By HERBERT VEGO
A FEW issues ago, this corner questioned the tendency of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to approve applications for tuition hikes without naming the benefited schools in Western Visayas. This corner inferred that the regional officials were protecting the interest of the colleges and universities instead of the students.
If CHED works for the school owners rather than the students, then it violates its mandate. Why? For thousands of âreasonsâ?
While we donât intend to be malicious, we canât help but read between the lines of an e-mailed information exposing an âillicitâ affair of a high CHED official. Well, as we all know, that kind of cheating entails expenses well beyond the cheaterâs capacity to pay. He or she has to resort to under-the-table deals.
Since it is none of our business to pry into private affairs, we are constrained to narrow down our commentary to matters of public interest.
May we ask CHED one more time: What tertiary schools in the region are increasing tuition and other fees?
Donât tell us you would be naming names only after all students would have enrolled because, by then, it would have been too late for them to choose schools na hindi mukhang pera.
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This corner believes that Aklanâs Gov. Florencio Miraflores could not have made a deal with Janet Napoles when he was congressman, hence does not deserve to be in her list.
Available records show that the only non-government organization he had just once allocated funds to was the credible Uswag Pilipinas, in exchange for which it distributed farm implements, water pumps and hand tractors to various cooperatives in Aklan in 2007.
An internet news entry has quoted Miraflores, âI could categorically say that I have no dealings whatsoever with Mrs. Napoles. I had never met her or deal with her organizations during my term as congressman. Hindi ko imaw kilaea,â said Miraflores, who served as Aklan congressman from 2001 to 2010.
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An American doctor, Tim Reynolds, has come up with an eye-opening Internet report warning about dangerous side effects from taking the so-called âstatin drugsâ that are supposed to suppress bad cholesterol. He wrote and I partially quote:
âIt’s hard to even start writing about this topic — there is so much misinformation out there.
âIn the early 80s there were some landmark studies linking cholesterol levels to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Since then, all kinds of conclusions have been made as to what this means.
âDrug companies have invented a class of expensive drugs called âstatinsâ that lower plasma cholesterol levels from 10-50%. They are now prescribed so frequently that they are now a multi-billion dollar industry.
âUnfortunately, they also have side effects that can be devastating to some patients. In my medical practice, I have had to take many patients off their statin drugs because of side effects such as muscle pains, aching, and fatigue. In addition, the medical community has no long term studies (20-30 years) to see what the consequences of taking statins will be.â
It was as if the author was referring to me. I had experienced muscle pains and aches due to doctor-prescribed statin drugs. When I stopped taking them, so did their side effects.
Moral lesson: When your body ârebelsâ against your doctor, it must be right./PN
