THERE is no doubt that the administration of former president Noynoy Aquino is probably the worst disaster that hit these islands.
It started with the Luneta Hostage Crisis resulting in the deaths of nine tourists, segued into the Mamasapano Massacre where 44 Special Action Force troopers were sent by then President Noynoy Aquino to be ambushed and massacred by the Moro Islamic Liberation Forces or MILF, then along the way the national treasury was ravaged by the illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program or DAP. And we have the Death by Dengvaxia. Upon the order of Aquino the Department of Health vaccinated 800,000 schoolchildren with the experimental drug Dengvaxia, resulting into 71 dead and counting schoolchildren.
These are the major fiascos of that nincompoop Noynoy Aquino’s presidency. There’s more. Some are left largely unnoticed by the natives until it hit them right smack in their faces.
With the weather we’re having now, Metro Manila after heavy rains practically turns into an extension of the Pasig River, Manila Bay and Laguna Lake. The whole metropolis is almost 90 percent submerged in floods.
Of course, “I Am Iloilo City” being trendy is not one to be left out. Most of the old downtown turns into raging rivers every time it rains hard but that’s another story; maybe for another column but not now.
Let’s go back to the floods in Metro Manila. Every time it happens – which is now a regular occurrence – and you get stuck in the floods or your house is washed away, you have no one to blame but that nincompoop Noynoy Aquino.
He shelved the Laguna Lake Rehabilitation Project which was intended as the solution to the flooding in Metro Manila just because it’s the project of his predecessor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. If you think the floods are bad enough, there’s more. The Belgian firm contracted to do the job sued the Philippine government before the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement Investment Disputes and asked for damages of P4 billion.
The decision came out last January 2017 and the Philippines was ordered to reimburse the Belgian firm P700 million, plus P40 million.
The Aquino government also paid P420 million legal fees for the US Law firm that handled and lost the case, plus P20 million to former Justice Florentino Feliciano to represent the Solicitor General.
All in all the Philippine government lost some P1.2 billion because of Aquino’s irrational move in stopping the project. And the flooding in Metro Manila continues.
And then there’s Republic Act (RA) No. 10157 or the Kindergarten Education Act. The principal author is Sen. Ralph Recto. It was signed and approved as law by then President Noynoy Aquino and implemented by then Education secretary Armin Luistro at the start of school year 2011-2012.
Without a doubt another stupid idea and here’s why. According to Section 5 of RA 10157: “Medium of Instruction. – The State shall hereby adopt the mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) method. The mother tongue of the learner shall be the primary medium of instruction for teaching and learning in the kindergarten level.”
And what is a “mother tongue”?
It is the first language that you learn when you are a baby, rather than a language learned at school as an adult.
Mother Tongue- Based Multilingual Education or MTB-MLE refers to “first-language-first” education that is, schooling which begins in the mother tongue and transitions to additional languages particularly Filipino and English. It is meant to address the high functional illiteracy of Filipinos where language plays a significant factor.
Well and good if all the learners have the same “mother tongue” as in Hiligaynon which is the medium the schools are using in Iloilo City and Province.
What if a particular learner’s “mother tongue” is not Hiligaynon but say English? Then the MTB-MLE defeats its purpose as the medium of instruction becomes another language that the learner has to learn. This is not an isolated case, it usually happens to private schools i.e. Assumption Iloilo, Ateneo or Westbridge.
In a particular situation such as this, instead of making progress what happens is a regress. Most if not all of the learners in these private schools come from the upper middle class and beyond background, with a high literacy rate and already fluent with the English language.
So really, if the purpose of this “mother tongue” thing is meant to address the high functional illiteracy of Filipinos where language plays a significant factor, then perhaps not in these private schools where most learners come from the upper middle crust of society.
Maybe this “mother tongue” thingy will work in schools where the learners have very low exposure to the English language and western or First World culture.
It may not sound “politically correct” but this is the reality of education and society in the Philippines. After we are all products of our upbringing. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
