Mar’s appointment as ‘win-win’

At first blush the appointment of former Sen. Mar Roxas to the post of secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications would seem to be the perfect “win-win” solution.

When President Aquino first floated his desire to appoint Roxas to the post of chief of staff, it set off a flurry of speculations, foremost of which was how current Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa would react. Roxas and Ochoa are the leaders of two competing factions in the Aquino government. “Balay,” referring to the Araneta residence in Cubao, was the official headquarters of the Aquino campaign where the Liberal Party and mainline advisers, such as former Cabinet officials of former President Gloria Arroyo, held fort. Roxas was widely viewed as the informal head of the “Balay” faction, being the chair of the LP at the time P-Noy decided to run.

“Samar” is the street on which stands a borrowed house owned by Ochoa’s brother-in-law. The house became the informal headquarters of another faction of the Aquino campaign, mainly of lawyers operating a separate campaign unit and of non-LP groups involved in the campaign, such as the “volunteers.” Ochoa is seen as head of the “Samar” faction; in fact, during a dinner with media women, Ochoa declared that “I am the Samar group.”

With Roxas’ appointment to the DOTC, a looming clash within the bowels of Malacañang has been avoided. There had been quite legitimate concerns aired in the media about how the President proposed to divide the duties (and power) of an executive secretary and a chief of staff, without creating chaos, confusion and thus inaction.

The sudden and unexpected resignation of former Transportation Secretary Ping de Jesus, as admitted by the President himself, gave P-Noy a most convenient way out—giving Roxas a prominent role in his administration after the lapse of the one-year ban on government service for defeated candidates, keeping him on as a valued adviser, while giving him an important platform away from the intrigues of the “snake pit” that is Malacañang.

* * *

FOR SURE, Roxas has many things to recommend him for the DOTC. He is certainly experienced in government service, having served as a congressman, senator as well as a member of the Cabinet. His many years spent in international banking and finance before he entered politics also gives him a lot of credibility with the business community.

Roxas has also proven himself to be quite methodical, one of the few legislators I knew who set out to craft a legislative agenda with the help of friends from various sectors, instead of just winging it and going with the flow of public opinion and populism.

As transportation and communications chief, as P-Noy himself pointed out in yesterday’s announcement, Roxas has quite a lot on his plate, from negotiating contracts to expand transport facilities, keeping feuding business interests at bay, and protecting the public interest in matters like telecommunications policy. Let’s hope there’s more than just political convenience behind Roxas’ appointment, because the job he has set out to do requires skill, savvy and energy.

* * *

EVERY year, coverage of the first day of the school year follows a set menu: the lack of classrooms, parents’ complaints about “hidden” costs on enrollment, and teachers’ woes including demands for higher pay. This last is expected, since teachers’ groups always want to maximize the free publicity to further their agenda.

This year, I heard a new item on the news menu: the difficulties that schoolchildren faced as they tried to enroll in a public school after transferring from a private school.

It is indeed an indication of harsher economic times, with parents no longer able to afford the tuition charged by private institutions and choosing instead to place their children in public schools. On school opening day, there were reports of children being refused admission to public schools, mainly because they had no report cards to show, which made it difficult for school administrators to place them in the right grade or year level.

One reporter found out that the reason a student had no report card to show was that his old school refused to release it since his parents still had debts owed the school. An exasperated principal couldn’t hide her disgust with some parents, remarking that if they planned to enroll their children, they should have begun making preparations during the summer break. “They know when enrolment is, this is not a medical emergency!” she said.

* * *

WHILE still campaigning for the presidency, P-Noy proposed, as one of his solutions for the problems of the educational system, the expansion of the “voucher” system, with government shouldering the costs of private schooling for some students. He reasoned that instead of government building more and more classrooms and school buildings and hiring more teachers to meet the ever-growing demand, the State could very well save money simply by subsidizing the education of some students in private schools.

I haven’t heard much about this idea in the current coverage of the country’s school opening blues. I wonder if the President made it a priority with the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education, and if the bureaucratic kinks (how to choose the students and the schools, to what extent the subsidy will cover education costs) have been ironed out.

Still, opponents of the reproductive health bill should closely follow the school opening stories, for here is proof of how unchecked population growth poses a hindrance to development. It is not just a matter of giving a bigger slice of the pie to education. We need to make the pie bigger, or else try to bring down the number of claimants to a share of the pie, or both.