There was a beautiful article in the May 29, 2008 edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Butch Hernandez, a leading advocate for quality education in our public school system, about the outstanding project being undertaken by spouses Nonong and Eileen Araneta to improve basic education in their hometown of Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo.
The article is entitled “Quality education, one barangay at a time” and features the efforts of the Araneta couple to improve teaching capabilities in far-flung barangays of the municipality known as the “Cradle of Football” in the country, provide better learning resources, and helping build classrooms to address the chronic problem of overcrowded classes.
What the author doesn’t know is that the laudable project of the Araneta couple faces the bleak prospect of being stopped dead in its tracks, not because there are not enough generous benefactors to put up the money, but because the incumbent mayor of Barotac Nuevo, Hernan Biron, feels insecure that a prospective political rival is doing a lot of good for public education.
With the influence of his son, Rep. Ferjenel Biron (4th district, Iloilo), the elder Biron has gotten the Division Schools Superintendent, Dr. Raymundo Lapating, to prevent the project from proceeding with its activities. Biron would rather see public education in his municipality remain in its deteriorated state rather than allow the Aranetas to gain accolades because of their concern for the plight of the poor.
Correctly, the Aranetas recognize the pivotal role that education plays in empowering the children of the poor to escape the clutches of poverty. It doesn’t matter much that these kids go to school barefooted provided the learning instruction they get are at par with the better schools in Iloilo province. After all, education is, in the words of Nelson Mandela, “the great leveler”. It allows the children of poor farmers to compete with children of rich parents on a level playing field.
But Biron would have nothing of it. And Lapating has willingly become a co-conspirator in this plot to frustrate the philanthropic work of the Aranetas just so Biron won’t feel threatened. Lapating would rather please Rep. Biron than see the quality of education in Barotac Nuevo improve.
This act of Lapating could be described as nothing less than betrayal of the public trust. The people of Iloilo look up to him as the champion of education, and yet he gladly swings to the music of the Biron political family to snuff out an initiative to help the poor get out of poverty. His misconduct has not escaped the attention of his superiors in the Department of Education. Already, an assistant secretary at the department has directed him to explain why he stopped this project which is under the auspices of the “Adopt-a-School” program of the DepEd.
The DepEd should step into the picture and compel Lapating to lift his barricade to the project. Biron, for his part, should even welcome the project, because the Aranetas are helping him carry out an obligation that belongs to him in the first place. He has no ability to think of such projects, and he should be happy that concerned private citizens are plugging the gap for him.
I found out that Eileen Araneta tried to see Mayor Hernan Biron to make a presentation about the project and seek the latter’s assent to its implementation. Mayor Biron refused to grant her audience even making her wait for several hours. This pea-brained municipal mayor is afraid to find out that it’s taking philanthropic people to address the shortcomings of his town’s public education system. For him, the fact that the project is being proposed by a potential political foe is enough reason to stop it. He prefers to see poor children suffer from poor educational facilities than allow a perceived rival to do something good for the people.