Teachers are the heroes of our times

BY MANILA BULLETIN

Oct 7, 2023 00:25 AM

  

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If you’ve been following the columns in our opinion section, several of our columnists have expressed their respect, appreciation, and admiration for teachers. They have reflected on their teachers from their formative years, those who challenged them to excel, those who uncovered their talents, to teachers who supported them through their doctoral studies. 

The power of a teacher, often regarded as a “second parent,” stems from the profound influence they exert in our lives, so much so that even if one is already a professional, one can’t help but recall the numerous lessons imparted inside a classroom.  

As we conclude National Teachers’ Month, which formally started on Sept. 5, 2023, and culminated on Oct. 5, or the National Teachers’ Day and World Teachers’ Day, we find ourselves highlighting the indispensable role of teachers in our society, particularly now in the ongoing battle against the learning crisis that plagued our nation due to the health pandemic. 

During those challenging years, teachers have displayed unwavering resilience and grit, adapting to new circumstances, and going above and beyond to ensure that students continue to learn. Despite their own personal trials at home, teachers have presented a brave face — fully aware that they are looked upon by young minds for inspiration and hope. It is, for these reasons, that they are considered the heroes of our times.  

On National Teachers’ Day, the President assured teachers of his administration’s unwavering support, acknowledging the “immeasurable debt” the country owes them.  “We recognize your sacrifices for our youth and assure you that we will prioritize your welfare and that of your families,” Marcos said.
At the start of National Teachers’ Month, Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte committed to improve the welfare of teachers, anchored on the MATATAG Agenda.  

“The DepEd’s MATATAG Agenda is not just a slogan. It is our roadmap to institutionalize reforms within the department. This includes the protection of your rights and the promotion of your welfare,” Duterte said. 

For one, to improve teachers’ financial capacity, Duterte said that the department is coordinating with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to address concerns over accrued interests or arrears of teachers’ loans. Add to that, she also announced that after the current school year, DepEd will give 30 days of uninterrupted rest to teachers to recover from school tasks. 

On the part of the Senate, there are efforts underway to update Republic Act No. 4670 or the “Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.”  Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Committee on Basic Education, said that it has been 57 years since the law was passed, “yet some of its provisions have not been fully realized.” 

“It is high time that the Magna Carta should respond to the needs and challenges being encountered by our teachers,” the Senator said, noting that he also seeks provisions “protecting teachers from out-of-pocket expenses and non-teaching tasks, and provisions for teachers’ basic rights and longevity pay.”

While National Teachers' Month may conclude, our consideration for teachers' welfare must remain constant. Their work is not only during teaching hours, since for them, the teaching profession is not just a career but their life and legacy. All efforts to lift any ounce of burden on them should be welcomed and must be supported by all.  After all, aren’t we what we are today because of our teachers?

UP Diliman Dept of Journalism launches project to address ‘fake news’

BY RHOWEN DEL ROSARIO

Oct 6, 2023 07:04 PM

  

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The University of the Philippines Diliman's (UPD) Department of Journalism launched the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Project on Friday, Oct. 6, aiming to teach journalism fundamentals, counter misinformation, and fact-checking to Filipino students to combat "fake news."
 

Photo credit to MIL Project/Facebook

The project launch featured a panel discussion on media and information literacy, with journalists Howie Severino from GMA Integrated News, Jeff Canoy from ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, and Ellen Tordesilla from Vera Files.

UP Department of Journalism chair and broadcast journalist Kara David said the project is “our contribution to the public schools and high school system here in the Philippines," as she highlighted the challenges faced by teachers teaching MIL due to lack of resources and journalism professionalism.

"We talked to some of the teachers that teach MIL at the senior high school level, and then we had a focus group discussion with the teachers. They really want to teach, but they lack resources," David said.

“So gusto naming tulungan ang mga guro at bigyan sila ng lessons on media literacy (So we want to help the teachers and give them lessons on media literacy)," she added.

David emphasized the project's expansion beyond traditional modules, including a dedicated YouTube channel and Facebook page to make resources more accessible to a wider audience.

The MIL project will create a series of video tutorials, lesson plans, quizzes, and discussion points for teachers to use in their classes.

The project, organized under the Initiative for Media Freedom (IMF), is set to run for two years with the UP CMC Foundation Inc, implemented by Internews, and funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

Filipino journalists, including Zen Hernandez, Karmina Constantino, Atom Araullo, Connie Sison, Mariz Umali, Ivan Mayrina, and Jeff Canoy, collaborated to host a project aimed at teaching media literacy topics like fact-checking and identifying different types of fake news.

Reduce, re-use, recycle to help address solid waste problem

BY MANILA BULLETIN

Oct 6, 2023 05:22 AM

  

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The country is projected to generate approximately 24.49 million metric tons of waste by 2045 unless steps are taken to address its causes, according to a Commission on Audit (COA) study released earlier this year.

That same COA study showed that in the six-year period from 2015 to 2020, the total estimated waste generation grew by 33.36 percent, or at a rate of 5.56 percent annually.

What’s unfortunate to note is that the country’s solid waste problem keeps on growing despite the passage of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. This law calls for the proper segregation and disposal of waste. Under the law, local government units (LGUs) are also mandated to properly dispose of garbage collected from various sources, including households. Despite fines and imprisonment for violators, it is apparent these have not served as deterrent.

With this mounting garbage problem, it is incumbent upon everyone to play his or her role in addressing the garbage problem. And helping solve or at least mitigate the problem begins at home — in the family, the basic institution of the society.

In the COA report, it was cited that 9.07 million metric tons of solid waste was generated in 2006 and the figure almost doubled to 16.63 million metric tons in 2020. And based on projections, solid waste will increase to 19.76 million metric tons in 2030 and up to 24.5 million metric tons in 2045.
“Therefore, assuming a steady rate of waste generation, solid waste production shall continue to increase in future years, negating its goal of reducing waste,” the COA said in the report.

The COA cited at least seven major causes attributed to the failure to reduce waste over the years. These are: interventions to reduce the waste generators (households and industrial/commercial); increasing population, with challenges in family planning, especially in urban areas; lack of studies on materials with reusability/recyclability that can be promoted; dependence on single-use items without exception to non-environmentally acceptable (NEAP) products, especially in urban areas; waste imports from developed countries were still enforced in the absence of ratification of the Basel Ban Amendment; insufficient solid waste facilities to help divert and safely dispose of solid wastes, among others.

Waste management is not the sole responsibility of the state, it should be everyone’s concern — a whole-of-nation obligation. It should begin at home, in offices, in industrial centers, and in every corner.

Let’s all do our part in solving this waste problem. We can begin with the segregation of our garbage and then start reducing, re-using, and recycling. That would be a big help in addressing our garbage problem.

What is the meaning of the word "Adobo," and how did it come to be used for a Filipino dish?

 

Josh

Food Technologist & Political Economist |

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I am the Managing Editor of Manila Bay Morning Post - A Country Development Perspective. I believe that if humans focused on business and economic history, they would better understand who they are as a nation beyond the obsolescence of racism, nationalism, and boundaries that created wars and human division.

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The Spanish Adobo was published in a book in 1529, which closely resemble the classic Filipino adobo of just vinegar, chicken, pork, lard, garlic, and bay leaf. While the Spanish Adobo had quince and dried druit, the original Filipino Adobo had none, probably due to the lack of those ingredients in the humid archipelago. However, the current adobo in Cebu is sweetened with fruit, thus resembling the original Spanish Adobo. But the current Cebu Adobo is already an improved version after many years of influence and new ingredients.

Another evidence of the Filipino Adobo being hispanic (in origin only) is that the method of preserving and cooking food with vinegar is a European method. Also, bay leaf does not grow here in Asia but only in the Americas.

We must note though that the Filipino Adobo is neither prehispanic nor Spanish anymore. Through the years, it has evolved with influence from the ingredients we have. Before 1900s, soy sauce was expensive to make and not commonly used as we do today. Soy sauce used to take years to ferment and manually done. With the advent of factories and food technology in the 1900s, soy sauce became as common as oil and vinegar. This was the beginning of adobo having soy sauce. Also, the original adobos were simmered for mere preservation then cooked again later with garlic and onions. Through the years, it evolved to a single process of garlic and onions, browning of the pork and the chicken, glazing with vinegar and soy sauce, and slow simmer until tender. Today, some young people add sugar. Before you know it, the Filipino adobo would be mistaken to have sugar as traditional ingredient.

There are more evidences from history to be analysed. Even before the Spanish arrived, pigs were a luxury as they were raised by individual households instead of animal factories of today. Pigafetta noted that the prehispanic austronesians (indios) raised pigs but saved them as taxes for the Rajah or for trade with international merchants. Pigs were mostly eaten in the Rajah's palace during banquets. The luxury of pigs for only the nobility was also evident in medieval Europe.

Thus said, the early Adobo (whether Spanish or Filipino) had little pork just for flavour and mostly comprised of chicken.

While most people like to argue that certain dishes had origins in a single region, cuisine and food is just as global as frying, roasting, or boiling. These methods developed everywhere and were not mere influenced. For example, the European lechon is very similar the Chinese roasted pigs and did not influence each other. Noodles and pasta are similar but did not influence each other (despite the Marco Polo theory). Pasta is made from machines or slicing/kneading while noodles are pulled.

In a nutshell, Adobo comes from the word ‘Adobar’ or marinated. Adobo diversified throughout the Spanish empire based on what i gredients are popular among the colonists or what is available.

Also worthy to note that cuisine did not develop into receipes that we have today back in the 1500s. Cook books were just beginning to come about. Culinary itself only began in the 1400s or so during the Medici period in Europe.

Chances are, many Filipino dishes today only developed and became recipes during the colonial period, based on methods of cookery brought by the Spanish as well as native methods, which they eventually used.

Dishes had no names in ancient to medieval times. Just methods of cooking and were not documented.

The Spanish did not develop our cooking nor even dictated it. Rather, Filipino cooki g styles developed during the colonial period and by the Filipino colonists themselves.

Cayetano's Bayanihan Caravan reaches over a thousand Mindanawons

The Office of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano brought assistance to over a thousand residents of various provinces in Mindanao in the Bayanihan Caravan in Maguindanao del Norte held on October 3 to 4, 2023.

The senator’s office partnered with Mayor Datu Lester Sinsuat of the Municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat and the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) to organize a two-day medical caravan with a hospital desk.

The desk catered to a total of 707 patients battling critical health conditions like chronic kidney disease, cancer, pregnancy and childbirth, orthopedic issues, and heart disease.

The beneficiaries hailed from towns in Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, North Cotabato, and South Cotabato.

Among the beneficiaries was Elaine Montañer, whose husband, an overseas Filipino worker, had to return to the Philippines for cancer treatment. She expressed her heartfelt gratitude to Cayetano for the assistance they received for their mounting hospital bills.

“Humingi po ako ng tulong para sa asawa kong OFW na umuwi dahil sa sakit, naoperahan po dahil sa cancer at na-carry ni Senator Alan ang naiwan na 283,000 pesos sa aming hospital bill. Maraming salamat po sa malaking tulong na naibigay ni’yo sa amin,” she said.

On October 4, the Bayanihan Caravan took an additional step to support more individuals in need, benefiting 525 recipients from Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte. Cayetano’s aid was made possible through the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Mayor Datu Lester Sinsuat thanked the senator for extending his Tulong-Medikal Program and AICS assistance to the underprivileged in the region. 

“Gusto ko na personal na magpasalamat ako dahil sa medical at cash assistance na ibinigay po nila sa atin. Napakalaking tulong po nito sa ating mga kababayan,” he said.

The activity in Mindanao is part of the independent senator’s commitment to working hand in hand with government agencies and local government units to reach more communities across the country and extend relevant forms of support through his Bayanihan Caravan project.

On the Senate floor, Senator Cayetano continues to champion the provision of quality health services and livelihood support through bills such as the Puhunan Tungo sa Kaunlaran Act, Barangay Health Centers Act, and the Mahal Ko, Barangay Health Worker Ko Law. ###