Posts tagged with Kabataan Party

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September 27, 2009

Tulong Kabataan: Help victims of Typhoon Ondoy, donations & volunteers needed

Filipinos now need all the help they can get, especially those hit hardest by rampaging tropical storm Ondoy (international code name Ketsana). The storm made landfall yesterday in Luzon, bringing endless rains and spawning huge floods in Metro Manila and many parts of Luzon. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos are now homeless and an hundreds are feared dead. News of two more storms in the next weeks does not bode well.

TXTPower and Kabataan Partylist urges its members, supporters and friends abroad to make donations via Paypal. You may also donate via SmartMoney (5577-5144-1866-7103) or G-Cash 09266677163 or 0917-9751092. All donations coursed through the hotlines will be sent to the Philippine National Red Cross.

You may start donating by clicking here.

Donations can also be sent to Kabataan Partylist Headquarters, 118-B Sct. Rallos Stree, Quezon City (this is near Timog Avenue and EDSA). For more information please contact 0926-6677163 or kabataanpartylist @ gmail.com.

Volunteers are also welcome. Series of disaster relief activities will be held during the following weeks. Please leave a comment if you’re willing to help in any way.

National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) led the way and is now calling on all student councils to help with the relief drive. For UP Diliman students, you may drop off your donations and other supplies at the University Student Council office in Vinzons Hall. For UP Manila students, you may bring them to the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council office.

[photo above courtesy of Reuters]

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September 22, 2009

Budget cut in SUC’s means added burden to students

As the national government continues to cut down spending on the country’s 110 state universities and colleges (SUCs), students carry the burden of the steep cost of higher education, Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino said.

In the proposed national budget for 2010, allocation for SUCs will be slashed by 13 percent or a whopping P3.2 billion, thus forcing SUCs to generate income mostly from students.

Based on the 2010 National Expenditure Program, bulk of SUCs’ projected income of P10.2 billion will be sourced from tuition fees (P4.59 Billion) and other income from students (2.23 billion).

Palatino said “SUCs are being forced to rely less on government subsidy and more on internally-generated income in the form of tuition and other fees and privatization of assets. Unfortunately, the burden of financing tertiary education is placed on Filipino students, many of whom will be unable to afford it,” Palatino said.

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September 10, 2009

Snapshots of our Batasan office

I attended a committee hearing yesterday with soaked socks and squishy shoes. It was raining hard and I, unfortunately, stepped on a deep puddle while walking towards the Ramon Mitra Building in the Batasan complex.

I spent the rest of the morning till some hours after lunch at the hearing of the Committee on Higher and Technical Education. They were able to pass a couple of local bills, but the controversial Magna Carta of Students was remanded back to a technical working group because of the vehement objections of A TEACHER Rep. Piamonte and Valenzuela Rep. Gunigundo, who were obviously championing the rights of school owners and administrators. Their lines go, “We cannot grant students’ rights at the expense of the rights of school owners and administrators.”

“Schools have a right to exclusively determine fee increases, students or parents can just appeal to proper authority.”

“School-student relationship is contractual. Academic freedom includes the right of the school to determine how to best attain their objectives.”

“We cannot put private schools and state universities in the same situation. Government cannot compel private schools to give students same rights as those who are in state universities.”

Kabataan Party office in Congress Kabataan Party office in Congress

Late yesterday afternoon, we also decided to rearrange, for the fourth time I think, the few tables and chairs we have at our Batasan office. Here are some snapshots of our “make-shift” office, which is a compartment in a large room that used to be the office of the Congress security force. The room is now divided among a handful of newly-seated partylists. One of these days I’ll take a picture of our neighboring partylists’ offices. Walang laman. I don’t know kung hindi ba sila nagta-trabaho at sumusweldo lang nang walang ginagawa. Fine, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, baka sa ibang lugar nag-oopisina.

Kabataan Party office in Congress Kabataan Party office in Congress Kabataan Party office in Congress Kabataan Party office in Congress Kabataan Party office in Congress Kabataan Party office in Congress

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Free Special Education Act of 2009

This is the second bill we filed since Kabataan took its rightful seat in the House of Representatives. It’s a comprehensive measure that seeks to guarantee free and appropriate basic education to all Filipino children and youths with special needs, granted the severe shortage of public special education (SPED) facilities in the country and the lack of support from the government.

Based on the principle that children and youth with special needs have the right to participate and contribute to society, this bill seeks to ensure the equality of special children’s access to social services and self-improvement opportunities, their full participation in decisions concerning their welfare, and the possibility of their economic self-sufficiency.

Below is a brochure I prepared for the bill. Click here for the full text of the bill, H.B. 6771.

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September 9, 2009

An Act Amending the Public Libraries Establishment Act of 1993

This is one of the first two bills which we filed in Congress since Kabataan was granted its seat a few months ago. It’s a bill which aims to strengthen and modernize existing public libraries in the country and to step up the efforts of establishing public libraries in all cities and municipalities in the Philippines, as well as reading centers in all barangays. Read the text of the bill, H.B. 6770, here. Below are jpeg copies of the brochure I prepared about the bill, click on the images for the larger version.

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Kabataan disapproves of House approval of “text tax” bill

Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino today disapproves of the approval by the House of Representatives in the committee level of a measure imposing a five-centavo excise tax on every text message, saying that the “no pass-on provision” is no assurance that consumers will not shoulder the additional burden.

“Despite statements from the authors of the bill and House Speaker Propspero Nograles that the “text tax’” should not add to the burdens of the tax paying public, these do not guarantee that consumers will not shoulder this additional burden.”

Palatino said that the present deregulated telecommunications industry makes it virtually impossible for the government to impose the “no pass-on” provision. “The government is simply powerless to stop telcos from imposing new fees to consumers in light of the implementation of this new text tax,” he said.

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September 4, 2009

Kabataan wants gov’t to provide free educ to children with special needs

Filipino children and youth with special needs shall receive free and appropriate public education if a bill filed by a young solon pushes through.

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raymond “Mong” Palatino today filed House Bill 6771 or the “Free Special Education (SPED) Act of 2009” allowing free services for children and youth with special needs – from early diagnosis and intervention to basic and ongoing education.

Filipino children and youth with special needs include the gifted or talented, the mentally retarded, the visually impaired, the hearing impaired, the orthopedically or physically handicapped, the learning disabled, the speech defective, the children with behavior problems, the children with autism, and those with health problems.

“Like everyone else, children and youth with special needs have the right to participate and contribute to society. As such, it is the obligation of the State to ensure the equality of their access to social services and life-improvement opportunities, their full participation in decisions concerning their welfare, and the eventual possibility of their economic self-sufficiency,” Palatino said in the bill’s explanatory note.

Citing a study by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Palatino said SPED in the country lacks basic funding to be able to properly address the needs of special children and youth.

Under the HB 6771, a Bureau of SPED will be created to formulate and administrate of an appropriate curriculum and developmentally-suited programs to primarily achieve functional literacy of the students/children with special needs and ensure their integration to society. The SPED bureau shall also ensure adequate and free medical assistance to these children, including those essential to their rehabilitation like therapy, psychometric assessments and medical examinations.

Full text of HB 6771 here.

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September 2, 2009

Kabataan sa Batasan on Twitter and Plurk!

The House of Representatives staff of Kabataan Party, of which I am part of, started a group Twitter and Plurk account a few days ago. Since we attend committee hearings left and right, attend plenary sessions and other Congress functions, too, we might as well give you a blow by blow account of the happenings in Congress, from the interesting and sometimes scandalous sound bites of congressmen (which may not see the light of day in mainstream TV), to random and mundane twits about various quirks with House procedures and our rants on Congress red tape, among other things. The entire Batasan complex is wifi-enabled after all. Add us up, we are Kabataan Crew!

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September 1, 2009

DepEd’s Overpriced Shampoo, Dental Needs, Otoscopes

Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams
Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams Kabataan Press Conference on DepEd Scams

Last Wednesday, Kabataan Partylist, held a joint press conference with Gabriela Women’s Party with regard to the allegations of corruption against the Department of Education in its millions of pesos worth of purchases, not only of error-filled books, but also of shampoo, dental needs, and otoscopes for public school children.

Gabriela, who had previously filed a resolution in the House of Representatives about the Department’s purchase of millions of pesos worth of error-filled textbooks, reiterated its call to investigate the scandalous project. Read the list of errors and I guarantee you, it’s like reading jokes from Engrish.com. On its face, it’s hilarious, but if you think about how it’s being taught to millions of Filipino public school children, it’s scary. No wonder our children our faring poorly in standardized exams.

As if the millions of pesos government officials in the Department of Education allegedly pocketed with the error-filled textbooks weren’t enough, here comes overpriced shampoo, overpriced dental supplies and overpriced otoscopes. Hindi talaga pinalampas para pagkakitaan pati buhok, ngipin at tenga ng mga batang estudyante. Bid prices of the medical supplies were found to be more than double the prevailing market prices of the same items. Even if the Department claims they are of excellent quality, shouldn’t the price per unit be even cheaper because they are being purchased in bulk?

Here is the TV Patrol story on the scam, as exposed by Kabataan Partylist:

Here is the story of Bulatlat with regard to the scam.

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August 26, 2009

Spot Report #1 on Con-Con Deliberations

One of my tasks in Batasan is to attend committee hearings and other functions in Congress when Kabataan Rep. Palatino has another Congress function to attend. Yesterday, since Mong was at the hearing of the Special Committee on Bases Conversion regarding the North Rail project, I attended one of the hearings of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments regarding the proposed Constitutional Convention (Con-Con).

As it appears right now, administration congressmen are not acting on the controversial HR 1109 calling for a Constituent Assembly. They are now focused on drafting a bill allowing Congress to call for a Con-Con to revise the 1987 Philippine Constitution. It will be a consolidation of a handful of other measures on Con-Con proposed by different congressmen. As proposed, the members of the Constitutional Convention will be elected during next year’s national elections.

There had been meetings before, and much of the time was spent on debates with regard to the inclusion of the phrase “voting separately” which specifies how majority of the House and the Senate would approve the calling for Con-Con. Eventually, administration congressmen in the Committee voted to strike it off and leaving the “vagueness” of the present Constitution as is. Only Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza voted against it in yesterday’s deliberation.

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