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The
headline of one of the major dailies which has a
penchant for finding faults in the government screamed
about a supposed rice scam.
According to this newspaper, the irregularities were
discovered in last year’s P218.7-million rice-related
expenditures incurred by the Department of Agriculture
(DA) on hybrid rice, certified seeds, farm inputs and
fertilizers for farmers as quoted from the Commission on
Audit (COA). If this story is true, I think Secretary
Arthur Yap must investigate posthaste since no less than
the COA is being quoted as the source of the
information. But I must hasten to add that assuming, for
the sake of argument, that there were fake signatures of
farmers on the list of beneficiaries, the reckoning must
directly fall on the shoulders of the DA and the people
implementing the program; the alleged anomalies should
not be blamed on the President herself. In this
particular case, I think the buck should stop at the
desk of Secretary Art Yap. I am confident, however, that
Secretary Yap has no involvement in this alleged anomaly
and the investigation should center on the lower-level
staff that was tasked to implement the program.
****
The
Court of Appeals (CA) has dismissed Mr. Jun Lozada’s
petition regarding his claim that he was kidnapped. Now
that no less than the second-highest court in the land
has struck down Lozada’s wild imagination, I hope his
benefactors, including the brothers in La Salle and the
sisters who were singing all praises for him, will now
realize they were trying to protect a person who does
not deserve any protection at all. The CA decision
completely repudiated all of Lozada’s claims of being
harassed.
“With
noonday clarity, this court [CA] finds that the reason
why Rodolfo [Lozada Jr.] was fetched at the airport was
to help him avoid the Senate contingent who would arrest
and detain him at the Office of the Senate
Sergeant-at-arms. . . .” the CA decision said in part.
Kawawa
naman si
Lozada. He has obviously been demoted from hero to heel.
By the way, what happened to all those funds collected
by the madre for Mr. Lozada?
****
I am
glad that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has also
decided to investigate the reported recruitment by the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front of child soldiers. It is
about time Chairman Leila de Lima and her commissioners
investigate the enemies of the state because, in the
past, the CHR has always shown keen partiality in
investigating the government—policemen and soldiers.
Now, it appears that the CHR is awakening to the fact
that while it must be vigilant in denouncing perceived
rights violations by policemen and soldiers, the abuses
of the enemies of the state must not go unpunished.
****
There is
a bill pending in Congress that requires English as the
only medium of instruction from Grades three up to
college. On the other hand, the Department of Education
(DepEd) takes the position that the medium of
instructions in Grades one and two should be the local
dialect. I agree with the DepEd’s position. I understand
that during the time of then-Education Secretary Andrew
Gonzales, surveys were made about the perceptiveness of
Grades one and two pupils and of the advisability of the
outright use of English for these levels. The survey
results showed that the use of English made it difficult
for pupils in these levels to assimilate the lessons. As
such, many dropped out because they found it difficult
to understand their English lessons.
The same
surveys conducted also showed that pupils found it
easier to understand their subjects when the local
dialect was used as the medium of instructions from
Grades one to three. Perhaps both the House and the
Senate should have further hearings on this bill.
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