VALUABLE LEAVES

VALUABLE LEAVES A farmer in Villasis, Pangasinan checks on his tobacco plants to ensure good harvest. WILLIE LOMIBAO

Senior high students flock to technical courses

By Yolanda Sotelo

LINGAYEN – About half of students entering senior high school (SHS)favor technical-vocational courses as those who enrolled in academic strands,  Maria Celia Junio-Fernandez, superintendent of Pangasinan Schools Division 1, said.

As of June 3, the enrollment for technical-vocational-livelihood (TVL) courses in the division has reached 3,915 while the four academic strands have a total enrollment of 4,011.

“Perhaps they are aware of the relevance and the need  for people with immediately employable skills. They can be holders of national certificates 2 or 3 upon completing the courses so they can find jobs  or start business at young age,”  Junio-Fernandez explained.

However,  she did not discount the fact that many of the students cannot afford the university expenses who they opt to go pursue technical-vocational courses.

Among the academic strands, the General Education Subjects (GAS), which would enable the students to pursue different college courses, attracted the most number of students (2,177) in the division. It is followed by Science Technology Engineering Math (Stem) which has 679 enrolles, Accountancy Business Management (ABM)with 706 enrolles and Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMMS) with 449 enrolles.

Aside from these strands, SHS also offers tracts on sports, arts and design, and pre-baccalaureate maritime course.

Only 113 of the 160 public secondary schools in the division were able to meet the criteria to enable them to offer senior high school, Junio-Fernandez said.

Private and state-run institutions and parochial or schools operated by the church are likewise allowed to offer SHS.

This means that students in the villages where the high school does not offer SHS have either to enrol in the “mother” high school or private insitutions.

“They would have to spend for their fare, but education is a partnership between the school and the parents. The government is providing the education for free, and cannot provide anymore for their fare expenses,” Junio-Fernandez said.

Some students opted to enrol in private institutions lured by the advertisements that the courses are free.

“That the claim is not true at all. The private schools will get paid for every student they enrol through the voucher program of the national government,” Junio-Fernandez said.

Under the voucher program, students who completed Grade 10 are entitled to certain amount if they enrol in private or state-run universities or technical vocational school. The amount depends on the location of the schools.

In Pangasinan, the voucher’s value is P17,500 each student which is released directly to the schools.

But some schools still collect certain amount from the students, Magdaleda Manaoat, principal of the Calasiao Comprehensive National High School (CCNHS).

“We have some students who enrolled in a private university which advertised that the senior high school was free. It turned out that there were payment for Ids which is more than P500, uniforms which is about P3,000, and others like books. Since they cannot afford those payments, they returned to us,” she said.

The CCNHS had 750 Grade 10 finishers but only 623 have so far enrolled for SHS courses.

“The others may have gone to private institutions. That is really their choice and we cannot stop them,” Manaoat said.

The school has three sections each on ABM and STEM strands, and two sections each on Information and Technology and Cookery which are under TVL strand. Each section has 40-55 students.

The building for the SHS is not completed yet, so to accomodate the SHS, the number of sections in the Grades 7 to 10 were reduced by increasing the students in each section.

For instance, the number of sections in Grade 7 was reduced from 25 to 20.

“We were able to free 15 classrooms to accomodate SHS,” she said.

When told that the quality of education could be affected with more students in each section, Manaoat said “that is a consequence but this is only a temporary measure as the building for SHS would be completed in September.”

In one university in Dagupan City, those in higher years in college were given schedules from late afternoon to nighttime. This was to accomodate the SHS who were given the morning to early afternoon schedules.

CORTEZ: Ayusin niyo muna ang kuwento para believable

 

Hindi kapani-paniwala ang kuwentong dagdag-bawas ng di umano’y political operator sa probinsiya ng Quezon na nagpresscon sa Senado.

Sinabi niya na binawasan daw nila ng 300,000 votes si Duterte tapos binawasan naman ng 200,000 votes si Binay at binawasan din ng 200,000 votes si Poe. For a total of 700,000 votes… wow ha! Ang nakinabanag daw dito sa bawas ay si Roxas!

Ayon sa Certificate of Canvass ng probinsiya ng Quezon si Roxas ay nakakuha lang ng 205, 7921 votes. Nasaan iyong mga botong ibinawas sa tatlong kandidato?

Kung dinagdagan nila si Roxas ng 700,000 votes… ibig sabihin nasa negative 500,000 votes si Roxas bago magbilangan. Puede ba yun?

Ano iyan lokohan. Dapat minimum na nadagdagan si Roxas ng 700,000 votes kung pagsasamahin mo ang ibinawas kay Duterte, Binay at Poe.

Hindi rin kakagatin ng grade one student ang sabi ng operator na nandaya sila para kay Robredo.

Kung binawasan nila si Bongbong Marcos ng 500,000 votes at idinagdag ito kay Robredo…bakit ang boto ni Robredo sa Quezon ay385,164 votes lang!

 

Negative din ba ang boto ni Robredo bago magbilangan? Hahaha.

 

Kung si Bongbong Marcos ay nabawasan ng 500,00 votes… ang ibig ba nilang sabihin ay nakakuha siya ng 673,394 votes out of 936,359 votes cast?

Ang laki naman ng percentage… 72 percent ang nakuhang boto ni Marcos sa Quezon! Hahaha.

Nakalimutan ba nila na hindi mananalo si Marcos sa Quezon dahil maraming nasaktan at inabuso ng Martial Law sa probinsiya?

Isa ang probinsiya ng Quezon na may pinakamaraming kampo ng NPA?

Kung binawasan si Marcos ng 500,000 votes ibig sabihin na ang bumoto sa Quezon ay hindi 936,359 kungdi 1,362,402 voters.

Ang 1,362,402 votes ay total po ng boto nina Cayetano na may 54,702votes, Escudero na may 191,444 votes, Honasan na may 27,946 votes, Marcos na may 173,394 plus yung 500,000 na binawas daw sa kanya, Robredo na may 385,164 votes at Trillanes na may 29,752 votes.

Kaya lang ang total registered voters ng buong probinsiya ng Quezon ay 1,124,090 lang! Papaano nakaboto ang 1,362,402 voters?

Sosobra ng bumoto kumpara sa registered na botante kung paniniwalaan ang nagpresscon…hahaha! Sobra ng 238,312 votes sa registered voters.

 

Sana sa susunod na gagawa sila ng kuwento eh ayusin nila ang mga numero nila. Simpleng minus at plus lang naman ang operation.

ORTIGOZA: Sec. Panelo’s tattered jeans, shiny boots

Now that Bayambang mayoralty elect Cesar Quiambao gears to assume office at noon of June 30, I am curious to see what happens to a media practitioner who was an avid apologist and rah- rah person of former mayor Ricardo Camacho.

A few days before the May 9 election, I bumped into Quiambao’s Man Friday Levin Uy, former councilor and Director of Quiambao’s Kasama Kita sa Barangay Foundation (KKBF), and PR man Jessie Perez in a coffee house in Dagupan City.

They told me that they want to see this person, who sow intrigue against them during the Camacho’s heydays, yank-out from the media circle of the new mayor.

Reports say that this practitioner is now heaping praises and plaudits to Quiambao.

***

During the recent joint victory party of incoming Congressman Toff de Venecia (4th District, Pangasinan) and cousin Representative Edward Maceda (4th District, Manila) at the family owned Sampaguita Gardens in Valencia Street Quezon City, I met incoming president Rodrigo Duterte’s double – header presidential spokesman and press secretary Salvador Panelo.

“What’s your take on the adverse pronouncement of Mon Tulfo about you?” I posed to the outrageously sartorial buff and high roller lawyer.

To the unfamiliar,  Tulfo’s recent column  at the Philippine Daily Inquirer trained his gun on Panelo and Mark Villar’s appointment as secretary of the Department of Public Works & Highway.

The feisty columnist said the appointments of the duo were not evaluated thoroughly by Duterte.

Tulfo said Panelo, lawyer Andal Ampatuan, Jr. who is charged of mass murder of mostly media men, is adversarial to the press, both in countenance and demeanor.

“First, a presidential spokesperson should be pleasant-looking because he’s called upon to talk to reporters in front of the TV camera.

No kin in my government – Bauzon

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – “No relatives in my administration.”

This pronouncement came from this town’s incoming mayor Joseph Arman Bauzon on his style of governance.

Politicians in the Philippines have the propensity to hire relatives whenever they win an elected office.

The 27 year-old Bauzon said he had no idea how much is the amortization of this town’s local government unit (LGU)  for the loans from the government banks.

“I will look for it upon assumption of my office,” he said.

 He said until now the LGU continues to pay the debt from the Land Bank of the Philippines in 2008 and 2014.

In August 2014 the administration of outgoing mayor Mark Roy Macanlalay borrowed P75 million from the LBP.

The money was used to fund the construction or completion of this town’s  P55 million sports and commercial complex, construction of the P10 million abattoir with facilities and equipment and installation of P10 million street lights along provincial and national roads.

“I did not vote for the P75 million,”Bauzon, who was a councilor when the loan was deliberated upon, said.

Q & A De Venecia open to helping Duterte on Ph-China row

Former 5-time House Speaker Jose de Venecia, founding chair of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) that represent more than 340 political parties, met in Manila with  Northern Watch Newspaper’s political columnist Mortz C. Ortigoza to discuss U.S. President Barrack Obama’s phone call to Philippine President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte on the South China Sea’s row, immediate bilateral talks with the Chinese, his intercession for China, Vietnam, and the Philippines that signed a seismic and geological test, and joint exploration.  Excerpts:INTERNATIONAL POLITICIAN.  Jose de  Venecia Jr, founding chairman of International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), speaks during a signing ceremony with the foreign members of the group.

NORTHERN WATCH  (NW): U.S. President Obama told President – Elect Duterte to wait for the decision of the (United Nation) arbitration (tribunal in The Hague). Duterte answered that if the situation still goes in still water, he would go for bilateral talks with the Chinese. I know you advocated that talk, what’s your take then?

JOSE DE VENECIA (JDV): If the talks are at the level of the Arbitration Panel, we could continue. Anyway, it should be in the few weeks from now but then the bilateral talks at the informal level should begin immediately.

 NW: Begin immediately?

JDV: At the informal level.

Police station building soon to rise in Sual

By Virgilio Sar. Maganes

SUAL- Groundbreaking rites for the new police station building to be constructed in Caoayan village was held recently.

According to Mayor Roberto “Bing” Arcinue, the building is three storeys high and i and patterned after the “Type A Building” model of the Philippine National Police (PNP). It would be constructed within the 2,100 square-meter lot in Caoaayan.

” The building has a total cost of more or less P9.6 million, P4.8 million of which comes from the PNP and the other half from municipal government,” Mayor Arcinue said.

The construction of the building was covered by a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the municipality government here represented by Mayor Arcinue and the PNP represented by Region I Acting Regional Director PCSupt. Ericsson Velasquez.

Bidding requirements are now being prepared and expected to be awarded to a contractor by July 1 this year.

Dengue cases in Pangasinan up by 30%

By Virgilio Sar. Maganes

LINGAYEN- Provincial Health Officer Ana De Guzman said dengue cases in Pangasinan increased by 30% for the months of January to May compared to last year’s same period.

De Guzman noted that this year, there were 697 recorded cases of dengue from January to May while last year on same months, the recorded cases were 535.

She said the months of January and February have high cases of dengue victims and three victims died.

” We have to prepare for the prevalence of other cases these rainy season as the breeding grounds of Aedis egypti ( dengue carrier mosquitoes) abound. Clean our house surroundings especially the gutters, containers with waters, drainage canals where mosquitoes breed,” she said.

She said the provincial government is ready to assist municipalities in their dengue-eradication program.