Palace’s anti-student remark provokes angry CBCP riposte

By Macon Ramos-Araneta | Posted on September 02, 2012 | 12:01am | 646 views

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The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Saturday denounced President Aquino’s reproductive health bill in front of hundreds of Catholic educators.

CBCP president Archbishop Jose Palma, labeling the bill as a population control agenda, students should not be controlled to address poverty and the shortage of textbooks and classrooms.

Palma said he felt sad when the administration would consider it a big problem that we have many students.

“I thought we believe that they are not a big problem because we see in them the solution,” he said in his sermon during a Mass, which ended the three-day Catholic Education Association of the Philippines’ annual convention at the SMX Center in Pasay City.

“In education, we give premium to the youth because they are rich, perhaps, not so much economically but given time and in the future certainly they are our best asset,” he said.

Palace spokesmen did not react to the latest tirade by the bishop. The long-pending RH bill, recently certified by Mr. Aquino as priority measure, has reached the period of amendment that would pave the way for its approval but it was being stalled by a crimious debates in Congress.

The archbishop said that he was disappointed upon hearing the President’s solution to poverty and problems in the education sector.

Instead of putting the blame on the young people, they should be recognized as a positive force for economic and social development, he said.

“They are not exclusively a problem to be solved,” he said.

Around 1,500 officials of Catholic school from across the country attended the convention where they discussed issues of the day including the RH bill, K to 12 program and legal concerns affecting private education.

Palma also scored the mandatory sex education provision under the proposed RH bill, which requires a large-scale government funding to promote the use of artificial contraceptives.

“We usually say, please, more God and less sex in the sense of you know… we know how many (people) would like to introduce sex education as early as Grade 4 or whatever. We thought of why not Word of God,” he said.

He likewise emphasized the purpose of Catholic education which is to evangelize and the formation of the young generation.

“I also would like to underline that it is important to remember that the education we give is not just information but above all, formation. It is in this regard that even doctrines of the Catholic education would tell us that the role of the teachers is indeed important,” he said.

“May all schools, as well, help mold people to become truly people of great faith and people who will become assets to the community and saints in the future because we are there to journey with them,” he said.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III said the last part of his ‘turno en contra’ will focus on other issues like population control and statistics involved, the so-called economic impact of population control.

“But I have already mentioned the explosive issues. But instead of answering the explosive points that I have raised like the revelation of a group which has been receiving huge funding to push for the RH bill, it turned out to be a hatchet job against me. Many of these groups are endorsing or resorting to abortion,” he said.

Sotto said he remained confident that he has the majority of the senators on his side in opposing the controversial RH bill.

Quezon’s visual feast

By Macon Ramos-Araneta | Posted on September 02, 2012
 

A trip to Quezon can be not only a visual feast but also a reliving of history for tourists.

Apart from the vast tracts of rainforests, white sand beaches, and idyllic waterfalls, Quezon is famous for its century-old churches, according to Gov. David Suarez.
Touted as the country’s most beautiful church, the key-shaped St. Michael de Archangel Minor Basilica in Tayabas City was constructed in 1585 under the supervision of the Franciscan friars. It was named after St. Michael de Archangel, its patron saint.
The basilica is considered the second biggest church in the Philippines. It was conferred the title Minor Basilica in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

The province’s oldest church, the Cathedral of San Diego de Alcala, was built in 1582, but burned by Dutch pirates in 1663.

The St. Louis of Toulouse in Lucban, built in 1593, counts among the centuries-old churches in the Philippines. File photo by Robert Viñas

5. It was rebuilt and remodeled in 1846.


The other century-old churches in Quezon are the St. Louis of Toluese, Lucban, which was built in 1593, St. Francis of Assisi Church, Sariaya, 1599;; Atimonan Church, Atimonan, 1640 and St. Ferdinand Cathedral, Lucena City, 1881.
Apart from these churches, worth extolling. the “Kamay ni Jesus,” a pilgrimage site in Lucban, Quezon where hundreds of devotees go almost everyday to pray and attend masses and visit the huge image of Jesus Christ nestled on the slopes of the majestic Mt. Banahaw, Suarez said.
One has to climb 292 steps steps to reach the top where Jesus’ giant statue was erected.
He said the number of people visiting the place rose to an average of over a million during the Holy Week.
While conceding that the province has been known through the ‘Pahiyas of Lucban,’ Suarez stressed however that there are many beautiful places and festivities in the province that attract tourists.
Pahiyas is the harvest festival to honor San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers. The multi-colored leaf-shaped ‘kiping’ embellished the facades houses along with fruits and flowers harvested for the celebration of Pahiyas on May 15 of every year.
Suarez noted that water falls and underground also abound in the province asaide from the old houses, buildings and landmarks, awaiting people visiting Quezon.
Quezon, birthplace of the late Commonwealth of the Philippines President Manuel Quezon, also boast of the National Historical Institute-declared Heritage House, the Gala-Rodriguez Ancestral Mansion, designed in Art Deco style by National Artist for architecture Juan Nakpil, and built in 1935.
During the Department of Tourism-sponsored heritage and culinary tour of the province, reporters were treated to the famous dishes of Quezon in the towns of Lucban, Sariaya, Tiaong and the cities of Lucena and Tayabas. The province’s cuisines from the 34 coastal municipalities would surely enthralled both domestic and local tourists.
In an interview with reporters, Suarez also cited the P7.8 billion development projects on a 500-hectare island in the province located off coast the Pacific Ocean.
He said the development in Balesin Island near Alabat Island and the municipality of Mauban is being undertaken by Alphaland Corporation, owned by former Trade Minister Roberto Ongpin. “It is considered one of the most expensive in a single tourism project in the country,” Suarez said.
The construction of an airstrip for the airbus has just been finished. “Sooner, international flights from anywhere in the world can land in the island,” said Suarez.
Alphaland intends to build a hotel and casino and in the island, which boasts of its white sand on the 7-km long shoreline and its crystal clear waters.
He said they need to identify the areas of accommodations. “It’s not feasible if we only have the beaches but without places where local and foreign tourists can stay. There are beaches but no rooms for them,” he said.
“We can also extol of the uniqueness of the island due to its double landscape,”said Suarez.
During low tide, he said one would be enthralled with breath taking view of the sand underneath the waters. The sand have strong semblance to running waves. It is as if one is another world. Sports Utility Vehicles can also traverse through the sand.
He said Balesin Island could be at par or even surpass Amanpulo Island in El Nido, Palawan.
He said development projects will definitely be a big boost to the province’s tourism industry due to the increased economic activities for the locals. It will generate employment for the people living in the area. (END)

INTERNET GIVE THE BLIND AN 'EYE'

TO SCAN THE WORLD

BY: Macon Ramos-Araneta

SURFING the networking sites is normal for the Internet-savvy Filipinos, but very few can claim that they surf the Internet without the need to look at the screen.

Erick Marco Ramos , 27, a senior education student at the Philippine Normal University and a former Fullbright scholar in the United States, uses a software application that translate his keystrokes and mouse clicks into a vocal response.

 

Marco is blind.

“I do whatever you do,” he told me in an interview.

“I also do Facebook. I chat. I surf the Internet and I go out with friends.”

Marco is one of 12 Iris awardees for academic excellence of the Adaptive Technology for the Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually (ATRIEV) Impaired, the country’s sole computer school for the blind.

He belongs to the more than 4 million Filipinos who are blind based on the latest estimates from the Department of Health.

Despite being blind, Marco was among those who fought to conquer the old cliché that blind people were limited only to massage and music. The story of Marco and his likes inspire others that there is “success beyond limits.”

“But there was the stigma, the social stereotype. That was the time I went through bigger challenges. But I’m happy and thankful to God that I survived those trials,” relates Marco who lost his vision due to Retinopathy of Prematurity during birth.

When asked if he has a girlfriend, Marco said he has one when he was in high school. But after becoming blind, he never had one.

Marco is still a student—the only blind person in his class—but the other Iris awardees are employed in call centers, software development, medical transcriptions and insurance companies.

Marco, who lost vision in his right eye when he was three years old and became totally blind before his 21st birthday in December 21, 2006, says new technology is changing the way we do things in the world and the key is mastering the computer.

“Everything now is computers. Even the school assignments are now encoded,” Marco said.

“Without computers I can’t do my work independently. I can’t scan a book without computers. I do my job through power point presentations.”

Marco says computers, through adaptive technology, give him and the others access to education and help them conquer the old cliche that blind people are limited to massage work and making music.

When I sought Marco for an interview, he was singing an Edwin McCain song, I’ll Be, at the SM Activity Center at the SM Manila during ATRIEV’s awarding ceremony on Saturday, sometime in June (2012).

The audience- and it was a crowd composed mostly of young ‘mall rats’,was enthralled by Marco’s cool voice. But one thing they didn’t notice was that Marco who wasn’t wearing any dark glasses, is blind.

He sat down with me after his performance and appeared eager to answer questions, especially about his studies in the United States.

He submitted his application to the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program of the US Department of State after one of his professors at PNU encouraged him to go because “it would be an excellent experience.”

 

In April 2010 Marco became the first blind scholar of the program, a global competition among applicants from 20 countries in the Western Hemisphere, East Asia and the Pacific regions.

“I went to the University of Indiana in Evansville under the Rhetoric and Composition program of the College of Liberal Arts,” he said.

Marco came out at the top of his class and he led a normal life in the campus.

“I moved around. I lived all alone by myself. I had no tour guide,” he said.

He recalls one of his PNU professors asked him if he’s serious with his plan to get a study-grant abroad. He believed it would be an excellent experience.

Conceding it was a kind of “weird” because of his disability, Marco remembers telling himself and his professor that “It would be fine with him to study abroad.”

So he filed the application forms for the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program funded by the US Department of State.

At the PNU Marco is president of the Debate Society. In February he led his team in the 2012 Manila Inter-varsity Debate Tournament sponsored by the University of the Philippines, where they ranked 15th among more than 60 competitors.

Like Marco, Josefina Guillermo Olorocismo said the knowledge she got from ATRIEV keeps her struggling for life.

Olorocismo, ATRIEV’s chairman of the Board of Trustees, started her welcome remarks by saying that she had the chance to see the event’s guest speaker, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, before she lost her sight.

“I worked in a TV station, “That’s Entertainment” (the youth-oriented show hosted by German Moreno) was then very popular. And I saw how handsome the vice mayor, now a respected politician,” Olorocismo told me.

It was in 1999 when Olorocismo became blind. She was at the peak of her career. That was also four years after she got married. She woke up one morning seeing nothing but darkness.

“Those were the lowest moment of my life. So I believe in this venue, that there is still life after blindness,” recalls Olorocismo who belonged to the first batch of students of ATRIEV.

“So for those saying that there is no hope for the blind, I say it’s WRONG! There is still hope after blindness,” stressed Oloricismo. She said a blind people can also equal the sighted.

After taking a course on medical transcriptionist offered by ATRIEV, Oloricismo said she now works as a transcriptionist of the Philippine Olympic committee and also the associate editor of their Parish newsletter.

The other IRIS awardees are Rhea Althea Guntalilib, first totally blind software developer; Ma. Criselda Bisda, first totally blind recruitment specialist in a call center; Glen Dimaandal, first low vision SEO manager; Raymond Reyes, low vision Rookie of the Year sales agent awardee of BPI/MS Insurance; Rene Orense and Jesse Gervacio, both low vision call center agents; Irish Ayesa Mendez, academic excellence; Mariecell Fornis, totally blind transcriptionists and virtual secretary; Lourdes Borgonia, totally blind web master; Julius Charles Serrano, web accessibility specialist award and Neil Lumba, most inspiring student. (END)