Additional P1-B fund for hunger

President Arroyo ordered the release of P1 billion more for anti-hunger measures as part of the government’s stepped up fight this year versus poverty. She ordered Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. to immediately release the amount during the Anti-Hunger Task Force meeting that she convened November 7, 2007 at the Manila Hotel.

The additional appropriation would be distributed to government agencies directly involved in the implementation of the government’s hunger mitigation program which seeks to address the unavailability or insufficiency of food as well as the lack of financial resources to purchase food items.

On the supply side, the measures include increasing food production through productivity programs of livestock, crops, mangrove and coastal fishery development, farm and irrigation, and enhancing the delivery efficiency of food items to consumers through the development of more farm-to-market roads, full utilization of the Roll-On Roll-Off (RoRo) ports and terminals, the construction of more Barangay Food Terminals and Tindahan Natin stores and the strengthening of school feeding programs.

On the demand side, mitigating measures include providing income to the poor through aggressive micro-financing programs, more employment opportunities, livelihood and training seminars and the development of other value-adding products such as coconut coir and virgin coconut oil; promoting good nutrition through social marketing information seminars; and managing the population through responsible parenthood.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, Department of Social Welfare and Development, said that under the Food for School Program, one kilo of rice is issued daily for 120 days to families who suffer from severe hunger and whose children are in pre-school and Grades one to six.

Global Call to Action against Poverty-Philippines (GCAP) disputed the economic growth trumpeted by the government does not trickle down but stays put with those who already have plenty. Despite the government’s trite rhetoric that eradicating poverty is its overarching goal, poverty continues to grow amidst the trumpeted economic growth.

“The government’s response to the calamity of poverty and hunger in the country is mere palliative to the root causes of the problem. Billions of pesos are put into these poverty and hunger mitigation programs that are ineffective and a waste of resources as evident in the government’s recently concluded 6-month war on hunger, which by the end of its duration witnessed the record rise in hunger incidence, with one out of four Filipinos experiencing hunger, and now one out of two Filipinos who see themselves as poor,” The Third Quarter 2007 SWS survey showed that “self-rated poverty” rose in all areas, except in the Visayas.

GCAP-Philippines cited the results of the 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, which showed that the income of the richest 10 percent was still 20 times the income of the poorest 10 percent. The group pointed out that the net worth of the nation’s 10 richest individuals and families in 2006 was equivalent to the combined income of the country’s poorest 9.8 million households.

The administration refuses to admit that population growth is a key factor in the trickle-down effect -- economic growth below 7% is not enough to meet the demands of a booming population. The secretary of health admitted that family planning is not a priority of the administration

To be sure, government faces a formidable obstacle in mitigating poverty and hunger. For a start, managing the population through responsible parenthood faces strong opposition from the Catholic Church. For the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the natural family planning method is the only morally acceptable way to practice responsible parenthood and has called on legislators to spend on projects that would alleviate poverty and provide free education to poor children, instead of spending P1 billion for the purchase of contraceptives, CBCP president and Jaro, Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said in a statement.

“We hope it is not true that Congress plans to appropriate P1 billion for the purchase of condoms, birth control pills and other ‘reproductive health’ products to control population growth. It if is true, we categorically object to it and instead strongly recommend that the one billion pesos be directly appropriated for hunger and poverty alleviation projects, as well as for free education of extremely poor children.” He said using abortion and contraceptive pills are against nature and God’s teachings. The Church teaches that using these items is wrong because they destroy the fruitfulness of human reproductive capacities.

President Arroyo ordered the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) to draw up solid programs to benefit the poor and to keep a tight watch on the implementation of anti-poverty projects at the grassroots, an obvious ploy since the NAPC is supposed to have been doing this all along. The President wants to blunt criticism that the benefits of economic growth are not trickling down to the masses, but even the President’s economic managers concede that amid the glowing growth figures touted by the administration, the absence of the trickle-down effect is glaring.

The other factor blocking the trickle-down effect is corruption and incompetence in all levels of government, depriving basic services and projects that could ease poverty and boost development. So the rich get richer and the poor gets poorer. But wait, Secretary Yap wants to hog the entire 1 Billion for his Department of Agriculture which includes the Black Hole known as the National Foods Authority.

One billion pesos is seemingly a huge sum that can feed many hungry mouths for weeks and alleviate poverty. But given the record of this administration for corruption and incompetence, we can expect a few more children despondent over poverty to end the misery by suicide.

A Call to Reform Agrarian Reform Program

A friend sent an email asking for support to his earnest proposal to alleviate poverty by means of giving free land to the landless. My reply:

I hold you in high esteem and value your friendship, so my comments will be candid. My opinions will be heavily biased along these lines:

1. Cynicism and distrust in the administration of Gloria Arroyo to the extent that all her decisions and programs are designed to protect her incumbency. Any benefits that trickle down to the masses are only incidental.

2. Skepticism in Socialism. Communism is the extreme form of socialism that in essence is classless political system, the political theory or system in which all property and wealth is owned in a classless society by all the members of that society. This system failed in the USSR and failing in China due to the Iron Will of the Oligarchy. In Cuba, the socialistic system is unique but no one bothers to coin a name for it. In its favor, Castroism provides cheap public health care, that’s why the U.S. hates Castro.

The favorite gimmick of Ate Glue is socialism wherein she doles out favors to Congressmen to block impeachment moves and insures her freedom to pander and shower political patronage to lift her despised image.

Charter Change (ChaCha) is required to reform CARP. Allow Ate Glue to tinker with the Constitution and all hell breaks loose. It would be unthinkable to tempt Ate Glue to create a Big Brother Orwellian type of government. That would be superheated Hell.

I agree with Doc Luis that our Education System needs overhauling. The fundamental problem, one that DepEd and parents won’t admit, is that not all students are created equal, some brighter than others, some dumber. In society, the medical truth of inequality is just as true, some are energetic, some lazy. Even the late Pres.Ramon Magsaysay admits that those who have less in life should have more in law (which contradicts the Constitutional mandate of equal protection of the laws). The principle of equality holds true only in political science, where all men are created equal.

The six basic contradictions of socialism: (as seen by believers in democracy and free market system)

1. Under socialism, everyone works, but there is nothing in the stores

2. There is nothing in the stores, but everyone has everything.

3. Everyone has everything, but everyone is dissatisfied.

4. Everyone is dissatisfied, but everyone is for the system.

5. Everyone is for the system, but no one works.

6. No one works, but there is no unemployment.

Sorry, dear friend. I ain’t buying.

Hunger Pangs

The poll group Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported that a new national hunger record was set early October 2007, when 21.5 percent of Philippine households had suffered from hunger, without having anything to eat, at least once in the three months previous to the latest SWS survey of Sept. 2-5, 2007. This new percentage consists of 17.4 percent who said they experienced it only once or a few times, termed Moderate Hunger, and 4.1 percent who said they experienced it often or always, termed Severe Hunger. The survey respondent is the household head, acting as spokesperson for the family.

As expected, the government went into denial mode. Yet, Secretary Duque, who supervises the National Nutrition Council and assigned by the President to monitor the hunger situation, was unaware that the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) did a survey in mid-2006, and obtained a national hunger rate of 19 percent validating the SWS account of hunger, reported this to the secretary of agriculture January 2007, but never circulated to the Cabinet.

Hunger means lack of adequate nutrition, the foundation of good health and wellbeing. Poverty is the root cause of hunger. How can public policy be reformed to alleviate poverty? An obvious first step is to ensure the availability of cheaper rice, our staple food.

To do this requires a politically painful decision, the abolition of the National Food Authority (NFA) with its monopoly of the on international trade in rice and corn The NFA gets in the way of the free market.

Who are required to secure a license from NFA? All persons that engage in the rice and/or corn business whether commercial or NFA rice/corn.

What activities in the rice/corn industry are required to have a license from NFA? All businessmen engaged in the following activities are required to have a license: retailing, wholesaling, milling, warehousing, corn shelling, processing/manufacturing, threshing, exporting, importing, indenting, packaging, mechanical driving

Former Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima had a plan for major restructuring of the NFA to ease the weight of its impact on the government’s consolidated public sector deficit. He said NFA contributed P27 billion to the 2004 consolidated debt and the government loses an average of P2 billion a year in subsidies. Former Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin, chimed in and said the NFA had long been a concern among budget planners but the executive decision had yet to be made on how to rationalize the functions of the NFA.

NFA primarily operates as a trading company that implements the government’s rice support program by buying palay from the farmgate and selling rice in strategic areas to smoothen the volatility in the prices. "It’s really intended to support the price of palay and rice but we have not been able to afford the amount necessary to actually accomplish this.I personally recognize that some form of subsidy is necessary but it can no longer be the kind of subsidy being implemented now," Boncodin said. "At the very least, the process has to be totally transparent, it can not just go through credit lines the way it is done now." Several legislative measures filed in Congress all designed to ensure that NFA would no longer be a burden on the national budget were not passed.

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the NFA and other GOCCs should be prevented from shifting the burden of fiscal adjustment to the National Government.
The IMF said the National Government should avoid taking on more fiscal burden from other government corporations.
Abolish the NFA and consumers could benefit from the entry of lower prices of imported rice and corn. Besides, the NFA is a huge financial burden incurring huge losses in the order of P2 billion per year. These funds could be used instead as subsidy for those rice and corn farmers unable to compete with imports.

Lack of resources makes it difficult for the country to achieve its goal of being self-sufficient in rice and do away with costly importations by 2010.
Aside from feeding a population that grows 2.3 percent annually, the bid for rice self-sufficiency is also intended to eliminate expensive rice imports that cost government about P28 billion annually.

Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban announced early 2006 that self-sufficiency in rice is achievable by 2009. "There is a clear roadmap on how to boost rice production and even achieve a surplus by 2009 or 2010, but all that is hinged on the injection of all necessary inputs required to make the plan work," said an official of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) rice program.
The ambitious dream hinged on several iffy conditions: if funds were made available to rehabilitate the dysfunctional 50% irrigation facilities and add new systems. The other major obstacle is the plan demands the use of the so-called golden rice hybrid which costs six times the price of inbred seeds A former DA official also pointed out that the "age-old" problem of lack of support infrastructures has yet to be faced squarely by policymakers.

What we don’t know is that talk of food self-sufficiency, mainly rice, is turning into a myth. And it is hurting us.

The Philippines, a net importer of rice for decades (sporadically before that), importing 191,000 MT in 1984. We bought 934,000 MT in 2003 of which 646,000 MT were purchased by the NFA and 229,000 MT purchased by farmers, allowed for the first time under the Farmers As Importers (FAI) program to import rice. The importation of 600,000 MT of rice in 2004 was planned, 984,000 actually imported. In 2005 imports doubled to 1,805,000 MT and in 2006 dropped slightly to 1,622,000 MT. Vietnam was the source of most rice imports starting in Year 2000.

A former Department of Agriculture Secretary announced "the government was considering a ‘free-for-all’ policy on rice importation by allowing the private sector – mainly farmers and traders – to bring in rice in unlimited volumes. The President wants as much as possible to lift the limits imposed on rice imports such as volume restrictions”. But, this could be another bureaucratic ruse that will allow politicians to oblige their favorite patrons who have cartelized the rice trade, depending on the implementing rules. The FAI program raises fears that this will backfire as farmers discover importing is more profitable than farming and convert their CARP-acquired lands to non-farming use.

An economist from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said that maybe self-sufficiency requires more investment than it is worth. "Despite playing a key role in Asia’s Green Revolution," David Dawe said, "the Philippines may never attain rice sufficiency and could be better off importing cereals." He added, “self sufficiency has a cost if you want to do it and that cost is borne by the poor. Dawe said arable land is in short supply in the Philippines where only 30 percent is planted to rice. The soil itself is "more suited to growing coconuts and maize" and lacking the major river systems and rainfall patterns available for the heavily water-dependent crop in such areas as Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam. "God made that land for growing rice," Dawe said.

Dr. Rolly Dy of the University of Asia and the Pacific agrees with Mr. David Dawe
Dr. Dy points out that small farmers prefer planting rice no matter how uneconomical. For one, it is not perishable, it can be stored and it can be eaten if unsold. The politics of rice has, Dr. Dy believes, contributed in part to the neglect of other sectors and industries such as corn, coconut, sugarcane, fruit trees, aquaculture, oil palm, etc.

Still, while it is important for us to make sure we always have enough rice to feed our people, it is also equally important to make sure that it is affordable. The high cost of rice is a burden to the budgets of poor families. For those consuming at least one and a half 50-kg bags of rice a month, rice purchases can be as much as a third of take home income. It also has a strategic implication to the economy. "High food prices will drive wage demands. High wages will make labor-intensive industries uncompetitive. As a result, investors prefer to locate in low wage countries, assuming all other factors constant.

According to noted economist Dr. Bruce Tolentino, retail rice price in Vietnam is only half that of Philippine rice because of the higher yield and lower logistics cost. NFA imports of cheap rice are sold to match the higher-priced locally produced rice to prevent killing the local rice industry. For this reason, consumers have paid a higher price — double that of neighboring countries for over a decade. In effect, consumers subsidize the high cost of rice. A hidden tax, if you will. Our politicians have never thought of this problem in this light. This is why we always hear platitudes about the need for rice self sufficiency.

In yet another staple, NFA stats show yearly corn imports since 1980, except for 6 years of no importation.

Alleviation in 2008

In October 15, 2007 PGMA bares P10-billion allocation for poverty alleviation in the 2008 budget. Highlighting the close interconnection between poverty and human rights, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said her administration will mobilize P10 billion in the government’s 2008 national budget to eradicate extreme poverty.

The poverty alleviation agenda is presently limited to the school feeding program that provides a kilogram of rice to each school child as an inducement to attend school. An urban poor spokesman wailed that the war on hunger declared by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last March allocated one billion pesos spent with no accomplishments to show. Last September, without subjecting the previous allotment to accounting and assessment, there was the announcement that another P3.3 billion will be set aside to fund the "Food for School Program."

Helping improve the needy's nutrition

Lack of fresh fruits and vegetables can cause serious health problems, especially for the poor. We often hear about how lack of access to recommended cancer screening can delay diagnosis and treatment of cancer among the nation’s poor, worsening likely outcomes. However, studies also suggest that the environment in which the poor live may promote lifestyles that increase risk of developing cancer rather than protecting against it.
A diet high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and low in fatty meats and empty nutrient snacks is a vital step to lower cancer risk. Yet foods most available to those who live in poverty may be just the opposite.

Lack of refrigeration
Low-income residents are also more likely to have no or limited refrigeration and cooking equipment. When access to fresh produce is limited, and facilities for storing and preparing it are also limited, people are more likely to eat high-calorie, low-nutrient snack foods. One study among urban poor concluded that education programs were needed, not so much to kindle desire for healthful foods, but to help people deal with lack of refrigerated storage and cooking equipment.

Families with limited income are also more likely to choose fatty cuts of meat and poultry, which are usually cheaper than leaner cuts, salt-preserved food that risks problems in kidneys, blood and heart, and smaller amounts of fruits and vegetables. Children’s dietary staples are often nonperishables, such as salty snacks, candy and soft drinks. Simply increasing the availability of healthy food may increase its consumption.

The Immortal Centavo and Disappearing Coins

Rewrites of Jottings: The Immortal Centavo and Disappearing Coins

Rummaging through some junk-filled boxes slated for disposal to the trash heap, my last minute scrutiny chanced upon a cache of centavo coins denominated in tens, fives and mostly ones (there were no peso coins then). The misplaced coins were overlooked and overtaken by the legal fiat declaring them non-legal tender.

I vividly recall at the time my last minute attempts to beat the deadline that would condemn the discs from their status as medium of exchange into pieces of tarnished metal, worthless even as mementos. Most of the tens and fives went with purchases, but still left a sizable number of one-sentimo pieces. Then a bright idea came to mind ─ donate to charity. The look on the beggar’s face when he saw the cause of the clanging rain of coins on his alms cup made it quite clear that the idea was not so bright.

The sentimo may no longer be legal tender nor revered for its sentimental value, but it is vibrantly alive in the books of accountants who perform daring acrobatics in balancing the books because of the pesky sentimo. They are even cluttering the computerized ledgers, eating up memory space in big bytes.

If it is no longer legal tender, where are all those sentimos coming from? One suspect culprit is the unbending rule of mathematics where a dividend or product resulting from a math operation that is less than a whole number must be expressed as a decimal. Because many money transactions end up in fractions of a peso, the tiny dot preceding the fractured whole number is inevitable. The threat of technical malversation looms large if custodians of ledgers ignore the sentimos.

The abomination can obviously be rectified by a simple change of rules. The math can be programmed to round the second figure to the right of the dot into a five or a zero whichever is closer. If the books do not balance thereafter, let the computer do the worrying.

Another amazing quality of the sentimo is its ability to materialize at unexpected moments. There was an instance when a top official of the Education Department reassured anxious parents of prospective Grade 1 pupils that when their child enrolls “they will not be charged a single centavo”. The statement turned out to be only too true ─ the parents were not charged one sentimo, it was more like 200 or 20,000 sentimos.

The technical malversation threat may also be solved in novel fashion: place all those sentimos into a special kitty whose sole purpose is to fill the discrepancies at audit time, then put the kitty in the custody of the Immigration Department who then automatically place erring treasurers on hold departure order status to head off absconding.

There are ominous omens that may not bode well for our local economy. Particularly disturbing is a strange phenomenon. In the early hours when the community is just starting to stir into the usual hustle and bustle, the supply of coins in the hands of the public transport sector is zero or its equivalent. Try paying with a paper bill to a taxi or jeepney and you create a minor crisis.

The shortage of coins in circulation is even apparent in banks. Withdraw cash from a bank and ask for an amount in coins to facilitate transactions in the informal sector or the underground economy and, most often, the request is denied, with some curt excuse that none is available. Being a persistent person when denied what I feel is one of my rights, I transform into a tenacious and assertive individual. Only then is the truth revealed that the coins are still locked up in the vault, and it requires a tedious process to override the time lock or to disturb the busy bank manager.

Unbelievably, even the Banko Sentral, the entity that prints our money and mints our coins, refuse to disburse the coins to a private citizen. I once called the Bank by phone and asked if they would exchange my paper bills into coins. The polite voice at the other end was almost apologetic. The reply, in a barely discernible and condescending tone, is that the Banko Sentral does not engage in such (low-level inferred) transactions ─ only private banks are entertained. So much for government transparency and service.

I suspect that the coin phobia might be one of the strategies of government in its anti-gambling campaign, particularly masiao and jueteng that use coins as the betting medium. The trick is to reduce the coins in circulation, drive the betting level up to paper bill level, and urge bettors towards the casinos.

Banks will lend you money if you can prove you don’t need it. Mark Twain

An Open Letter to the Filipino People

Rewrite of Jottings: An Open Letter to the Filipino People

A friend sent me this forwarded email:

Subject: An Open Letter to the Filipino People

>Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 21:02:08 -0800 (PST)

Last year, Fernando Poe, Jr. said he wasn't going to run for president; last December, President Gloria Arroyo said she wasn't going to run for president. I don't know how they make their decisions, but it sure sounds like they do it on a whim because today both of them are talking about their "sacrifices" - how hard the next six years are going to be for their families, how they have to give up their privacy, how they have to deal with the criticism and mud slinging and how much they love this country. Oh please. You're all beginning to sound like Kris Aquino.

Watching the news on Wednesday when FPJ announced his intention to run, I panicked when I saw Susan Roces looking alarmingly like Imelda as she cried on TV and said that her husband was running because he just wanted to help the people, so why is everybody so mean to him? I kept thinking, oh my God, is she going to break into Dahil sa Iyo?

That scared the hell out of me. That and the clip where FPJ mumbled through his one-on-one interview with ABS-CBN wearing shades. Did he perhaps misplace a wristband? Or when he was asked about his economic policies and he said

... what did he say? Nothing, that's what. You'd think if you were going to announce your presidential ambitions you would have at least prepared something - anything - on how you were going to lead the country aside from the overused line about being the savior the masses need.

Now showbiz people are complaining of the criticism FPJ is receiving. Their loyalty is fascinating. I can watch their display on TV all day and be alternately amazed and confused about whether part of their brain goes on auto pilot when they're talking about FPJ. It's the same kind of loyalty for Erap, which led Senator Tessie Oreta to do that little jig in the Senate during the impeachment proceedings. Look where it got Erap.

You don't know whether their loyalty to FPJ comes from personally knowing he has the brains to lead the country or simply because they belong to the same profession. There must be something about show business that creates this strong bond, this persecution complex that leads them to think that because they are actors people think they're stupid.

In this country that has elected showbiz people and made them mayors, councilors, governors and senators barangay captains, and hell, even president - why do they still complain of a bias against their profession? You don't hear electricians saying, "Oh they'll never elect us into office!" And you certainly don't hear economists fanatically defending GMA just because she is one. We all know there are many accomplished actors whose achievements go beyond their profession. You see their every move in newspapers every day, for God's sake.

The biggest bias against FPJ is not that he is an actor, but that he may lack the skills, temperament, and attitude to become a leader. People say he has such a kind heart, unquestionable sincerity and that he has helped a lot of people through the years - shouldn't this be enough? No, it's not. I need my president - whoever he or she is - to be better than the average Juan. I want him to know history and poetry as well as economics, to be able to quote Shakespeare and argue with Allan Greenspan, to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's most powerful leaders, to make me proud - not to make me laugh- when I see him on TV.

I want to love my president and I want to respect him. I want a president who doesn't have to surround himself with economists to know how to run the country. I want him to know these things on his own and listen to advice but not be influenced by people who have a different agenda. I want to talk about my president to foreigners without being embarrassed, without shaking my head and saying, "Well, Filipinos aren't the most mature electorate in the universe." I don't want to hear that Filipino doctors are now studying to become nurses just to apply for jobs abroad or college students choosing their courses based on what the most popular jobs are in other countries.

Sincerity is a beautiful thing, but it's not the only thing that makes a president great In 1998, when Erap was elected, I was hoping he would succeed, that since he was wildly popular and beloved, he was going to do good. But look what he did.…

…He blamed the rich, played to the poor and completely forgot about the middle class who didn't cheat on their taxes or steal other people's land. Like Erap, FPJ polarizes people. It's the kind that creates so much anger and distrust on both sides. This early, the people surrounding him are far from reassuring. Tito Sotto? After showing his fantastic grasp of economics, of what drives foreign exchange? Hello?

This is not Eat Bulaga, sir. Nobody is laughing. Somebody should pinch FPJ and tell him this is not the movies. That he cannot fight off our Asian neighbors for measly investment with his magic sword. Erap and now Ang Panday. It's so depressing I want to cry.

A friend warned me about pissing off FPJ. She said, "Be careful what you write about him, he may be your next president."

What's he gonna do, drop an anvil on my head?

PLEASE PASS IF YOU LOVE YOUR COUNTRY

My Reply

Subject: Re Open Letter

Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 04:11:25 +0800

Thank you for sharing with me the "Open Letter to the Filipino People". I do adore this country, although it's starting to waver a bit.

It is remarkable how election fever has stirred emotions and agitating uncivil language. So many messages forwarded on email and mobile text are coarse, at times gross, and no longer couched in sarcastic humor, but rather in ridiculous falsehoods. It pains me to read statements by literate Pinoys using rude and vulgar language.

The letter portrayed some of the nation's travails. Nevertheless, there are a few items I wish to add to balance the picture.

Showbiz people do seem to excel in the political voting arena due to their wide exposure to the public. Fortunately, rare are stories about their filching public coffers, perhaps for fear of smearing their pogi image.

People biased against actor FPJ as being unprepared to lead the nation should recall that two decades ago, opponents said the same of Cory Aquino. A president, by his lonesome self, is not capable of running the country's affairs. He needs a team to do this. Even a parliamentary system has a team of ministers headed by a prime minister.

To blame an immature (read injudicious) electorate for electing to office an ill-prepared person is, in itself, injudicious. Voters who have lost all hope for a better life will cast their votes for the person they perceive can save them. Else, violence is the alternative.

Doctors are highly educated individuals. If a doctor decides to take up nursing, he chooses to pursue a career which can provide a better life for him, probably overseas. Inference of idiocy is inappropriate. In the same vein, I disagreed with the top official of Higher Education who proposed the closure of all nursing schools in the country because graduates take overseas jobs, thus wasting the nation's money in educating them. (Where are these subsidized government schools, I'd like to know).

Knocking the future émigrés who choose a career abroad is the unkindest cut of all. Philippine jobs are as rare as hen's teeth. Graduates who took courses that are dead-end job-wise become parasites to society, but could be valuable assets (some say heroes) as OFWs. Many third-world governments have set up formal plans to educate their youth targeting jobs overseas.

The bureaucracy today desperately needs a little less grafting and a little more pruning. Perhaps Erap honed his sticky-finger skill in that institution.

If God had intended us to vote, He would have given us good candidates.