Laika
5 July 2006

Just wondering… How did Raul Lambino become a Beerkada lawyer? I thought Beerkada was a comic strip published daily at the Philippine Star. Isn’t the term ‘Beerkada’ trademarked or copyrighted or whatever you call that?

Edwin de Vera
5 July 2006

Mr. Flores, what you might want to do is to open up a dollar account in your bank there in the Phil., if you haven’t done that yet. Then request for a debit card in US Bank. As soon as you received your card and activated, all you need to do when you need some cash, is to swipe your debit card to an ATM machine that carries the brand on your card i.e., Visa, MasterCard, etc. or better yet go directly to your bank and let them handle the transaction so you’ll get your cash at that very moment, of course expect some fees in doing this type of transactions. As for your question on why the wait for 25-30 days for your check to clear, I don’t know. But if it is a bank regulation there’s nothing much you can do about it.

Romeo Manuel
5 July 2006

Ermin,

The stats from the CDI report you have mentioned in your column is proof that, if nothing is done about it, Philippines will truly encounter unimaginable difficulty in a global economy. Western economies and international institutions are bent on following the economic models conceptualized by Adam Smith and David Ricardo. The Ricardian model is based on law of comparative advantage. There is virtually no product or service in the Philippines that provides comparative advantage with other trading nations. Our economic structure is so weak. Every administration is clueless as to how to institute an ecosystem of competitiveness such as first-rate education, incentives, and infrastructure. if our country cannot produce a workforce with knowledge and skills that can satisfy the demands of international businesses and institutions, then we are indeed in deep trouble.

Romy Manuel

Ms. Ric
5 July 2006

Here’s a few more statistics to baffle every concerned Filipino’s mind (taken from the same KAAKBAY CDI report):

1 in every 5 students does not have a desk.
1 in every 3 students does not have a single textbook.
2 to 8 students share in a single set of textbooks.

Public education is no longer free. Our alienable right to an equitable education is slowly being taken away. The most affected are the poor - our most deprived citizens. We are allowing our nation to be illiterate, ignorant, and incompetent. We can sit here and play the blame game, or we can get mad and do something about it.

I first heard of KAAKBAY CDI four years ago when I co-authored a grant on “adopt a (third world) classroom”. My local high school (in central coast California) has an Asian Pacific Club made up of mostly Filipino students from all over Luzon. Every year, these 20-25 teenagers sell lumpia and pancit throughout football season, wash cars in the spring, and perform folk dances at gatherings to raise funds to be doubled and sometimes tripled by the local Rotary.

I was hesitant at first to send these teenagers’ hard earned money, so through word of mouth I contacted school principals (from random towns) and asked for their “wish list”. Almost all of them needed computers, textbooks, and basic school supplies. I heard horror stories from principals themselves about the sad state of textbooks the children are using. Most of the textbooks are used until they literally fall apart, although they’re supposed to have a shelf life of five years. The information in some of these texts are also obsolete, incomplete, and sometimes erroneous. The National Book Store and Rex Publishing are the two largest book stores in the Philippines, and they are more than happy taking my order and even giving “educator’s discount” whenever possible. About six to eight weeks after each order, a very nice thank you card from students and teachers usually arrives in the mail.

These teenagers’ helping hand is by no means huge, nor are they trying to solve the textbook crisis festering in our public schools, but they do continue to make a difference to a child’s life no matter how minute it is in the scheme of things. And the beauty of all these is that these teenagers do these fundraisings, not because it is the right thing to do, but to them - it’s fun.