

Of course, most of the barangay leaders at that time were identified with the incumbent congressman. But Gonzalez saw this not as a handicap but as a challenge to hurdle.

As president of the Iloilo Press Club at that time, I proposed that he sponsor a bowling tournament to be participated in by the print, broadcast and TV media. That should endear him to the most important people who would boost his image as upcoming public servant.

He agreed to sponsor. In fact, he personally attended our bowling tournament at Saint Elizabeth Center. He footed all the bills and left cash prizes for individual and group winners.

That single act of camaraderie endeared him to the Iloilo media. The news that he would run for congressman against Lopez-Vito in 1995 had gone “viral” in the tri-media.

The late Rodolfo Legaspi, an incumbent provincial board member at that time, predicted that Gonzalez would win.

“If Raul becomes congressman,” he told this writer, “he would be flooded with invitations he couldn’t accept. Now that he is not yet a candidate, please relay my invitation to him to visit Marina Beach Resort.”

Marina, owned by Legaspi, was then a popular tourist resort in Miag-ao town.

When I told Gonzalez that the invitation had come from the owner of Marina, he snapped, “Okay, I will be there on Sunday. I have to find out if the resort would be an ideal place to gather together my political leaders and followers.”

To cut the long story short, he ran for congressman and unseated Lopez-Vito in 1995, in effect sealing his colorful political future.

From then on, he ceased to be a journalist in order to be a newsmaker.

Happy trip to the more wonderful world, Sir!/PN