Thanking mothers, thanking our Alma Maters

It may be well to keep the lessons we learned in college, however flawed our school is and the people who run it.

After all, the school is like a mother. That’s why it’s called Alma Mater. We sometimes loathe our mothers because they are naggers. But we must thank them. They are the only people who can dare call us handsome although the evidence shows the opposite.

Project Law School (PLS), launched

I'm going to embark on a new project. I will call it Project Law School or PLS for short.

PLS will basically chronicle my adventures and misadventures as I take up law. In this project, I will write as much as possible about my life in law school (before, during, and maybe after if I'm still alive by that time).

I have actually started writing about law school. Here when I was still mulling over whether to take up law. Here when I was really having trouble deciding what to do after graduation. And here when I found out the result of the Law School Qualifying Test.

But it was only after watching Julie & Julia---in which Julie Powell put up a blog and documented her progress while cooking all the recipes in Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking---that I thought of giving this endeavor a name.

Join me now in this latest project of mine. I don't know how will this end. Nor do I know when will this end. But one thing I know, I will finish what I started.

I will be a lawyer. Soon.

CHR's 'unfinished' investigations

Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on March 13, 2010.

WHEN THE COMMISSION ON Human Rights (CHR) started looking into the extrajudicial killings in Davao City, I was one of those who cheered. At long last, I thought then, we have started talking about it publicly.

In my blog (killthesilencenow. blogspot.com), I even defended that CHR initiative from criticisms. “Some people do not get the point why the CHR had to investigate what CHR Chair Leila de Lima described as ‘one of the most audacious violations against the right to life in our times,’” I said. “Critics of the CHR construed the commission’s move to investigate the spate of killings as coddling the criminals. They narrowly perceived it as only favoring the rights of the criminals and ignoring the other side of the equation, which is the rights of the civilians. The public inquiry the CHR initiated struck them as disturbing the city’s serene status quo, which Davaoeños enjoyed. They even branded the CHR chair as pakialamera. These critics, however, are off the mark. The CHR is first and foremost for human rights. Its job is to ensure that human rights are always respected and protected, regardless of whose human rights it is. It is thus unwise to berate the CHR when it’s merely doing its job.”

Today, however, I begin to wonder what the CHR is really up to. The CHR inquiry, it seemed to me, produced only more heat and less light. The CHR said it is going to release its report after it is done with the inquiry. But until now the report is still to be released.

And yet, where’s the CHR now? Off it went to Maguindanao, investigating another incident. After that, it is now poised to inquire into the case of the “Morong 43.”

I don’t have a problem if the CHR will investigate here and there. It is, after all, its job. But my only question is: Why can’t it seem to finish what it has started? I need an answer. The people need an answer—and fast.

And the verdict is in

I took the Law School Qualifying Test on February 6, 2010. Two days after my birthday, March 6, 2010, I went to ADDU-College of Law to get the result. And the verdict: I passed. My stanine score is 6.*

I leave it for others to divine what this triple 6 means. But it certainly doesn't bode ill for me. My evidence: the LSQT.

I'm happy and shocked with the result: happy because I really prepared for it and it's, FYI, my passport to entering law school; shocked because of the four sub-tests in the LSQT (Verbal Reasoning, Critical Thinking, Quantitative Ability, and Figural Reasoning), I scored high in the Critical Thinking.

"Superior" is my critical thinking, according to CEM (Center for Educational Measurement), that which administered the test. The two---Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Ability---are "High Average." In the Figural Reasoning I'm just "Average."

I thought I would score highest in the Verbal Reasoning. Nonetheless, I'm satisfied...

_____

*I don't know what stanine means. Better click here.

Why I will vote for Noynoy...

Because he is good, among others, for education.

I have a special interest for education. First, I'm an education student, which means that I'll be a future teacher. True, I'll be taking up law soon after I graduate from college. But that doesn't mean I've lost my special interest for education. Who knows, I just might be a professor of law?

Second, I'll be having my own children. Later na. And I don't want them to be victims of our less than impressive educational system.

That is why I want to see our educational system improved. And I think and believe that it will happen if Noynoy Aquino were to be elected President of the Philippines.

As Isagani Cruz argued, "He is the only presidential candidate that has thought through the problems of education in our country. Even if all the candidates say that they regard the deterioration of public education as the most important and pressing issue to be faced by the new government, none of the others have put forward any kind of education reform program that makes sense."

Here is Noynoy's ten-point agenda on education:

1. “I will expand basic education in this country from a short 10-year cycle to a globally-comparable 12 years before the end of the next administration (2016).”


2. “All public school children (and all public schools) will have a full year of pre-schooling as their introduction to formal schooling by 2016.”


3. “I want a full basic education for ALL Muslim Filipino children anywhere in the country.”


4. “I will re-introduce technical-vocational education in our public high schools to better link schooling to local industry needs and employment.”


5. “By the end of the next administration, every child must be a reader by Grade 1.”


6. “I will rebuild the science and math infrastructure in schools so that we can produce more scientists, engineers, technicians, technologists and teachers in our universities so that this country can be more globally competitive in industry and manufacturing.”


7. “I will expand the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Program (GASTPE) to a target of 1 million private HS students every year through education service contracting (ESC) while doing away with the wasteful education voucher system (EVS) of this administration.”


8. “My view on the medium of instruction is larger than just the classroom. We should become tri-lingual as a country: Learn English well and connect to the world. Learn Filipino well and connect to our country. Retain your dialect and connect to your heritage.”


9. “I will not tolerate poor textbook quality in our schools. Textbooks will be judged by three criteria: quality, better quality, and more quality.”


10. “I will build more schools in areas where there are no public or private schools in a covenant with LGUs so that we can realize genuine education for all.”

***

P.S. Didn't I write before that I would vote for Richard Gordon? Of course, I did. Look it up here. But I changed my mind. And I think I'm allowed to do so. Changing one's mind is, of course, not an insult to one's person. It was I think Jose Diokno who said that a man praises himself when he changed his mind. For it only means that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Catholics but not de cajon

On February 26, 2010, the Archdiocese of Davao, together with the Holy Cross of Davao College, held a Presidential Mock Elections. Many were encouraged to participate, but only few responded. (I'm not one of those few.) Of the almost 9,000 population of HCDC, only 1,000-plus voted.

Meanwhile, in the said mock elections, Noynoy Aquino won. (I will give the specifics later.)

It's a curious thing that Noynoy won, at least as far as HCDC is concerned. In the first place, HCDC is a Catholic school. As such, it subscribes to the teachings of the Catholic Church. One of its teachings is the sanctity of life. Which is why the Catholic Church opposes the Reproductive Health Bill because, the way the Hierarchy interprets it, the bill undermines the sanctity of life.

This same bill Noynoy Aquino supports.

Now how can we explain this anomaly? It could mean that Holy Crossians are ignorant of Noynoy's stand on the RH Bill. Or Noynoy's stand on the RH Bill is the least of the voter's consideration, which means that voters still don't think about issues and the candidate's stand on them. Or Holy Crossians, though most of them are Catholics, simply are not de cajon; they know just how to think for themselves. They have a mind of their own.

Davao Summer Writers Workshop 2010

The Davao Summer Writers Workshop 2010 is now accepting applications.