NEWS AT A GLANCE

GMA in the world’s most corrupt list

The Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) said March 27 that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should also be listed along with former Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada in the Global Corruption Report 2004. Marcos and Estrada were both ousted by popular uprisings.

The group said that Casino King Stanley Ho’s comeback in the country and the government’s alleged bailout of the Lopez-owned Maynilad water company were the most recent examples of “Marcos-Estrada brand of cronyism under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.”

Other cases cited against the president include the anomalous Code-NGO Peace Bond Scam, the overpriced Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard and the Jose Pidal accounts exposé.

President Macapagal-Arroyo committed the “most immoral and shameless deals” just for the sake of her political ambitions, the PCPR statement said.

“All these immoral dealings are glaring proofs that the worst of crony capitalism is very much in play under the Arroyo administration and are more than enough reasons for the people to say enough of Arroyo in May 2004,” PCPR said.

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Obstacles in absentee voting

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong expressed doubts over what they called “serious obstacles” to the success of overseas absentee voting during a community forum of OFW leaders in Hong Kong last March 28.

The shortage of special board of election inspectors (SBEIs) is one major problem of OFW groups in Hong Kong.

Migante Sectoral Party said only 71 election inspectors have been hired to run the elections while the law provides one SBEI for every 500 voters. This may cause problems with less than two weeks before the voting of land-based OFWs, it said.

MSP also expressed concern over the sole poll area in Hong Kong, unlike the several  mobile centers provided during the registration period.

Meanwhile, OFWs have been experiencing problems even before the voting starts. Some encountered missing information in voter’s ID cards, missing cards, and late warning on alterations in the card.

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Youth party slams 5-year high school plan

The Anak ng Bayan Youth Party-list last week opposed the Department of Education’s (DepEd) move to add an extra year between Grade 6 and High School under its “Pre-Secondary Bridge Program.”

China de Vera, Anak ng Bayan–high school coordinator, said that the program “will not arrest the trend of poor showing of public school students” in various subjects as promised. She also said that the “DepEd does not have sufficient resources to implement the plan” since it has not resolved the problems of lack of facilities, teachers and educational materials in the basic levels.

De Vera added that the move is only an added burden to both students and their parents considering the economic crisis today.

To really improve the quality of state education, she said, the government should first allot higher subsidy to the sector.

Public schools cannot hope to match the standards of their private counterparts as long as the government fails to prioritize education in its annual budget allocation, she also said.

  Bulatlat.com

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