enrile & EDSA #cj trial

22 feb 2012.  day 22.  at the end of questions for the prosecution, senator alan peter cayetano reminded of feb 22 1986 and thanked the presiding judge juan ponce enrile “for what he did” then, or something like that.  enrile brushed him off: “that’s all in the past…” and at once went back to the task at hand.

it’s quite ironic that of all the highlights in his political life, it is EDSA — the one that made him a people power hero — that enrile does not really like to remember or celebrate.  very disappointed in the cory administration, he supported coup attempts post-EDSA and openly expressed regret about giving way to cory in ’86.

but, really, in feb ’86, given people power’s clear clamor for cory to replace marcos, enrile had no choice but to stand aside and let cory take her oath as president.  the people would have settled for no one else; besides, they had no idea, didn’t have a clue, that enrile considered himself better qualified to run a government.  and because he had denied marcos’s accusation of a failed coup plot, and people had bought into cardinal sin’s assurance that the military rebels were “our friends”, it was easy for the people to wax romantic and think that he and ramos had defected to support cory’s cause.  like knights in shining armor.

what if enrile had not denied the coup plot.  what if he had told the truth at the feb 22 presscon — that the plan was to install a revolutionary council that would include cory and cardinal sin.  how would that have changed the outcome?  i guess it would have meant a divided people: cory would have rejected all talk of power-sharing with the military that arrested and jailed her husband for 7 years.  and a people divided would have been to marcos’s advantage.

it bears pointing out that in EDSA the conflict was no longer between marcos and cory — panalo na si cory by the 7th day of the crony boycott, marcos would have folded, EDSA or no EDSA.  the conflict was between cory and enrile.  cory who wanted nothing to do with enrile; enrile who didn’t think much of cory’s leadership skills, if any.  but it was out of their hands.  it was the people — by their sheer presence, in huge numbers, stopping tanks and braving death, unarmed — who were in control, and they wanted cory in the place of marcos, and they wanted enrile and ramos and RAM in the place of ver and the generals, and that decided the matter.  cory and enrile were simply forced to negotiate and to reconcile their differences.

unfortunately the reconciliation was short-lived.  too soon the people dispersed, the power dissipated, and the differences re-surfaced and proved irreconcileable.  perhaps if the people had been aware, informed, of the dynamics and issues between the two, and if they had remained vigilant and on people-power mode post-EDSA, maybe then, cory and enrile would have gotten the hang of reconciliation over time, and the nation would probably be in a better place.

still and all, EDSA was fantastic, an extraordinary event, a timeless lesson on how to effect change non-violently.  enrile should not regret EDSA.  if he had not given way to cory, if he had contested cory’s claim to the presidency instead, he would probably not be senate president and presiding judge of the senate impeachment court today.

the president & people power #cj trial

am seriously disturbed by this part of the president’s tagumpay ng bayan speech last 16 feb in the first of “townhall meetings” to mark the 10-day run-up to the 26th EDSA anniversary on feb 25:

The impeachment trial of Mr. Corona in the Senate began on the 16th of January. I chose to observe the proceedings and to keep my silence; my faith in due process remains steadfast. But what has been happening now? Speculation and commentary have muddled the true issues; it is as if we are purposely being confused and misled so our interest in the proceedings would fade. Will Juan and Juana de la Cruz allow themselves to be shut out of this process? Will we allow a select few to decide the fate of all? [emphasis mine]

certainly sounds to me like a call for people power: due process is too confusing, oust corona now.  going by edsa history, it’s looking like he might try for another fake, um, okay, orchestrated, edsa a la gma in 2001.  but in contrast to gma who had the grace, delicadeza, whatever (feels weird saying something sort of positive about her) to keep her distance from the erap impeachment trial, this president is known, okay, said, to have been part of the impeach-corona project since the hacienda luisita ruling, and now that the trial isn’t delivering as quickly and surely as he hoped, this president is himself openly agitating the public, it would seem, not to wait for the senate impeachment court’s decision but to decide the fate of corona in the streets now na, or maybe on feb 25?

winnie monsod is disturbed too:

… the President (if the news reports are accurate) is not only practically inciting the people to take matters into their own hands, but is also showing a dismal ignorance about how the will of the people is to be served. As in “Would Juan de la Cruz allow himself to be left out of this process? Are we going to let only a few to decide for all of us?” Good grief. Doesn’t he realize that he is one of those “few,” as are all legislators and local executives, and that they were chosen by the people precisely to carry out their will? Or does he want every decision to be subject to ratification by the people? Ridiculous, right? The implication is that we can ignore, with impunity, the rule of law, the absence of which in this country has held back our growth and development.

Demagoguery is a dangerous tool—and can boomerang on the persons using it.

of course the prez’s spokesgirl abigail valte denies it:

Malacañang on Friday denied that President Benigno Aquino 3rd was calling on the youth to march to EDSA and stage another “People Power” uprising once Chief Justice Renato Corona is cleared by the Senate impeachment court.

…Valte said Mr. Aquino has also the right to voice out his opinion.

“All the President was asking for is to take a stand, be informed, know what is happening,” she said.

hmm.  but read about the aquino admin’s full throttle preparations for the People Power anniversary celeb next week.

Secretary Coloma said that the Edsa People Power Commission has been lining up several activities in 26 different venues all over the country for the celebration that will focus on the innate Filipino spirit of volunteerism, unity and concern in achieving national progress.

and jojo robles’ The anti-Corona road tour

Sources have intimated that a top political operator of the palace has started mobilizing heads of local government units who hold top positions in the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines to stage rallies in favor of Aquino’s anti-Corona position. The point man of the palace’s political operative is reportedly a prominent mayor of a northern province who used to be a fair-haired boy of the Arroyo administration.

The initial salvo is supposed to be a rally that will be the culmination of the people power anniversary. The pro-administration shindig is supposed to have as participants the crowds that will be gathered by local officials from amongst their own constituents; and, as any mayor and governor knows, such crowds cost money.

ah, initial salvo lang ang feb 25 rally?  whatever, there’s a lot of mobilizing going on behind the scenes, including the information campaign that the 188 reps mounted a week or so ago to keep their respective constituents informed on the Senate trial developments, which of course the corona camp sees as part of a sinister ‘People Power’ plot vs Corona.

and then there’s the Left.  with akbayan partylist rep arlene kaka bag-ao and bayan muna partylist rep neri colmenares in the prosecution team, it would seem that the Left is united and squarely behind the aquino admin on this one.  how would they handle kaya a call for people power.

and what about hacienda luisita. corona has not minced words, the prez wants him out not just because of his gloria connection but because of his stand on hacienda luisita.   so i wonder what the Left’s stand is on the cojuangcos’ desired (and exorbitant) compensation of 10B? maybe they actually hope to be a restraining influence on the president?

let’s remember that the Left lost a lot of credibility in the time of edsa tres — when the masa, whom leftists claim to represent and champion in the halls of congress and in the countryside, rose up to protest the illegal ouster and ill treatment of the president they had voted into office.  the leftists were mostly on gloria’s side then.  now naman they’re on aquino’s side.  how progressive is that, really, aligning with the ruling elite — the oppressors mismo, witting or not, of the masa?

what would be progressive is if the Left were to take a stand for due process, no matter how long it takes, no matter who wins, because to ignore the rule of law na naman, as in edsa dos, would be as disastrous for nation and the interests of the masses as gma’s 9-year rule was.

yes, nakakapagod, nakakainis, nakakalito, nakakadismaya, ang nangyayari sa impeachment trial sa senado, thanks to a bumbling prosection, pero nandiyan na ‘yan, let due process take its course.  it is for the senate to speed things up without losing its balance, and it is for us to be patient, to learn what we can from this rare public event, and to see it through to the end.  let us finish what we started, just because it is the right thing to do.

besides, what if noynoy calls out his people and corona supporters rise up too?  the president does not have a franchise on people power, even if he thinks he does.

amazing enrile #cj trial

17 days into the trial and senate president and presiding chair juan ponce enrile, at 88, continues to astound.  he has not faltered in any way, not in the smallest detail of the case, or procedure, or language.  rather he has risen to the occasion with the full force of his long experience as lawyer, businessman, tax expert, corporate law expert, legislator, and politician.  that the trial so far continues to be credible to thinking filipinos is to enrile’s credit, and no one else’s.

oh yes, he was also marcos’s martial law architect and administrator and crony, and he was also behind one or two of the coup plots that sought to topple cory in the late eighties, and, yes, he was one of the politicians, along with miriam and honasan and lacson and sotto, who goaded the edsa tres crowd into storming malacanang in late april 2001.  and he’s been arrested twice, for the 1989 coup attempt and for the may 2001 rebellion.

that’s all a little hard to forget, and so i don’t even try.  instead i’m watching and listening to enrile, and enjoying the greatest performance of his life, thinking along the lines of, you’re only as good as your last show, your last book, your last movie, your last act.  which is not to say, let’s forget the past, rather, let not the past render us blind to something great that he is doing today, something no one, but no one, else has the smarts for.

my lola concha was 88, too, when she started writing her memoirs, and she was at it for some two years.  senator enrile should be good for many more years.  i hope he finishes his memoirs and that it’s a tell-all of a most colorful and significant political life, bar none.

enrile’s planets

fascinated by the man i looked up the ephemeris for the year 1924.  on feb 14 the sun was in aquarius, the moon in gemini, mercury on the cusp of capricorn-aquarius, venus in aries, mars and jupiter conjuct in sagittarius, saturn in scorpio, uranus in pisces, neptune in leo, pluto in cancer.

without a birthtime i wouldn’t hazard any kind of serious reading, but the signs aquarius and gemini, both air signs, and sagittarius, fire sign, are worth noting.  gemini gives a curious mind, and communication skills.  sagitt gives a philosophical mind, and passion for life and learning.  aquarius, the sun sign, the essential spirit, in its highest sense means a capacity to see the weaknesses of institutions and to seek new ways of doing things for a happier humanity.

better late than never.  what matters is, enrile is where he is now, and we are all the better for it.

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read armida siguion-reyna on her brother JPE So here we are
christian v. esguerra’s Trial superstars super old, sharp, amazing
and interaksyon‘s JPE at 88: At home in the heart of history

CHED to blame for K-12?

By Flor Lacanilao

“To be sure, the need for more and better science education has not been entirely ignored. But little of this attention has been aimed at post-secondary science education, the only level for which there is data showing how to make substantial improvements without enormous costs. Moreover, it is doubtful that great progress can be made at the primary and secondary levels until a higher standard of science learning is set at the post-secondary level.” (Carl Wieman, a Nobel laureate, is director of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative at the University of British Columbia)

The controversial K-12 (kindergarten to grade 12) is not really controversial. All commentaries I have read by Filipino academic scientists are not in favor of the new k-12 program (For example, Science and K+12, !nquirer, 6 Feb 2012). On the other hand, Filipino authors supporting it are not natural or social scientists (without valid publications or properly published work), regardless of their position (e.g., Group launches program to save RP education, Inquirer, 28 Jan 2010). In particular, their views differ in the crucial science part of the K-12 curriculum.

Reasons of those against the K-12 include the following: (1) The new program should first under go a trial run at selected schools before nationwide adoption; (2) there are no valid studies of local problems to support the curricular changes and additional 2 years; (3) the new program components did not consider the relevant results of international research on science education; and (4) we have more urgent problems like teachers, classrooms, textbooks, dropouts, etc.

Recent developments in the teaching of science have shown the importance of early (kindergarten) exposure of students to science, and the changed ways of making them learn. These are not evident in the K-12 curriculum. Examples are reported by the Nobel laureate Carl Wieman, by Science editor and former president of the US National Academy of Sciences Bruce Alberts, and by Columbia physics professor Brian Greene. They have been involved in research on science education, whose innovative results have been tested or are undergoing pilot tests.

Their studies suggest a better way to improve basic education: (a) Put only the right people in charge, (b) program components should be based on tested studies abroad and on properly-published studies of local problems, and (c) undergo trial runs or verification at selected schools before nationwide implementation.

The best candidate for verification at selected sites or limited implementation (say one per Region) is the work of the husband-and-wife team of scientists — and recipients of the 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Award for education — Christopher and Ma Victoria Bernido (Poverty and scarcity are no barriers to quality education, Inquirer, 14 Oct 2010).

Their results included the following: (1) Bypassing the need for qualified teachers, (2) only one copy of textbook per class is needed, (3) no expensive lab equipment, (4) only 1/4 of the allotted class period is needed, and (5) students are not given homework.

Their students, under such learning conditions, have shown marked increase in proficiency levels, especially in science, math, and reading comprehension.

Based on the above information — and for lack of the necessary expertise to fully evaluate research information correctly on the part of those who prepared it — the new K-12 program is likely to fail, The phased implementation (starting with new Grade 1 and 1st year high in June) will not substitute for trial run. Why have we not learned in the last 5 decades from the failed programs in education?