Enemy within
HOW many classrooms does a battleship make? Or one fiscal year’s worth of the pork barrel? How about a year’s salary of one senator or congressman?
Government says we will defend what is ours. To walk this talk, it is embarking on a program of acquiring battleships and war planes worth millions to shore up the capabilities of our navy and air force so they can keep intruders at bay. Yet, at the end of the day, these moves can only make our navy and air force (somewhat?) respectable but not nearly a match to the more modern navies and air forces of richer neighbors.
Moreover, it is highly debatable if bully neighbors represent the greatest threat to national security. Many straight-thinking Filipinos are convinced ignorance on the part of teeming millions is the bigger threat. Only the greed of the powerful can match the ignorance of the weak in its ability to gnaw at the moral fiber of Philippine society.
Ignorance or lack of quality basic education not only deprives poor Filipinos of a major enabling capacity to help themselves but also allows the ruling elite to manipulate and dominate them even more. Officials, therefore, who have a modicum of concern for the long-term welfare of citizens must work for government to give all Filipino children the quality basic education they need and are entitled to.
K-12 is fine but not before we have spent for enough classrooms, desks, chairs and qualified teachers and sent every child to basic school. Even a well laid out K-12 program cannot light up the future of many children who still cannot attend basic school because there are no classrooms, no desks, no chairs and no teachers to receive them.
It’s good to know battleships and war planes are coming soon. But it would be much better to know how soon we can finally accommodate all our school age children in respectable classrooms with enough desks, chairs and, most especially, qualified teachers.
If we must have battleships to be respectable, then how about a moratorium (since we can’t seem to abolish it) on the pork barrel so this could be spent exclusively for classrooms? Or how about cutting down on the number of senators and congressmen? Do we need that many to enact laws and do we need to pay them extravagant salaries and allowances so they can buy expensive mansions and apartments here and abroad when the people they work for live in abject ignorance and poverty?
We are being bullied in Asia because we are a poor and feeble nation groaning under a sick economy that ignorance abetted by broken politics perpetuates. Ignorance is the principal enemy within and quality universal education not state of the art battleships and war planes is the best defense against it.