Personal Initiatives: Building blocks for Education (Day 12)

Personal Initiatives: Building blocks for Education (Day 12)

by Rey Laguda

(This is the 11th day of 50-day journey of DepEd Undersecretary Rey Laguda as being serialized here with his permission, culled from his Facebook account - Blogger/owner)

Education is everyone's concern. Everyone is a stakeholder. Worth noting though is that beyond being a student or a parent, many actually go out of their way to help and volunteer. Today, I recognize individuals and groups who volunteer their time, effort and resources to help children and contribute to the improvement of the education sector. They have no compelling reason other than to help others. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." These people choose to be part of the change they want to see. They choose to act. They choose to make a difference. Nothing is too big or too small. They act locally and respond to needs of communities.

Abolishing 'Pork Barrel' : Good or Bad?

A big group of concerned tax-payers will converge at a Rizal park Monday to dramatize how they vehemently opposed the "pork barrel" for the lawmakers, which had been allegedly misused. They re demanding through this protest rally for the outright scrapping of this controversial priority development assistance fund intended for the community project of the legislators.

True to his conviction for his political battlecry, "Matuwid na Daan" (good governance), President Noynoy Aquino courageously made to the public for his decision as the chief executive of the country to abolish the "pork barrel". He had made up his mind for this, 3 days before the scheduled "Million March" in the Luneta by the concerned Filipinos.

In a news, he said, “There are those who treat the PDAF as their own private fund, to use as they please. This is clearly wrong: What is involved here is the people’s money; it should be used for the benefit of the people, and not for the benefit of a few greedy individuals.”

How La Carlota People Expressed Themselves

In a just concluded midyear election of national and local positions in the government, the people of La Carlota or the Mangkasanon have manifested whom they really loved as far as public service is concerned.

Majority of the registered voters of La Carlota and Valladolid gave their full confidence to reelectionist congressman, Jeffrey P. Ferrer of  United Negros Alliance (UNEGA) for his good governance under the 4th district of, Negros Occidental. In Bago, Ferrer got a comfortable vote of 52%. In the municipalities of Pontevedra and San Enrique, he got 59.86% and 62.32% votes respectively. While in Pulupandan, he got only19.69% votes against his rival.

Anyway, the over-all confidence of the people of 4th district in Negros Occidental has reached to 78.89% in the results of Commission on Elections website, against his major political rival, Atty. Ike Barredo (Independent) who got only 20.89% votes.

Jesse Robredo: Exemplar of Character

The PH government has lost a good cabinet member in a plane crash after fulfilling his speaking appointment in Cebu City.

Robredo

The untimely death of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Jesse Robredo was a great loss to the country PH and the government where he serves.

Considered as a good public servant Secretary Robredo met his death when his 5-seater private plane's one engine was in trouble and was forced to crash land somewhere in the Masbate airport but diverted to the nearest Bay to avoid a populated village, according to news report.

He was in a "hurry to go home" after giving his talk in Cebu City in the late afternoon of Saturday.

The rescuers took two days to retrieve his dead body from 180-feet below the crash site in the morning of Tuesday, August 21 while the two pilots Jessup Bahinting, the owner, and Kshitiz Chand, a Nepalese were still missing.

His police aide-de-camp, Senior Inspector Jun Abrazado, the 4th passenger of the said ill-fated plane, was the only survivor for he was rescued alive by the fishermen hours after the plane crash.

Robredo died at the age of 54. He is survived by his wife, Leni, his daughter Jill, and his family.