Mr. Benigno Simeon Aquino
15th President of the Republic of the Philippines
Malacanang Palace
Dear President,
I want to congratulate you sir because of your good performance as our president. Thank you sire for slowly changing the corrupt Philippines into a good one and a good place to live. I wrote this letter because I want to say my opinions and wishes not only for me, but also for the sake of everyone around me.
Sir, I want to tell you that my family is in a poor condition right now. My father doesn’t have a permanent job, and my mother is only a housewife who has a small sideline of making beads to earn money. I am the first child of them and I am doing bad in my studies because we don’t have much money to buy and pay my responsibilities and some fees in school. in short, if possible sir, I wish every head of the family will have permanent jobs to support their families needs and to help their children go to school. I am indeed lucky because even if we don’t have money they are still capable of sending me to school. Sir, I feel so much pity for the children I see in the busy cities here in Pangasinan. I wish education will be given to them. I wish there will be more teachers, or even volunteers, who will teach even the street children, and help them realize that there is still hope behind every suffering and loss.
One more thing sir. I am already in high school, and I admit I have grown enough to understand these things. My father was nearly killed by our relative who came from Manila whom we have heard had been in jail before. I fear that he might do it again because he is an alcoholic, and he has done it before. Another is, my faither is also a politician in our barangay and he always looks for the good things and not the bad things, just like what that man has done to him. I wish every prisoner, before being set free, must have education about what they will have to do after getting out. And also, to be a little more strict in releasing drugs and alcohol.
Maybe this letter is only trash for the rich who can defend themselves from tehse things but for us, this is an important paper that must be heard and read by every man in the world.
Thank you for reading my letter.
Respectfully yours,
Queenney Grace Ceduera
One day in class I asked my students to write letters to the president about issues they would like him to address. President Aquino was elected last year and has symbolized hope for a large percentage of the Filipino population, much like the way Barak Obama does for so many Americans. I’ve read that the Philippines is the most corrupt non-communist Asian country, and the decrease of that corruption has been portrayed as one of the many focuses of Aquinos’ term. While many are convinced President Aquino has made giant strides forward in the fields of education and the elimination of corruption, the population seems to be getting anxious. Again, similar to the American population. It is hard to completely transform a country overnight when so many of its systems have been in place since independence. Most of my students voiced their frustration with his administration by asking questions such as, “what are you doing about the massacres in MIndinao?” “Why are there so many bus bombings and car jackings now?” “How come our parents don’t have jobs?” “My family is malnourished because the price of food is too high, please lower it,” “Please brings jobs to the Philippines because the OFW’s (Over Seas Foreign Workers) are being mistreated and some are even being killed in other countries.”
I think all of these questions and concerns are very important, as they are the questions and thoughts and words and concerns of Filipino people. They are being written by the next generation of Filipino leaders. And, these words display the hearts of the students I work with on a daily basis. They bring up many important things I’ve wanted to share for a long time, but haven’t known where to begin. This will be another long rant about this and that, but all issues very relevant to the future of the Philippines.
First, countless students mentioned the massacres and bombings. The Filipino media is a powerful powerful device, especially for those people who don’t have access to the internet. Every night the news, which is watched by everyone (if you’ve seen Slumdog Millionaire, think of the scene at the end of the movie scanning over various neighborhoods and homes throughout India), the rich and the poor, the villagers and the city dwellers, depicts bizarre and extreme stories. There was a bus bombing last week. I still don’t know how many people were injured, but in comparison to some of the worlds’ violent conflicts it wasn’t an overwhelming number of people. I don’t mean to say each life isn’t valuable or that I condone bus bombing or think it’s not that big of a deal, but the way the story was shared portrayed this one isolated event as if the state would fail within the next 24 hours and chaos would consume the streets of the entire country.
I don’t’ know how to express my thoughts on this issue, and I don’t want to sound inconsiderate or harsh, but I’m going to attempt to say a few things nonetheless. I worry that my students are developing this image of the Philippines that suggest the country is hopeless and worse than any other country in the world, which is concerning. During the same time of the bus bombing in Manila, North Africa began to crumble. This was not an issue any of my students had any knowledge of. I’m not undermining the significance and tragedy of bus bombings and terrorist activity in the south, BUT, if the Filipino youth grow up perceiving the problems of the Philippines to be out of control and impossible to prevent, if they think the entire country is facing the potential threat of bombs and killings, they will see little hope for the future, and thus little potential for their involvement in the improvement of the Philippines. They know that they are the sons and daughters of rice farmers, they think their fates are limited, and now they are becoming fearful because of the media’s exploitation of a few isolated incidents of violence. I think this is a dangerous equation. What they know jades their ability to dream of a strong and successful future not only for themselves but for their country. It sounds strange for me to be saying this because I’m not the biggest advocate of nationalism, but at the same time I tend to have communistic tendencies and believe the government should protect and care for its’ people, and similar to the purest form of democracy I feel the people should be the government.
Moving on. In regard to a government protecting and caring for its people, one of the biggest problems I see facing the Philippines is the combination of its’ education system and fledgling economy. A significant percentage of the money being earned by Filipinos each year is being earned abroad (I don’t remember the statistic). These workers are referred to as OFW’s (Overseas Foreign Workers). Many work in the Qatar, Dubai, Bahrain, Tapai, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, the U.S. and Canada. A majority of these workers work as bar tenders, waiters/waitresses, or maids in various hotels. In order to qualify for such a position one needs to have a college degree. Some of these OFW’s have been educated in law and medicine and economics, yet there are no jobs for them here in the Philippines, so they find themselves sweeping hotel carpets in another country. It is true that a waiter in the Middle East can make more money than a lawyer here in the Philippines. Problem Number 1 with OFW’s: it creates a huge brain drain in the Philippines. I don’t mean to say that the people who are still here aren’t intelligent, but I mean to say that a significant number of Filipino college graduates end up leaving the country.
This means there is no internal investment in the country, and the economy is completely reliant on remittances, which creates a very week system with no foundation for self-created evolution. According to Aquino the Philippines is ranked 67th on the list of world economies. This includes the economies of failed and fledgling states. Unless the Philippines starts providing incentives for people to stay here to work their entire economy is going to be in the hands of other countries, countries that don’t care about the well being of the Philippines. It will also leave this physical country open for future control by economically stronger states and MNC’s, which, I fear, would create the bottom rung of the economic ladder—sweatshops and inhumane work conditions. As far as I can perceive this will only further deteriorate the image the average Filipino has of himself/herself, which will continue the system of complacency and acceptance of injustice. Problem Number 2: I’m fearful that a mentality of service will overcome the country. While there is no problem with wanting to be hospitable and wanting to help other people, I worry that if an entire countries population find their identity in serving the richer, the more educated, the more powerful, the better, then this mindset will plague the nation until the point where few people view themselves as worthy and capable of education and economic gain and life saving health care. They will see themselves as servants, and that will become their role in the world. I think that once a group of people from such a mentality they are easily manipulated, exploited and oppressed and until their situations get unbearable little changes. Then, when the breaking point has been reached there is often a mass violent reaction and the recovery process for a country after such a scenario is long and filled with a lot of space for more corruption and failure. Now I don’t think the Philippines will undergo a violent revolution or coup anytime soon, but I do worry that the people will potentially be taken advantage of and will identify themselves as servants, thus dehumanizing themselves.
Problem 3: OFW’s make a lot of money by Filipino standards. A lot. They sacrifice a lot. They live in strange unfamiliar countries, risking violence and abuse, without seeing their families (something very important in Filipino culture) for potentially years at a time. They work long hard hours and have little say in anything about their lives. Most of their money, form what I’ve heard and observed, is sent home to families that then build imitations of Barbie dream mansions, curtains, cars, clothes, gadgets etc. From what I’ve seen a lot of the families receiving such remittances don’t actually work. They don’t need to because they make more than enough money to live a nice life. So, we have one person in another country slaving away, and then a family spending that hard earned money, but not pursuing higher education or working to get a job that might potentially strengthen the justice system of the country, or the medical care of those too poor to afford it, or the industry/economic prosperity of the country. So much money seems to be wasted, and I try to remain culturally sensitive, but I can’t understand this mentality of not working while you are spending someone else’s money. I guess that shows just how American I am, because the money isn’t one persons, as the family unit here is one. Everything is shared. And, I’ve never lived a life of poverty, I’ve never lived under a regime that sends thousands of people “missing,” I’ve never been a servant. I’m sure if this is the life I had lived at one time I might also take the money, sit back and gamble all day on the balcony of my new house. It’s a lifestyle that symbolizes freedom. I find this worrisome though for the future of the country. If such a lifestyle is defined as freedom, then there will be little pressure on the government to give its’ people true freedom.
I think education is power. An educated population demands justice, demands freedom, demands truth, demands rights. Look at Iran and North Africa. Aquino’s agenda targets education. Currently the Philippines is one of three countries in the world with a 10 year public education system. Most countries have a 12 year system. Not only does this mean students graduate from high school at the young, and generally speaking still immature, age of 16 years old, but it also means that two years of curriculum is missing and/or condensed to fit into the shorter time frame. Interestingly enough the minimum working age in the Philippines is 18 years, unless of course a person is working on his/her families’ farm or vending things on the street. For people who can’t afford to go to college this leaves them without many options for two years. That’s two years of no income, and two years of time to get lost in the system.
Another interesting fact about the education system is that the Department of Education has declared no student can receive a grade lower than a 65% on any assignment or in any class. This seems strange for a number of reasons. 1) Anything above a 50% is considered passing, and 2) most teachers, at least at the school I’m working at, won’t give a grade higher than a 95%. This means students who work endless hours to perfect their work may end up receiving a grade just 30% higher than students who may never actually turn in an assignment. In my mind this seems to create little incentive for students to work. Similar to communism ( I really do love the system on paper, but history has shown us it’s a greatly flawed system). Also, how does one determine if a student holding a 65% is holding that grade because he/she did no work, or because they did a lot of work and tried their hardest and that’s the passing grade they earned? It seems to belittle the work of those who take their studies seriously, and it seems to belittle the students who do no work. If I was a student who did no work and earned a passing grade of 65%, I would feel like the educational system had no hope in me and just wanted me to move through the motions so they could spit me out sooner than later. I would feel they wouldn’t have faith I would be capable of earning a grade for myself so they were “gifting” me with their pity. This would make me discouraged and possibly even more apathetic.
The point of this rant is to say Aquino has passed a bill authorizing a 12 year education plan. It’s called K-12. People have been debating the issue for a while. The rich argue this is a great system, while the poor argue that they can’t afford two more years of school for their children so their children will need to drop out early, thus they will no longer have the ability to hold a high school diploma. A lot of the parents here on Anda are those that fear the system will dig the pits of poverty even deeper for their families. And, it’s probably true. At least for a few generations. School is expensive here, even public school. The books and uniforms and project supplies need to be bought, but there are also payments in order to take an exam, there are payments for the physical maintenance of the school, all students pay in order for the school to send a select few high achieving students to various conferences in different places, and there are the random “donations” students are expected to pay for various events. Parents are already struggling to keep the kids of the family who are attending school registered.
While I have the advantage of having enough money for food and shelter and internet, a lot of people I live with do not. While I can say, “hold on. just wait. This will benefit your family and your country in the future,” most people can only say, “my family will have no future if we have no money to build a house safe enough to stand the typhoons,” or “we already go without the medicine or food we need. Two more years of high school for each of my children is too much for me to afford.” Both they and I are living for the future, however when I envision my future I see myself years from now still without a family to worry about. They see themselves struggling tomorrow to fight the cruel shackles of life with an entire family dependent on the success of their battles with typhoon after typhoon. I believe in education and I believe the implementation of k-12 will greatly benefit the people of the Philippines, but who am I as the white American girl who’s leaving in a year and a half to tell my neighbors to increase their stakes in this gamble with fate they face on a daily basis?
On paper everything is simple. It all makes sense. In your head the world is clear. You can theoretically lay it all out. But, when it comes to real life and real peoples’ lives, the world becomes twisted, blurring all lines are pens have drawn. I can’t say if I had a family I wouldn’t go abroad to work as a maid if I knew it would give my family the money they need to live a healthy, safe, and stable life—even if that meant as a lawyer or doctor I’d be neglecting the needs of my neighbors. I can’t say if I were a typical Andanian parent I wouldn’t too be furious and fearful about the new K-12 program. I think too often in the United States our universities act as bubbles segregating us from reality. We read and write about real issues. We debate them over coffee and we watch documentaries showing us what’s beyond our walls. But, there are some things academia doesn’t teach us. For instance, it doesn’t teach us how to respond to a crying parent worn thin by poverty and a love for her children. It doesn’t teach us how to hold hands with the victims of failed economies. It doesn’t teach us it’s nearly impossible to tell people there is such a big vast world beyond a minor bombing in a way that doesn’t demean a persons’ concerns and feelings. I have no answers, but I do have the words of another wise student I pray will hold onto her vision and passion no matter where her life sends her.
To the Youth
By: Venus C. Orlando
Wake up young man and rise
There is much to do for the wise
Do not forego the precious chance
The gift of life comes only once.
Why do you quiver, why don’t you stand?
Everything around you is at your command
You are strong, articulate, and bright
Defend, protect, exercise your right.
Our country waits for you to create
Sculptures and paintings that are great
The best songs, poems, dramas to portray
Scientific inventions to play.
The nations and country’s needs are too many
Our people call for you to give
Honesty and loyalty to duty
A lean and happy life to live.
Wake up young man and rise
Who are you waiting for?
Your beloved country cries
Serve her forever more!
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