With the K to 12 Enhanced Basic Education Act now a law, it’s time to focus on action. No more excuses. As the so-called centerpiece of President Aquino’s administration, K to 12 must now live up to its promise of reforming basic education from the ground up.
With due respect to the Commission on Elections, I find no legal and factual basis for the proclamation in installment of six senatorial candidates (Grace Poe, Loren Legarda, Alan Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, Nancy Binay and Sonny Angara) on May 16, and another three (Bam Aquino, Koko Pimentel and Sonny Trillanes) on the next day, May 17.
In an ideal world, how would the recent shooting by the Philippine Coast Guard of a Taiwanese fishing boat, which resulted in the killing of one of the fishermen, have been handled? I think that both Filipino and Taiwanese authorities might have immediately sought one another to express grave concern over the incident, and to offer cooperation to ascertain the facts. Both would have drawn assurance from the fact that, despite national differences, a legal order was in place and could be trusted to work.
The story is told of a boy who was admiring a very expensive car. “It is a gift from my brother,” the owner of the car said. “Don’t you wish you had an expensive car like this?” The boy answered: “I wish I had a brother like yours.”
The death of a loved one is almost the death of you. It’s been more than a month since we lost our sister, our precious Ate Katrina, who was only 29, to a viral disease that started out as dengue and ended in a complex heart condition that baffled even the doctors attending to her.
The adult posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD is now a well-accepted condition, which was first observed among Vietnam War veterans. Now I think there is another form of PTSD—the fetal posttraumatic stress disorder.
The correct phrase is “bite the bullet.” But perhaps to underline her point that rampant vote-buying during Philippine elections is a direct result of the poverty afflicting the populace, especially in the countryside, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting chair Henrietta de Villa employed a novel turn of phrase to describe the phenomenon: “Because of poverty, they are forced to buy the bullet.”
The catholic bishops of Bacolod and Lipa were shell-shocked by the election results. Earlier, they listed the candidates who supported the reproductive health bill under “Team Patay.” Through ads and sample ballots, they urged repudiation.
In SWS’ view, its survey work has, again, handily passed its self-imposed periodic test of accurately anticipating election results. Our report, “SWS/BW final preelection survey of May 2-3, 2013: 9 Team PNoy, 3 UNA in top 12; 7 Team PNoy, 2 UNA safe,” announced on May 8 (www.sws.org.ph), proved entirely correct, compared to the latest actual results, official or unofficial. It correctly preidentified all winners and losers.
An ego as big as all outdoors. And an unfamiliarity with the parameters of accuracy. Those are two reasons one can think of that would explain Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes’ pronouncements.
Cal’s birth was a most awaited event in both my family and that of my son-in-law. She is the first grandchild in the two families, and everyone was looking forward to her birth. After all, it took all of six years after her parents’ wedding for her to come to be.
The article of Asuncion David Maramba, “Spiritual but not religious” (Opinion, 4/26/13), set me to thinking about what I am.
