Panorama Vol. XXl, No. 2 February 1969

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Title: Panorama Vol. XXl, No. 2 February 1969
Issue Date: Vol. XXl, No. 2 February 1969
Year: 1969
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extracted text: THE MONTH S FEATURE: GROUNDS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM 30 Centavos FEBRUARY 1969 "juudi ud fallow PANORAMA needs intelligent renders of: 1. Informative materials 2. Interesting ideas 3. Enlightening opinions 4. Broadening views 5. Controversial thoughts 6. Critical comments 7. Idealistic suggestions 8. Humorous remarks 9. Serious statements 10. Meditations on life and work. All these are either original productions or selective adap tions and condensations from Philippine and foreign publica tions. Usually brief and compact, lasting from two to ten minutes to read, each article offers a rewarding experience in one’s moments of leisure. Relax with Panorama. We say this to the busy student and the teacher, the lawyer and the physician, the dentist and the engineer, the executive and the farmer, the politician and the preacher, the employer and the employee. PANORAMA is specially designed for Filipinos — young, middle-aged, and old, male and female, housekeeper and houselizard. Special rates on November 1, for new and renewal 1966: subscriptions to begin 1 copy ..................................... 1 year ..................................... 2 years ................................... Foreign rate: .......................... 50 centavos P5.00 P9.00 $3.00 (U. S.) For one year’s subscription of 5 pesos, a person receives the equivalent of 12 compact pocketbooks of lasting value and and varied interest. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines Vol. XXI THE PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE OF GOOD READING Entered as second class mail matter at the Manila Post Office on Dec. 1, 1965 Dr. M. Carreon cor. A. de las Alas, Sta. Ana, Manila MANILA, PHILIPPINES No. 2 THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN UNIVERSITY A fundamental feature of university life in Southeast Asia is that it has been imported from abroad, with ready-made value systems sometimes already crystallized in institutions, techniques, and attitudes. But academic values outside Southeast Asia are neither uniform nor un changing, and the comparison of different colonial aca demic models is stimulating new thought in the region. The institutions in which these values are exemplified are no longer sacrosanct . . . The imitation of foreign curricula, reading lists, and examination questions makes for unnecessary cultural con flict. One set of cultural and political ideas is approved academically; a quite different set finds expression in newspapers and in public life. And because the public is made to think of the university as mainly a source of factual knowledge, students come to rely on memory and care little for principles and techniques. It would seem to be wiser for the universities to make it quite clear that it is an important part of university training to change attitudes and to produce real professional people — doctors who can really cure, lawyers who can uphold* the law, historians who can find out and interpret what happened. (Continued on page 4) ■ What is wrong with the way the native Filipino language is now being developed as a national language? This article gives an answer. NATIONAL LANGUAGE LAW The development of the national language by the National Language Institute was assailed recently by Jorge B. Vargas, former ex ecutive secretary, as a viola tion of the Constitution, and “a reversion to the practices of the Dark Ages.” In a letter to MADYAAS Pro-Hiligaynon Society, Inc., a cultural, non-profit asso ciation of civic leaders from West Visayas, Vargas said that President Quezon, a Tagalog, wanted to build up “an acceptable common Fili pino national language, not by inventing fantastic Taga log words and phrases, but by enriching basic Tagalog with infusions from the other developed Filipino dialects like Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Bicol, Pampango, Samareno and Ilocano,” Vargas said. The former Malacanang official, who was known be fore the war as the Little President because he was practically left by Quezon to run administrative affairs in the Palace, joined the Madyaas Society as a charter member. He said he is ready to assist in all efforts to car ry out the projects of the association, specially in the development of the national language according to the provision and spirit of the Constitution. In his letter to Severino, president of MADYAAS ProHiligaynon Society, Inc., Vargas traced the govern ment efforts in the develop ment of the national lang uage, and bewailed that the institute today has departed from the original concept of the farmers of the Consti tution. He said: “As a first step in this direction, President Quezon appointed a Visayan, an ex-Supreme Court justice, Norberto Romualdez, as the first chairman of the Natio 2 Panorama nal Language Institute. When Justice Romualdez retired, Quezon selected an other Visayan-Spanish lin guist, Jaime C. de Veyra, as the Institute’s second chair man. To make up a truly national institute President Quezon, of course, also ap pointed able and scholarly representatives from the other regions of the country.” “In a recent past, however, the National Language In stitute seems to have been reduced to one man, a Ta galog, who single-handedly has been, in my opinion, prostituting the purpose and intention of the original framers of the Constitution of setting up Tagalog only as a basis for, and not as the national language itself. Instead, the present trend is to go back to the stone age antediluvian Tagalog with its primitive vocabulary and limited alphabet of only twenty letters. If this tribalistic policy is ultimately and officially implemented, confirmed and/or enforced bv our government, the Fili pino learning to speak his national language will be for ever prescribed to the absur dity and ignonimy of not being allowed to pronounce, among others, the letters “F,” “V,” the Spanish “C,” or the diphthong “TH.” He will also have to swallow the idiotic and backward Ta galog practice of lumping together such common and ordinary concepts as “hus band” and “wife” into one and the same word — “ASAWA” — instead of selecting and incorporating into the National Language from one of the cultivated dialects a distinct word for “husband” like “BANA” for instance in Hiligaynon. "I am especially saddened by the fact that it had to be a Cebuano-speaking Visayan secretary of education (a Negrense at that!) who of ficially sanctioned the shame less misspelling of “Filipinas” and “Filipino” with a “P” instead of the educated, civi lized and universally recog nized “F.” If many of us Filipinos have a congenital difficulty in correctly diffe rentiating the pronunciation of the letters “F” and “P.” “B” and “V” and “C” and “S,” let us not compel all others to make the same er ror or condemn the entire nation to miserably mispel Febbuary 1969 8 the name of our country. Let us call ourselves “Pelipinos,” and our country “Pelipinas” if we cannot help it, but for God’s sake, let us be permitted to write the words correctly. Nobody ever chides the Spanish Ame rican for not pronouncing the letter “C” in the purely Castilian style, but in his written language “S” is never substituted for “C” where the correct Spanish spelling calls for it. “It is high time, there fore in my opinion, that the users, students and scholars of the other Filipino dialects organize themselves for the sanity to the all Filipino task purpose of returning some of formulating and develop ing our common Natipnal Language by demanding and insisting on a strict adher ence to the basic lines ori ginally conceived and speci fically promulgated by our Congress under the authority of our national fundamental law, the Philippine Consti tution, as recommended by President Manuel Luis Que zon. — Manila Times, Jan. 1969. THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN . . . (Continued from page 1) The claim should be made. It may make the gov ernments keener than ever to have universities staffed by their own nations, who share the national aspirations; it may mean wrestling with difficult constitutional issues; but the right of the university, however constituted, to control the training of attitudes is one that should be fought for and won. For the whole concept of professional codes, and of the training of professional responsibility, is still unfamiliar in many of these countries. Universities are seen as places where people can learn to pass examina tions and so gain the knowledge formerly monopolized by Europeans. They are seen too few as places where values are created and attitudes changed. — From the Southeast Asian University by T. H. Sitcock, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Malaya U. Panorama ■ To avoid election irregularities, here are some suggestions. IMPROVEMENT OF VOTING SYSTEM Why don’t our politicians behave the way American or English politicians do? Why can they not learn the art of losing? The obvious an swer is that if our elections were relatively free and clean — I use relatively, because American elections are not completely clean — it should be easy for any politician to concede defeat, it should be easy for the loser to ac cept the popular verdict. That is the reason why I am for the recasting of the rules on elections — recasting them in such a way that the victor need not be ashamed of his triumph, since it is genuine, and the vanquished can graciously accept his de feat, since it is true. I propose the following: 1. Voters should be regis tered only, as before, in the precinct of the place where they reside. Thousands of people in Manila, Quezon City, Rizal, Davao, and ma ny other places did not know where they could vote. The spectacle in the 1967 elec tions of a Commissioner of the COMELEC, not knowing the precinct where he could vote, is no longer funny. It could be tragic. A close fight in the United States may not culminate in violent uprising; but a closely con tested electoral fight in the Philippines, with a razor edge majority of 20,000 votes, let us say, in a Presidential election could spell violence. 2. Registration should stop well ahead of time, say, 60 days before the elections, and the voters’ list should be im mediately prepared so as to give the courts ample oppor tunity to decide inclusion and exclusion cases. 3. With the use of modern electronic machines, it should be possible to have' a com plete list, a master-list, of all voters in every city and mu nicipality, indicating dates of birth, residence and other personal circumstances. It Eebbuahy 1969 5 would then be easy in every precinct to catch phantom and flying voters. 4. The rampant and ex pensive use of sample ballots can be avoided by a new system of paper ballots, such as they have in Los Angeles, California, which would al low for the use of mark-sen sing machines. 5. With this system, polls can be closed earlier — say at 2 or 3 o’clock in the af ternoon, and thereby avoid mischiefs committed in ma ny places where there is no electricity. 6. Through the use of mark-sensing machines, which are relatively cheap, results can be immediately transmit ted to regional centers in Mindanao, Visayas, and Lu zon, where computers can be installed for immediate com putation. These computers are available in the Philip pines and can be had for rent. It should be possible to know the election results throughout the Philippines in 24 hours. It is passing strange that in India, with such a tre mendous area and an electo rate much bigger than that of America, election results are known within 24 hours. Certainly, there can be no excuse for slow, inaccurate returns in the Philippines. But even with the use of mark-sensing machines and computers, it is still neces sary — and probably even more imperative — that the polls be guarded zealously to prevent terrorism and mass frauds. The use of modern machines will be futile if voters are terrorized and pre cinct officials made to per form their duties under the gun. For no computer, no matter how sophisticated, can save us from the weight of our own vices and follies. If, as stated by the present COMELEC Chairman, the Phil ippine Constabulary can no longer be relied upon be cause of their partisan acti vities in the last elections, it should be possible — and I believe they will welcome it — to have our youth — particularly, the ROTC ca dets, imbued with idealism and untouched by the long arm of corrupting politics — man the polls in 1969. This could be our most critical hour. 6 Panorama Involvement of the youth in public affairs could be the means of our redemp tion as a people. It is, to my mind, an oversimplifica tion to say that they should avoid political activity. Mil lions of young Czechs, Viet namese, Hungarians, Poles, and Africans are dying eve ryday for the right of a free and unfettered vote. It will not be too much — and I think they will want it — for the youth of the land to secure the exercise by the nation of free suffrage so they do not have to fight and die for it in the moun tain fastnesses if we should by our own lack of vigilance and resourcefulness, lose that right. In the last analysis, it is this that differentiates us from a dictatorship, whether of the extreme left or of the extreme right — namely, the right of a free, liberty loving people to hold their public officials to account and to change them, at given intervals, of their own volun tary will. Where our elected officials are elected through the ho nest and free exercise of the popular will, they are not beholden to the manipula tors and agents of force and fraud. They do not have to enter into secret conspiracies after the elections to reward them for their notorious ac tivities. They can exercise the duties of their office as free agents of - the popular will, bound only by the dic tates of their conscience and the mandate of a sovereign people. It is high time, I submit, we made politics — up to this point a term of disrepute — a respected and respectable calling in this land. Whether we like it or not, politics means pub lic affairs, and as long as we are in society we cannot es cape involvement in matters that affect the entire commu nity. It is our joint respon sibility — one that is both onerous and exalting — to spend the resources of mind and strength and spirit to bring about a more respon sible, a more decent, and a more responsive governance of public affairs. — Senator Jovito Salon ga, portion of a speech, Manila Times, Nov ember 28, 1968. February 1969 7 E 1 he weakness of the Philippine stand on Sabah is indicated here. AMERICAN PRESSURE ON SABAH The most welcome, though whispered, news from Ma laysia is that the ailing Radhakrishna Ramani is finally giving up his 35 year-long Malaysian exile, to return to his native Madras, away from the cares of Sabah. Ramani is the man who described the Philippine Sa bah claim a compound of fantasy, fallacy and fiction at the United Nations; the same man who uttered the wittiest, if most sarcastic, re marks at the ill-fated Bang kok talks in which the Phil ippines had to call on the late services of Leon Ma. Guerrero , to make its side better understood in a bila teral discussion in which En glish, rather than Tausog, was the language used. On the eve of the Bang kok negotiations, a much-con cerned foreign office was se riously groping for an idea of what kind of negotiator this Ramani was, and in en thusiastic prose the cable from the Philippine mission to the United Nations said: “Born in Madras, India; educated at University of Madras and received the fol lowing degrees: Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy and En glish); Master of Arts (En glish language and Litera ture); Bachelor of Laws. Was admitted barrister at law of Middle Temple in London in 1929; practised law in Kuala Lumpur from 1930 to 1963 with exception of period 1942-1945 when he practised law in Madras. “Member of legislative council of Federation of Ma laya from 1948 to 1954 and served on numerous legisla tive committees dealing with post-war legislation and other constitutional developments in Federation of Malaya. “President of International Commission of Jurists (Ma laysian branch) and attended international law conferences at New Delhi, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Athens. 8 Panorama “Deputy permanent repre sentative of Malaysia to the United Nations in 1963, be coming its permanent repre sentative in Nov. 1964. As president of the security council in May 1965 he was widely praised for his im pressive forensic ability par ticularly during Dominican Republic crisis. “A strict vegetarian, ailing but extremely intelligent and articulate.” What Ambassador Salvador P. Lopez in the U.N. did not have to add was that Ramani had soaked himself on the Sabah question since 1962 a year before the Malaysia federation was announced, which announcement was to start a 33-month-long border war with Indonesia and a similar duration of abnormal relations with the Philip pines. The “extreme intelligence” of Ramani was to become evident to the Filipino ne gotiators in Bangkok; it did not prevent them from con fessing in their hotel rooms that the man was a full strength demolition squad. At one instance when his cutting words were protested by the Philippine delegation, the Malaysian spokesman ex plained that it was not Ramani’s fault. Ramani, the spokesman explained, had a sharp tongue and a precise language; it was never the knife’s fault if it was sharo. All this serves to illustrate the climate that now prevails at Padre Faura as it is de lightfully whispered that the old vegetarian is returning to his native India. To our diplomats, Ramani’s absence is a better chance for our claim to Sabah — in case another round of talks is held, though that be most unlikely. There may be a thousand and one ways of dispatching such a reaction without much comment; the more pertinent suggestion is that PhilippineMalaysian dialogue, or its ab sence, on Sabah can not re ly over-much on personalities. Yet, in a way, such reaction serves to illustrate that the enthusiasm on the Sabah question is undimmed. There may be a momen tary suggestion that the Sa bah question, let alone the current Philippine-Malaysian troubled relations may now February 1969 9 be shoved aside as a minor problem, the more one talks of future Philippine-American relations and Asian-Ame rican security arrangements. Yet this suggestion misleads. A heavy emphasis on Philippine-American relations does not offer a diversion from the Sabah question; it rati fies rather the need to find a resolution of that question which, in Washington’s eyes, must now impair solidarity in the region. As the Philippines preoc cupies itself with its own anxiety about America’s fu ture role here, and the Pa cific, so may Washington be expected to increase its pres sure on us on this sensitive question. But, whether the adminis tration is as keen to receive that pressure as it is to so licit, it is something which by now it must be able to give an indication of. — Francisco Tatad, Manila Bul letin Dec. 6, 1968. COOPERATION AMONG NATIONS We have begun to realize that while self-help in individual countries is of crucial importance, we can achieve our larger purposes of improving the lives of our peoples through interdependence. Our faith in regional cooperation rests on this axiom — that the economic progress of jfny one country in Southeast Asia will be enhanced by collective regional development efforts. — Ferdinand E. Marcos 10 Panorama ■ An astonishing Filipino female student shows her ability as a master reader. OUR TOP SPEED-READER NOW IN U.S. What can we do to honor our fifteen-year-old plucky Filipina girl who’s No. 1 candidate for the WORLD’S top speed-reader? To all our students in all our high schools and colleges I say, Let’s do honor to Maria Te resa Calderon.^ Did you read The Weekly Nation’s (1/27) reprint of a Milwaukee Journal Staff ar ticle about her by William C. Nelson who called her the “fastest reader in the world?” Now I am privi leged to share with you parts of her latest letter to her parents: “I found out that I had to fly on to Chicago the fol lowing morning! I had to ask 2 days off. Monday and Tuesday. Schale paid for plane fare so I left Dubuque airport — Monday, February 3 at 8:40 a.m. As I got in to Chicago, Leo picked me up. We went to China-town to get Siopao! Then, pro ceeded to Schale’s place. Dr. Schale plus 2 other speed readers (10,000 wpm-20,000 wpm) and myself proceeded on to the Chicago Loop. Schale treated us to lunch at the Marina City Restau rant. It was exquisite! Then we went to the Uni versity at Illinois. There was this machine which recorded your eye vision. Reading pace, etc. This was. We had to read with one eye! We wore masks which co vered our left eye. It was terrible. I had never tried reading with one eye in my whole life! They gave me a 6,000 word-short story “De vil and Daniel Webster.’’ I read it at 80,000 words per minute and 100 per cent com prehension. Brother! I was shocked. Everyone was sur prised too. After reading another article the day’s work was done. Prof. Schale was so happy and in high spirits February 1969 11 she brought me to the apart ment. Leo and I picked up Lil. We went out to eat at George Diamonds. I had a T-Bone steak then we watch ed the movie Shoes of the Fisherman. I enjoyed it. The book is a lot better though. “Tuesday — flight for Min neapolis, Minnesota. Profes sor Schale with her Cadillac picked me up at the apart ment at 7:45 a.m. We pro ceeded to Chicago’s O’Hara Airport. We missed our flight due to the traffic jam. We ate breakfast and got on the 10:00 flight. Upon ar riving at Minneapolis, we took a cab to the University of Minnesota. We met the famous Professors Alton Raygor and Kunes Brown who have written books on Effi cient Reading. We had lunch on the campus. After lunch we proceeded on. They gave more photographic memory tests. No one had gotten a perfect score there. They gave me 5 seconds to observe the picture. Then each one asked specific ques tions — detailed ones! I got a hundred per cent. Then I was given the speed-read ing test. I read at 80,000 words per minute! They (as well as I) were astonished! After the test, w^ proceeded to the airport for my flight back here. “As you see, the past days have been busy. Now, I’m back to school to hit the books again. Phew!” Let me quote Nelson’s ar ticle which recounts how she was handed a pocketbook How to Buy Stocks. This would be a rugged test for the polite teenager who could possibly be the fastest reader in the world. “Would you read the 19th chapter, ‘What It Means to Speculate?’ she was asked. ‘Sure,’ she replied, ‘but first I’d like to see how many pages are in the chapter.’ The black haired, efferves cent little girl (she stands only 4 feet 10 inches and jokingly calls herself ‘the dwarf') thumbed through the seven pages as her inter viewer jotted down a few notes. “He heard the pages flip over, then she said: “All right, I’m ready.’ OK, go ahead and read the chapter.’ ‘I already have.' ‘You don’t mean it.’ ‘Sure. Very inte 12 Panorama resting. Now ask me some questions.’ ” She had taken less than a minute to zip through a complicated chapter. The reporter had spent 15 mi nutes wading through it. The question-answer session delved into the distinction between speculation and gambling. Penny stocks. Cy clical stocks and the size of their dividend. Long and short term capital gains. Pyramid profits. Her answers were correct ...and in detail. A talk ative, down-to-earth girl, she even tossed a few of her own questions at the repor ter. "Don't be too sur prised,” she said graciously. "My father is a member of the Manila stock exchange and my older sister is an investment analyst in Chi cago.” “I hope to work on the stock exchange this summer.” “The writer was convinced. Teresa, now a junior at St. Clara Academy, a Catholic girls’ boarding school just east of Dubuque, is a remark able girl.” So says Nelson. Teresa makes front page in Ameri ca. HOW do we HONOR her? — Manila Chronicle, Feb. 15, 1969. THE VETO POWER The veto is a powerful political tool. There are no such political simpletons as would let it drop. — Andrei Vishinski Februaby 1969 13 ■ The problem is not new. It arises from many sources but specially from the Mandarin system creating “intense claustrophobia.” THE PROBLEM OF STUDENT VIOLENCE As a historian Jacques Barzun is aware that Am erican college campus vio lence is not new to this gen eration. He says that the impression one gets of stu dents in medieval universi ties “is of an army of tramps, spongers, and hoodlums” and recalls that the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1825 petitioned the board for policemen to protect them from students. The era of relative peace on the American campus opened only at about the beginning of this century and ended in 1964. But he adds: “To describe this tradition of violence is not to condone it but to en courage the search for causes.” In his own search for causes, Barzun pays scant heed to the Vietnam conflict, the civil rights debate, or the draft. More important, he thinks, is the fact that modern society has created, without knowing it, a man darin system. "I mean by this that in order to achieve any goal, however modest, one must qualify. Qualifying means: having been trained, passed a course, obtained a certifi cate . . . The young in col lege were born into this sys tem which in this country is not much older than they, and they feel, quite rightly, intense claustrophobia. They have been in the groove since the sandbox.” Though he sympathizes with students in such a pre dicament, Barzun takes a firm paternalistic stand against what he calls: "... the arrogant preten tions and airs of holier-thanthou put forward by the ins titution goaders. They can seize the privilege of irres 14 Panorama ponsibility if they will take the consequences. But they cannot turn it into a right to run the budget and lec ture the trustees. Criticism is the student’s prerogative under free speech, and they have it — though it seems at times a bit of effrontery also to claim sizeable subsi dies from the administration in order to print daily in sults about it.” The author notes a signi ficant distinction between the protestors of the Thirties and those of today: ”... the beardless Thirties were out to create a new world of which they had the blue print. The hirsute Sixties are out to re-create them selves without a plan.” And he challenges many of their current complaints. Of the widely heard demand for “relevance,” he says: “If a university is not to become an educational wea ther vane ... it must avoid all ‘relevance’ of the obvious sort. The spirit of its teach ing will be relevant if the members are good scholars and really teach. Nearly everywhere there is enough free choice among courses so that no student is impri soned for long in anything he cannot make relevant, if only he will forget the fan tasy of instant utility. That fantasy is in fact what rules the world of credentials and qualifications which he so rightly kicks against.” Of the demand of earnest students that the university teach them “values,” Barzun says: “The wish is not so laud able as it sounds, being only the wish to have one’s per plexities removed by some one else. Even if this were feasible and good, the prac tical question of what brand of values (i.e. what philo sophy, religion, or politics) should prevail would be in soluble. It is a sufficient miracle if a college educa tion, made up of many parts and many contacts with di vergent minds, removes a lit tle ignorance. Values (socalled) are not taught; tl>7 are breathed in or imitated. And here is the pity of the sophistication that no longer allows the undergraduate to admire some of his elders and fellows: he deprives himself of models and is Febhuaby 1969 15 left with a task beyond the powers of most men, that of fashioning a self unaided.” The leaders of the student revolts will probaDly view such statements as those of a doddering oldtimer who has been a part of the estab lishment for much too long, but other students — the silent majority which still hopes to learn what it can from the older generation — will profit from them. When he wrote Teacher in America, a quarter of a century ago, Barzun offered some pungent criticisms of administrators, saying among other things, “Nothing so strikes the foreign observer with surprise as the size and power of American collegiate administration.” Now that he has been a dean and pro vost for a number of years, he offers his considered view of the administrative role: “It sometimes seems to a university administration that their sols business is to keep students calmed down, the faculty on campus, and the neigbors contented. But administration is not trou bleshooting, and these feats, (hough incessant and gruel ing, are only incidental. Ad ministering a university has but one object: to distribute its resources to the best ad vantage. Resources here is not a genteel word for mo ney. The resources of a uni versity are seven in number: men, space, time, books, equipment, repute and mo ney. All administrative acts serve this one purpose of stretching capital and divid ing income fairly and fruit fully.” In his earlier book, Barzun was scornful of Columbia’s Teachers College. In this one he mentions “the regene ration of Teachers College under the brilliant leader ship of John Fisher (which) was probably helped rather than hindered by the intel lectually inanimate state in which he found it.” In a chapter titled “Scho lars in Orbit,” Barzun reaf firms charges that have been made by many other writers: the Ph.D. program does not include an adequate prepa ration for the job of teach ing, faculty promotions are based largely on research and publication, and within the faculty there is a con 16 Panorama tinuous struggle between the young men in a hurry and the older men who are not yet ready to be pushed aside. But Barzun sees some im provement in at least one aspect of the Ph.D. program: “ . . . the old monumental, life-sentence, eiderdown-quilt dissertation, which I des cribed and deplored in Teacher in America, is re ceding inio the past. Most departments approve only manageable topics and set limits to the number of pages that may be catapulted at a sponsor. The change has come partly in response, to repeated urgings by gra duate deans and partly in self-defense: the sponsor is swamped; he needs a pitch fork to turn over the papers on his desk and he there fore views with a lack-luster eye the student who has chosen to tell all in twelve hundred typed pages.” It is not entirely clear what audience Barzun had in mind when he wrote his book. The chapter on to day’s students should appeal to a great many readers. The chapters on scholars and administrators will be of interest to most academic men and to some outside the university. But the large section of the book that deals with the financial problems of the contempo rary private university in America seems less likely to hold the interest of anyone except administrators, uni versity trustees, and poten tial donors, even though Barzun’s analysis is a sophisti cated one. — By Paul Wood ring in Saturday Review, De cember 21, 1968. OF RED CHINA'S THREAT Our immediate problem in Asia is to enable neighboring countries to resist the crushing tropism of Communist China until they can develop a strong new system of their own. — Salvador P. Lopez February 1969 17 ■ This article discusses the great importance of a library to education. A library of well-selected books and publications is the source of a uni versity’s strength, blood, and warmth; it is its. lamp of learning. THE IMPORTANCE OF A LIBRARY I am here to rejoice with you that a great thing has been accomplished, and ask you a question: What kind of library is this going to be? The successful transplan ting of a new heart gives promise of renewed vigor and extended lift to the aca demic organism which it serves. For truly the library building is the heart of any college campus, from which the life blood of learning flows to every other part of the organism. A college may have a weak physical education depart ment and still be great, but not a weak library! Its department of economics may be a withered hand, its En glish or history departments myopic eyes, its biology de partment a sour stomach, and its administration a slightly .addled head, but if its li brary heart is adequately sup plying the needed library materials, the college can function and fulfill a major part of its purpose — name ly, education — in whatever other parts of the curricu lum are healthy. This library building is not really the library, in spite of the modern usage recorded in Webster’s Inter national, . .. Library in its original, etymological source derived from the Latin Librarius, “of books,” implying any collection or assembly of books, and I am sure that President Meyer and his staff know this and mean to see to it that this fine building is increasingly supplied with the materials that are the es sential muscle of the organ. In using the term, "libra ry materials,” I meant that the modern library cannot be adequately supplied if 18 Panorama stocked with books and other printed matter. Eve ry library must stretch its budget somehow to include, to some extent, the era ol recorded sound and sight. It is simply intolerable today to limit study of Shake speare’s plays to the printed text when there are magni ficent sound recordings and even motion pictures avail able for library and classroom use. We cannot ever hear Lincoln’s voice speaking the Gettysburg Address, but we can and should forever be able to hear Churchill speak ing his immortal “blood, sweat, and tears.” Truly the records of his tory, of literature, and of science will never again be limited to the written or printed word, and whether film, microfilm, electronic tape, or plastic disc is the medium, the modern library must increasingly provide the means of preserving and serving these new forms to those who learn. As for the librarian, his role has become, in spite of his best efforts perhaps, more nearly like that of the ope rator of a department sto/e or supermarket, checking in merchandise by label and checking it out by label. He does well even to keep his shelves in order and see that customers do not leave with items unaccounted for. Certainly, being a librarian is no longer, even in a small college, a part time job for one of the elder professors. Even if one is not a li brarian, he cannot be wholly unaware of what has been called the “information ex plosion,” and the problem it presents to education in ge neral and to the library in particular. For example, in the year I went to college (1923), the Library of Con gress held 3,089,000 books, of which 89,000 had been added to the collections that year. Last year it held near ly 15 million books, over 400,000 of them acquired that year. In 1923 the Library of Congress had so few sound recordings that it did not even keep count of them, but last year it held 225,000, of which nearly 25,000 had been added that year. As a teacher of literature and history, like many of my colleagues, I used to la Fedhuart 1969 19 ment my students’ lack of background. But we must face the fact that although to read one book may have been sufficient for Thomas Aquinas, as he proudly in sisted, that book is by no means necessarily<the one to lead the lists of books that college freshmen should read today. I venture that there are at least ten books pub lished in the last year which are more important for a college freshman to read now, and I will go out on a limb by naming tw’o of them: The Body, a 552 page com pendium of scientific knowl edge by Anthony Smith and Concerning Dissent and Ci vil Disobedience, a 64-page paperback legal essay by Abe Fortas. Oliver Goldsmith, observed two hundred years ago that "The volumes of antiquity, Like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious: but the works of the mo derns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much bet ter for immediate use? The question "What kind of library?” is related to the question “What kind of cur riculum?” which has been troubling the academic world as long as I can remember. The student rebellions on college and university cam puses during the last two years have indicated pretty clearly two things: 1) what ever the faculty and adminis tration may have thought was a good way to run higher education, a great many stu dents (and some faculty) did not think so; and 2) the rebellious students have a great deal to learn. That’s why I think Justice Fortas’ book might well be required reading! The trouble with most of us is that we think we have already learned, un til we are brought up against events which make it all too clear that we must continue, or begin all over again. — Excerpts from the address at the dedication of the Heterick Memorial Library by Dr. Roy Basler, The Library of Congress. 20 Panorama ■ An American reporter wrote about General Gre gorio del Pilar, the intrepid Filipino soldier and leader who died fighting for his country against a superior American force. THE OLD FILIPINO For more than a year now, government propa gandists have fed the nation a lot of pap about that pre posterous creature called the New Filipino.” What was wrong with the Old Fili pino? The day before yes terday, we paused to honor an Old Filipino named An dres Bonifacio who valiantly raised the standard of re volt against Spain and fought selflessly for freedom until he was assassinated upon the orders of his am bitious rivals. Too many of the present-day “New Fili pinos” about whom the ad ministration talks so glibly were descended, not from Bonifacio, but from the breed of politicians who de creed his murder. Today, the nation comme morates the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Tirad Pass and the memory of the men who went into battle against the advancing American troops — all oi them know ing that they would die. Were they not all Old Fili pinos? The oldest of them all in wisdom and self-sacri fice was their young com mander, Gen. Gregorio del Pilar, aged 22, tvho gave up all his dreams of youth and tomorrow in order that you and I might salvage some measure of hope and pride from Lhe record of his gen eration. I am not going to write a column today about Del Pilar and his men. Let an American war correspondent named Richard Henry Little of the Chicago Tribune, re porting on the battle from the other side, tell the story. It is one of the finest pieces of reporting I have ever read. • • • “It was a great fight/’ Little wrote from the field Fedhuahy 1969 21 on that day in 1899, “that was fought away up on the (.rail ol lonely Tirad Pass on that Saturday morning of Dec. 2. It brought glory to Major March’s battalion of the 33rd Volunteer Infantry who were the victors. It brought no discredit to the little band of sixty Filipinos who fought and died there. Sixty was the number that at Aguinaldo’s orders had come down into the pass that morning to arrest the onward march of the Amer icans. Seven were all that went back over the pass that night to tell Aguinaldo that they had tried and failed. Fifty-three of them were ei ther killed or wounded. And among them, the last to re treat, we found the body of young Gen. Gregorio del Pilar.” “We had seen him cheer ing his men in the fight. One of our companies crouched up close under the side of the cliff where he had built his first intrenchment, heard his voice conti nually during the fight urg ing his men to greater effort, scolding them, praising them, cursing, appealing one mo ment to their love of their native land and the next ins tant threatening to kill them himself if they did not stand firm.” “Driven from the first intrenchment he fell back slowly to the second in full sight of our sharpshooters and under a heavy fire. Not until every man around him in the second intrenchment was down did he turn his white horse around and ride slowly up the winding trail. Then we who were below saw an American squirm his way out to the top of a high flat rock, and take de liberate aim at the figure on the white horse. We held our breath, not know ing whether to pray that the sharpshooter would shot straight or miss. Then came the spiteful crack on the Krag rifle and the man on horseback rolled to the ground, and when the troops charging up the mountain side reached him, the boy general of the Filipinos was dead." • • • “We went up ... . We saw a solitary figure lying on the road. The body was almost stripped of clothing, 22 Panorama and there were no marks of rank on the blood-soaked coat ... A soldier came run ning down the trail.” “That’s old Pilar,” he said, “we got the old rascal. I guess he’s sorry he ever went up against the ThirtyThird.” “There ain’t no doubt about its being Pilar,” rat tled on the young soldier. “We got his diary and let ters and all his papers, and Sullivan of our company got his pants, and Snider’s got his shoes, but he can’t wear them because they’re too small, and a sergeant in C Company got one of his sil ver spurs, and a lieutenant got the other, and somebody swiped his cuff buttons be fore I got there or I would have swiped them, and all I got was1 a stud button and his collar with blood on it.” “So this was the end of Gregorio del Pilar. Only twenty-two years old, he managed to make himself a leader of men when he was hardly more than a bov, and at last he laid down his life for his convictions. Major March had the diary. In it he had written under the date of Deccinocr 2, the day he was killed: “The Gen eral has given me the pick of all the men that can be spared and ordered me to defend the pass. 1 realize what a terrible task is given me. And yet I feel that this is the most glorious moment of my life. What I do is done for my beloved coun try. No sacrifice can be too great.’ ” • • ♦ "A private sitting beside the fire was exhibiting a handkerchief. 'It’s old Pi lar’s. It’s got ‘Dolores Hoses’ on the comer. I guess that was his girl. Well, it’s all over with Gregorio.’ ” “ ‘Anyhow,’ said Private Sullivan, ‘I got his pants. He won’t need them any more.’ ” "The man svho had tne general’s shoes strode proud ly past ...” "As the main column started on its march for the summit of the mountain a turn in the trail brought us again in sight of the insur gent general far down below us. There had been no time to bury him. Not even a Febbuary 1969 23 blanket or poncho had been thrown over him.” “A crow sat on the dead man’s feet. Another perched on his head. The fog set tled down upon us. We could see the body no lon ger.” “And when Private Sulli van went by in his trousers, and Snider with ns shoes, and the other man who had the cuff buttons, and the sergeant who had the spur, and the lieutenant who had the other spur, and the man who had the handkerchief, and another that had his shoulder straps, it suddenly occurred to me that his glory was about all we had left him.” • • • A few days after American newsman Little filed his dis patch, a lieutenant of the US Eleventh Cavalry gave the body of the boy general proper burial with military honors and had a tombstone erected on which was writ ten: “General Gregorio del Pilar; Killed at the Battle of Tirad Pass, December 2d, 1899; Commanding Aguinaldo’s Rear Guard — An Of ficer and a Gentleman.” It is said that the most sincere tributes are those who come from your ene mies. Here we have found recorded what Del Pilar’s enemies thought of him and his men. What shall our enemies say of this genera tion of Filipinos? The an swer is up to us all. — Max V. Soliven in Manila Times, Dec. 2, 1968. THE THIRD COUNTRY TRAINING PROGRAM Because of its similarity of climate, customs and environment, the Philippines is an ideal train ing center for the region. This Third Country Training Program, using Filipino skills, institutions and resources, will surely make a far-reaching con tribution to the growth and economic development not only of Southeast Asia but to many young nations of the Middle East and Africa. — Ouab Ratanavanija 2« Panorama fl When may an educational institution be consi dered a university in nature and purpose? This paper is an attempt to describe a general test, which needs a sort of orientation. THE WHYS OF UNIVERSITY ORIENTATION Our country will be much better off with an education al system, sufficiently compre hensive, aimed at what our people need as may be re vealed in studies and percep tive observations carried out bv persons qualified to dev elop educational institutions and courses especially fit to promote ideals and values deemed indispensable to the virility of the citizen and the nation. The form, substance, and structure of the cultural, social, political, and moral constituents of the life of our people should be mould ed or erected upon patterns of our own choice and pre ference rather than on pat terns furnished by outsiders. This is not to say that we should disregard or throw overboard everything foreign, for this action is impossible to carry out; and if it could ever be done, it is bound to injure us in several wavs. But we really have to realize that we have adopted foreign practices and notions uncri tically simple because we want to ape the American or European no matter how offensive they may turn out to be to our ideals and va lues. In education, for in stance, we have to admit that our schools, colleges, and universities up to now bear all the distinctive earmarks of their foreign counterparts imitated superficially and in several cases adopted thought lessly and with some degree of belief in their unproved excellence. Much of the poor or defective educational performance, of Filipino stu dents in general is traceable to this feature and practice of our schools in our efforts to transplant the heart of a system that the nature of February 1969 25 our conditions cannot accept and assimilate. Educators of high caliber are called upon to undertake the innovative task. It is a task that challenges mind, the imagination, and vision. But educators, if true to their profession, should accept whatever measure of necesmands for its realization, sary sacrifice such task deWe could not have seen the development of a strong germ of Filipino nationalism if its original champion in the person of Jose Rizal had pre ferred to enjoy the comforts and splendors of the centers of culture and civilization abroad instead of coming back to the modest environ ment of his country with all the discomforts and the relatively primitive condi tions which had to be slow ly changed and improved. It is regrettable that pre sent-day Filipinos with their higher education do not seem, to see the meaning of Rizal’s life in this light and to follow the example it of fers to them. Many of them consciously avoid the educational and cultural thallenges of our provincial communities. There are even some who feel proud and superior in being associated with institutions that have put a superficial sympathy with our nationalistic efforts and that silently adopt a condescending attitude to wards Filipino organs for higher education. It is obviously a matter of personal egoism and conve nience that causes many of us to ignore the challenge of patriotic service outside the metropolitan centers. We see in this aloofness the continued servility to colo nial standards and values and the indifference to the more satisfying rewards of self-re liance which needs time, de termination, and patience to produce superior results. Foundation University of Dumaguete aims at leading the Filipino youth away from strictly colonial values by impressing on their conscious ness the importance of self dependence and the reacqui sition of the best of national traits which are revealed in their history but which have long been over-looked and so may wither on the vine Panorama if not rediscovered, nurtured, treasured, and refined. Coming down to our work at this particular moment, we are now busy preparing our faculty members under the leadership of deans and heads of departments in pre paring a comprehensive pro gram of University Orienta tion for its faculty. It con sists in a series of informal discussions, covering, among other, the following subjects: the meaning, nature, and purpose of a civic and secu lar university; the nature and method of the work of university teachers; the na ture of the work required of its students; the need for adequate libraries, laborato ries, and other facilities as instruments of university education the necessary qua lifications, practices, and at titudes expected of university faculty members;, and the es sential conditions for the maintenance of a university atmosphere as both cause and effect of the intellectual and cultural improvement of the university population. The need for a University Orientation as briefly des cribed here is unavoidable in understanding the essence of higher education for lalipinos. But it has not been realized, much less observed, in this country for several reasons: one is the obvious failure of those who estab lish and administer univer sities in this country to iden tify and distinguish the es sential nature a university from that of a secondary school or a vocational or technical school. This fail ure arises from several causes. One of them is the absence of a tradition of devotion to intellectual work and ex cellence. A professional edu cation which is really voca tional in nature and purpose, commonly understood by ma ny of our people as higher education, is really deficient in intellectual depth, breadth, and intensity. Law and me dicine, for example, which were known in highly deve loped countries as the learn ed professions, are pursued in our schools more as voca tional occupations calling for skills in action, manipula tion, and outward observa tion rather than for inten sive mental concentration and scientific or cerebral ac tivity. February 1969 27 Another cause js a simplis tic aiyl purely literal inter pretation of the provisions of the Philippine law that to be a university an insti tution should have at least four colleges and a graduate school plus a library of at least ten thousand volumes. These formal and mechani cal conditions do not neces sarily indicate that the insti tution is engaged in higher learning, that its administra tors understand the mission of a university, and that its faculty is actually devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and the quest for truth. Af ter meeting these legal re quirements, an institution feels entitled to be called a university especially when it has attracted a large student enrollment and two or three teachers with doctorate de grees or diplomas. But for mal conditions required by our statutes refer only to the external composition and ap pearance of the institution. They do not provide evi dence of internal intellectual growth, educational activity directed towards the improve ment of knowledge, and an academic atmosphere which provides the mind of teach er and student with an in tangible milieu that gene rates an actual intellectual ferment. Coming down to the case of Foundation University, is there any real significance in the change of its rank from that of a college to that of a university? Has it ever occured to its teachers, ad ministrators, and students that a university should pos sess certain mark and attri butes that it should possess by virtue of their devotion to learning and their interest in the quality of their per formance? Or have they merely assumed that an insti tution automatically changes its character, purpose, goals, and procedures b(y the fact of the change of its name or by the fact that the De partment of Education has Authorized it to change its status from college to uni versity? Is it realized by our educators that the rank of an institution of higher learning should not be awarded merely by reason of age and antiquity but should be merited by a satisfactory record of performance with Panohama in its area of educational work and scope of action? It is time that we in this country should realize the importance of University Orientation to stir and awaken administration and faculty to the educational significance of this status. It is essential that through them, the students should be correspondingly aroused and indoctrinated. If they are not collectively made aware of the meaning of the change, it is because they have but a faint idea of what it is ex pected to be done in the field of higher education. But this condition should not remain uncorrected, if the university is to perform its proper role in the im provement of a people. Hence, it is intellectually unpardonable for an organi zation bearing the title of university without under standing its true character, purpose, and procedures as a higher institution of learn ing. A college that bears the title of a university should have the intrinsic qualities and the essential conditions of a high center of learning. If this is not the case, then what is called a university may be merely a glorified high school. It cannot prac tice, cultivate, and produce habits of self-education, self analysis, and self-criticism. But a university has to en gage in the work of free aca demic inquiry and in the pursuit of intellectual disco very. Its teachers and stu dents must ever be exposed to intellectual stimulation so that they may learn to ex perience the ecstasy of rn*»’■»tai, moral, and humanistic achievement. Unless they understand the meaning of higher education and the mental energy and the moral stamina it de mands, our universities and their students and teachers will merely spend useless hours and weeks of self-de ception devoid of the bene fits and value of intellectual stimulation and vigor. In that case, our institutions will not and cannot really qualify as universities or higher institutions of learn ing. — V. G. Sinco, in his orientation lecture to teach ers. February 1969 29 ■ This paper by a former President of the Phil ippines questions the correctness sincerity, and practicality of the views on American-Philippine relations by Carlos Romulo, now Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippine Government. QUO VADIS, ROMULOS? By CARLOS P. GARCIA Former President of the Philippines (Continued from last month’s issue) ASIAN SUPERNA TIONALISTS? As far as I am concerned, our diplomacy for a “closer cooperation with Asian coun tries” should never be car ried to the outcome of di minishing our political, cul tural and commercial rela tion with the West. We must forever be connected with the world mainstreams of progress and abundant Jife and greater freedom, and most of these are in the West. Our supernationalistic Asianism should not qui xotically blind us to reality and realism. Let us live with the whole world freely and forget about building great walls of China, Boxeris tic movements, Arian superacialism and all that sort of isolationism or chauvinism. Trade alienation from the U.S. would hurt us fatally while it is a mere scratch to the U.S. taking into ac count the fact that our trade with her is 50% of our world foreign trade while America’s trade with us is only 1% of her total world trade. If Mr. Romulo’s “New Ideolo gy” is really for Philippines achieving “economic produc tivity, industrialization and modernizaton” common sense and not psychedellic vision will point the way — and that is to keep close with the Western countries ad vanced in the sciences, the arts and technology — things which they are using to plant their feet on the moon and thereafter explore other pla nets. 30 Panorama We are worried over the rapidly increasing popula tion. Only by advanced science and technology, which no Asian country ex cept Japan can supply, can we make it possible to co lonize the land under the seas and utilize the immense food and mining resources under the oceans. Only by hitting the highways of pro gress opened up by Western science and technology can we hope to make a head way economically. It is im perative, therefore, that we identify ourselves with coun tries that can supply us ad vanced science and technolo gy. The two greatest needs of our economic development program are capital and technology. We have to turn to our friends of the West to get these two essentials. At the present no Asian country except Japan can supply us capital and tech nology so badly needed to achieve economic productivi ty, industrialization and mo dernization. In quotation number 7 above Mr. Romulo advocates the brand of diplomacy which would identify us closely with our Asian neigh bors in order “to formulate with them a common stand on questions affecting peace and economic development.” With Communist China in disputably the giant in Asia promoting her own “master plan” to establish communist Chinese hegemony in Asia, and straining herself to be able to manufacture nuclear weapons to enforce her gi gantic ambition, the ques tions of peace and war in Asia as well as economic development assume tremen dous importance. SMALL BANTAMWEIGHT Is the Secretary batting for a “mutual stand” of the small bantamweight countries of Asia to face the Asian giant or subserve it? As suming that the former is what he has in mind (as it is unthinkable for Filipinos to submit to a godless ideo logy) is the unified stand of these Asian bantams suffi cient to stop Communist China from enforcing her plan to dominate absolutely in Asia? Frankly, all of these, developing small countries in Asia together, without out side help will not be able Febhuahy 1969 31 to stop Communist China from realizing her plan. It lakes another heavyweight to fight a heavyweight. There was the case of David van quishing a Goliath, but that was possible because of di vine intervention, and there has been only one David since Biblical times. Is it not, therefore, to our national interest to maintain and improve our relations with Western democracies, principally the U.S.A., which is admittedly the democratic giant capable willing and able to stand up in defense of democracy against any communist giant? I am informed, that one of our sister small countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand, stands foursquare on the pro position that America should continue her presence in Asia if only to enable the rising democratic forces here to develop sinews for na tional self-defense. Would it not be to the interest of this Republic to adopt this gallant stand? Probably, the communist countries will ri dicule this attitude as an act of puppetry. Our Secre tary himself has had the bitexnerience of being so ridiculed. But if it is done in the national interest, why should the slings of invec tive and the shafts of ridicule stop us from the pursuit of our national interest? In matter of national survival since when have we allow ed ourselves to be threaten ed, cajoled or ridiculed in to the criminal neglect of our national defense? NEW DIRECTION? In conclusion, let us take a little excursion into histo ry to reassess our relation with the U.S. in connection with Romulo’s new direction of foreign policy. The U.S., in 1946 volun tarily granted us our inde pendence for which we had sacrificed innumerable ' lives and fortune. Is there any instance in history wherein mighty powers victorious in war voluntarily renounced their sovereignty over a weak people like the Filipinos? When China was a mighty power in Asia in her former imperial times, did she ever renounce her sovereignty over a palm of territory vo luntarily? America did this! 32 Panorama And more transcendentally important than this, she star ted the giand cycle of libe ration, for all empires to re linquish their sovereignty over their colonies. As a re sult, England renounced her sovereignty over India, Cey lon, Malaya, Burma, etc. Because of this American example the cycle of libera tion rolled on irresistibly to other continents until France relinquished her sovereignty over her vast empire in Afri ca and Indo-China. England also continues liberating her vast colonies in Africa, and Oceania. If the U.S. has done nothing else, but set ting the example of a mighty nation renouncing volunta rily her sovereignty over her colonies after achieving vic tory in a great world war, that alone would entitle her to the eternal gratitude of freedom-loving peoples. AGAINST PARITY It is true that, in granting independence to our war-ra vaged country, America exac ted from us the Bases Trea ty, the Parity Amendment and the Bell Trade Agree ment. In the matter of the Parity Amendment, the true majority of Filipinos were against it, and in the Senate, it would have been defeated if it had not been for the vote of one renegade Nacionalista senator who was won over by President Roxas to vote for Parity with the Liberals. It would have been lost in the House of Represen tatives if the eight Socialist congressmen led by then Con gressman Taruc and defi nitely against Parity, had not been expelled from the House before the voting on Parity, on charges that they had committed terrorism to get themselves elected. Let it be remembered that the Nacionalista Party stood against Parity, and were it not for those incidents me itioned above, there would have been no Parity Amend ment. The Bases Agreement ne gotiated with then Vice Pres ident and Secretary of Fo reign Affairs Elpidio Quirino and ratified by the Sen ate, was accepted by the Filipinos at that time be cause, after the war, we were down and out and we were worried about our national Febhuaby 1969 33 defense, but, above all, be cause Soviet Russia, at that time under the ruthless lea dership of Stalin, was getting ready to invade all countries, at least with their atheistic ideology of communism. Ac early as 1945, Mr. Romulo and I were members of the Philippine delegation to rhe first UN conference in San Francisco and it was already apparent that Russia was get ting ready for an "Interna tional Revolution" to impose communism all over the world. For the same reason we agreed to the Mutual Defense Pact. It is also true that the Bell Trade Agreement though later softened by the Laurel-Langley Trade Agree ment, was much too one sided in favor of the U.S.A. It is equally true that the one half billion dollars ?iven us for rehabilitation was conditioned on our approving the Parity Amendment, But then without justifying this American opportunism, I say that the Filipinos then were tender-hearted and profound ly grateful towards America after (1) she liberated us from the cruel Japanese oc cupation of four years, and after doing so, (2) she voluntarily relin quished her sovereign ty over the Philip pines and (3) after granting us in dependence she voted one half billion dol lars to rehabilitate our destroyed coun try. GRATITUDE TO AMERICA For all these noble deeds, we Filipinos were melted in gratitude to America. I am not trying to defend Ame rica for her acts of unfair ness now complained of by Secretary Romulo among so many. I am reminding you of the circumstances sur rounding these events. During the American re gime in the Philippines of half a century, we enjoyed the most liberal treatment among all the colonies of the world at that time. She did not suppress the move ment for independence that immediately followed the ap 84 Panorama proval of the Cooper Bill which became the first Or ganic Act of the Philippine civil government. So many of the best Americans among them, Cooper, Hoar, Jones, Harrison, Tydings, McDuffy, and a constellation of many others fought and worked with us to achieve our goal of independence. When the big American trusts at the time wanted to exploit the Philippine natural resources for themselves, an American Governor-General in the per son of Howard Taft, nipped the idea in the bud by pro claiming the famous Taft doctrine of the “Philippines for the Filipinos.” During her regime, she es tablished a public system of education based on the in struction of the English lan guage, and the Western cul ture of English has become the unifying language of the Philippines that has reduced a great deal the tribalistic divisions of the Filipinos at that time and inducted an awareness of the oneness and solidarity of the Filipino peo ple. Up to now, this cul tural force, introduced by the Americans, continues to be the richest part of our cultural heritage, and re mains as our medium of rap port with the progressive na tions of the world. That is America’s record in the Philippines in a nut shell. Is there any nation in Asia, from the biggest to the small est that can boast of simi lar altruistic record? Why, then, should we part ways with America where hun dreds of thousands of Filipi nos have embraced Ameri can citizenship, mostly in Hawaii and the Pacific Coast and are enjoying the pri vileges of .American citizen ship? I do not absolve the U.S. from the mistakes and the high-handed arts she has per petrated against Filipinos. I do not condone some of the acts complained of by Mr. Romulo in his speech. In fact, I do maintain she must rectify without delay these unfair acts to improve her image in the eyes of small democratic countries. But of one thing I am pro foundly convinced and it is; that if we strike a balance February 1969 35 between the good and the bad things she has done for or against us, I can say without fear of successful contradiction even by ultra nationalists that, by and large, she has done well by us, and it is to the inf erest of this country to maintain and constantly improve the relations and ties of friend ship between the U.S. and the Philippines based on equality and mutual respect. PRINCIPLES IN ACTION On no occasion call yourself a philosopher, nor talk at large of your principles among the multi tude, but act on your principles. For instance, at a banquet do not say how one ought to eat, but eat as you ought. Remember that Socrates had so completely got rid of the thought of display that when men came and wanted an introduction to philosophers, he took them to be introduced; so patient of neglect was he. And if a discussion arise among the multitude on some principle, keep silent for the most part; for you are in great danger of blurting out some undigested thought. And when some one says to you, “You know nothing,” and you do not let it provoke you, then know that you are really on the right road. For sheep do not bring grass to their shepherds and show them how much they have eaten, but they digest their fodder and then pro duce it in the form of wool and milk: Do the same yourself; instead of displaying your princi ples to the multitude, show them the results of the principles you have digested. — From the Ma nual of Epictetus. 36 Panorama THE NEED FOR PRESS STANDARDS The first paragraph of the first chapter of The Manila Times Journalism Manual by Jose Luna Castro says: “In 1937, the .Jettiers of New England had nothing more impressive in the way of spreading the news than the lung power of a civicminded town crier. The burghers of Boston and Cam bridge now and then received news pamphlets and London corantos’ — single-sheet, twopage newsletters — from, slow boats from Britain, but they were old and dog-eared back issues. The first printing press to be installed in New England was still in London and it was not to arrive un til next year. Printing, in England as well as in the American colonies, was re garded as an occupation for mischief makers. Free speech had no legal standing. Pub lishers were yet to assert themselves as men of stature on the community. “In England itself, the publication of corantos had been suspended, and the li censed press suppressed. The Germans meanwhile were is suing their Messrelationen, which were semi-annual ac counts of not very news worthy events. “It is a remarkable thing, but it was in 1637 when To mas Pinpin, the Filipino printer, issued a newsletter in Manila.’’ The above clearly shows that we have an older press tradition than even the United States. It is the res ponsibility of publishers to make this old tradition great. Unfortunately, most of the publishers in our news journals not only cannot lead the press world to greatness but cannot even follow basic journalistic principles. In his The Revolt of the Masses, Jose Ortega y Gasset laid down what he called “the characteristic of our time” as the following: “Not that’ February 1868 37 the vulgar believes itself su per-excellent and not vulgar but that the vulgar proclaims and imposes the rights of vulgarity, or vulgarity as a right.” This perfectly de scribes the situation in our press today. Again from Ortega y Gas set; "To have an idea means believing one is in possession of the reasons for having it, and consequently means be lieving that there is such a thing as reason, a world of intelligible truths. To have ideas, to form opinions, is identical with appealing to such an authority, submit ting oneself to it, accepting its code and its decisions, and therefore believing that the highest form of inter communion is the dialogue in which the reasons for our ideas are discussed... An idea is putting truth in checkmate. Whoever wishes to have ideas must first pre pare himsrzif to desire truth and to accept the rules of the game imposed by it. It is no use speaking of ideas when there is no acceptance of a higher authority to re gulate them, a series of stan dards in which it is possible to appeal in a discussion. These standards are the prin ciples pn which culture rests. 1 am not concerned with the form they take. What I af firm is that there is no cul ture where there are no stan dards to which our fellow men can have recourse. There is no culture where there are no principles of legality to which to appeal. There is no culture where there is no acceptance of cer tain final intellectual posi tions to which a dispute may be referred. There is no culture where economic rela tions are not subject to a regulating principle to pro tect interests involved. There is no culture where aesthetic controversy does not recognize the necessity of jus tifying the work of art. . . When all these things are lacking there is no culture; there is in the strictest sense of the word, barbarism. . . Properly speaking, there are no barbarian standards. Bar barism is the absence of stan dards to which appeal can be made.” — Alejandro R. Roces, In Manila Chronicle, Feb. 9, 1969. 38 Panorama ■ This paper indicates specific parts of the pre sent Constitution of the Philippines that should be changed for improvement. GROUNDS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM The year 1969 marks the 34th anniversary df the ap proval of the Constitution of the Philippines by the Constitutional Convention. This Constitution has served two stages of our national political life, the Common wealth and the Republic. The first was the era of the Commonwealth of the Phil ippines which actually start ed in November, 1933, and ended on July 4, 1946, with a 3-year interruption occa sioned by the Japanese Mi litary Occupation of our country from 1942 to about the month of April, 1945. The second is the present era which started on July 4, 1946, the era of Philippine Independence. The only dif ference between the two eras with respect to our nation’s status under the Constitution is that during the Common wealth period the govern ment of the Philippines, while internally autonomous, had no control over certain matters such as foreign af fairs, public indebtedness, and some emergency prob lems which were placed un der the supervision of the American High Commission er. But since Philippine In dependence was declared, our government has been en joying complete political freedom in all matters. It is, therefore, obvious that we have had sufficient opportunity to observe how the present Constitution has worked in the hands of the Filipino people from 1935 to the present day. It has un dergone a long and conti nuous practical test extend ing over one-third of a cen tury. It has been used by elderly politicians, middleaged leaders, and young pos sessors of power. We may, therefore, ask these questions now: Has February 1969 39 this Constitution been suc cessfully put into effect in the government of the coun try? Has it proved adequate to our needs and conditions? In the light of our expe rience, should this Constitu tion be retained in all res pects? Obviously it is not possible to discuss these ques tions extensively at this time because they involve details that would take more time than what is available on this occasion. But in view of the coming constitutional revision in 1971, we shall in dicate in a general way some basic points affecting the operation of our Constitution during the last 34 years. To understand more close ly the need for revising or retaining parts or all of the provisions of a constitution> it is important that we bear in mind the three essential parts, which every modern democratic constitution must contain. The first is the Bill of Rights which is an enumeration of the rights of every individual, citizen or alien, to be protected in his life, liberty, and property against arbitrary or unconsti tutional action by the govern ment; the second is the pro vision on the organization and principal functions of the government; and the third is the provision on the method of changing or amending the Constitution. I do not believe that there is much to be said about the Bill of Rights in our Constitution now. I do be lieve, however, that practical means be so provided in expressed terms as to give them prompt application and strict enforcement against every violator regardless of his private or public posi tion, his official rank, or his station in society. Our Constitution establishes a democracy; and the Bill of Rights represents an expres sion of the democratic be lief in the dignity of man and the intrinsic worth of human life which should ever be upheld and res pected. It is in respect to the pro visions oi< governmental or ganization and functions that our Constitution certainly needs some overhauling. This is a strong statement, and so it needs an intelligent and thorough discussion when the proper time comes. Panorama But in a general way it may be categorically mentioned on the basis of what we have actually experienced during the last 34 years, that the organization and functions of the office of chief executive and the legislature of the Philippines call for serious alterations for the develop ment of a truly responsive, effective, and honest adminis tration and legislation for the country. In regard to the executive or the Presidency, we have to admit that its powers are broad and extensive. The came observation applies to those of Congress. This le gislative organ is vested with too many powers without any limitation whatever outside of the specific restrictions stated in the Bill of Rights which refer only to indivi dual cases. It should be said that even in this field of restrictions, there are no effective sanctions which give sufficient assurance to the individual or the peo ple against legislative exces ses and abuses to put an end to legislative evils. The vagueness of the extent of the powers of taxation and the police power lends it self to excessive or abusive legislative or executive exer cise of these prerogative pri vileges. It leads to an ir responsible curtailment of in dividual rights for no clear fulfillment of essential pub lic purpose and no reason able assurance of honest execution of declared public policy often used to hide ulterior motives. With these background, we are therefore justified to raise this question: How could we put effective con stitutional safeguards against intentional, fraudulent, or stupid acts of legislative chi canery and official malfea sance committed under forms of legislative authority? In my opinion this could be done to a certain extent by reducing the scope of con gressional authority from a general grant of legislative powers to a grant of care fully enumerated legislative powers analogous in princi ple and purpose to the grant of enumerated powers to the federal Congress und§r the American Constitution. This is precisely an appropriate time for this change because the country has been quite frequently informed in a ge February 1969 41 neral way about the advan tages of the system of decen tralization. In principle de centralization is limitation of national powers and pro per distribution and alloca tion of residuary subjects of authority among local or smaller units of government. We have often heard the oft-quoted statement of Lord Acton which runs: “Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’’ The proof of this statement ap pears quite evident in our country today in which high public officials have openly forgotten the democratic maxim that public office is a public trust and should never, therefore, be used for the enrichment of the office holder, be he a President, a senator, a congressman, a governor, a mayor, or any other office holder. Indeed, it is no longer a secret that a number of Filipinos run for public office merely for the purpose of enriching themselves. Apparently they have but scant use for the principle that a public of fice is a public trust. Per sons aspire to hold high po sitions in the government without even thinking whe ther they have the proper intellectual, civic, and moral qualifications to perform the functions attached to them. Public positions attract ma ny of them not because of the opportunities for service but because of the opportu nities for improving their personal financial condition and their social or economic influence and prestige. In the words of an American commentator, to such persons public office is a public lust. The constitutional provi sions on the office of Pres ident of the Philippines were partly influenced by the exaggerated popularity of the dictatorships at the time the Constitutional Convention met in 1934. That was around the period when dic tators were able to maintain effectively peace and order and to produce some im provement on the living con ditions of the masses in their country thru ruthless action even to the extent of de priving the people of much of their basic freedoms. At a time when the world was suffering from a terrible economic depression, the temporary success of the dic tators, specially Germany’s 42 Panorama Hitler and Italy’s Mussolini, macle a strong impression on the leaders in many other countries, including unfor tunately the Philippines. Their visible record of sen sational achievement in sup pressing labor troubles, main taining normal production of factories, keeping the regu larity of the movement of trains and other public ve hicles, preserving strictly na tional discipline and order, providing workers with three meals a day, and reducing poverty and destitution urban and rural areas deflected the attention and feeling of most people from official abuses, from the sufferings of cer tain elements, and from in herent evils of authoritarianisms. In nations beset by spreading misery and econo mic chaos, the apparently be neficial results of totalitarian practices produced followers among heads of states in va rious degrees. Even Pres ident Franklin Delano Roose velt had found it expedient to adopt many of the me thods of highly centralized authority in order to hasten the recovery of the American people from the unprece dented economic crisis. The Philippines could not escape the general influence of the times. Her leaders felt the popularity of strong ly centralized authority in a chief executive. Hence, the powers given to the office of the President in the Consti tution then being formulated were magnified to a much greater extent than what is good for a free and demo cratic government. With the exception of cer tain new provisions on so cial, economic, and educa tional subjects, the Constitu tion of the Philippines is basically a copy of the Con stitution of the United States with respect to the system of governm,ent administra tion. It is what is known as presidential system. The powers of the President of the United States have been copied and vested in the President of the Philippines. But while in the United States, which is a federal organization, its President is given only those powers di rectly affecting the national affairs, in the case of the President of the Philippines, the powers given him by our Constitution include not on ly powers necessary for the Febbuaby 1969 43 administration of the nation but also powers over local governments which in the United States are left to the governments of the different states. Hence, the powers of the President of the Philip pines include the totality of the powers of the President of the United States and those of the governors of the different states. Studying the conditions of the countries and their gov ernments organized during the last 20 or 25 years all over the world, the eminent American scholar Henry Steele Commager stated: “It is sobering, but not surpris ing, that of the sixty some nations that have come into existence since 1945, not one has adopted the American form of government.” The conclusion has been that the American presidential system of government is not suitable for countries other than the United States. In this country of ours, however, not one voice has been seriously raised over the last few years advocating a different system than what we have copied from the United States with the ex ception of that of former President Sergio Osmefia, the late Senator Claro M. Recto, the late Senator Jose Laurel, and the former Senator Ma nuel Briones. Their advo cacy for a system of parlia mentary government appro priate to our political needs and inate inclinations finds strong support from their mature experience in public life and from their keen ob servation of the political psychology of the Filipino people. It is time that we extend the scope and depth of our studies to other systems of government for our country. The results of such studies may then be presented and considered in the Constitu tional Convention which will be held in a year or so from today. It is time that we should avoid as much as we could the organization of a system which enables a man to say: “What are we in power for?” It is time that some constitutional means be adopted to prevent an offi cial to use his post “to pro vide for his future.” What we have been experiencing requires a different legisla tive organization, an organ ization vested with enumerat 44 Panorama ed and specific powers rather than one vested with gen eral legislative powers so as to reduce as much as possi ble the misuse of vast privi leges and the abuse of an unlimited discretionary au thority over all kinds of sub jects. In addition, we should define a more meaningful set of qualifications for pub lic officials in order that our country could have the bene fit of the services of man of mature experience, of honest convictions, and of high in telligence, character, and education. With such type of men in public office, we will have government offi cials who will tend to be have not as masters but as responsible servants of the people. Suffrage is a right that should not be indiscrimin ately granted to all citizens regatdless of their maturity, their sense of responsibility, their intelligence and educa tion, their stake in the or derly condition of the com munity, and the degree of their consciousness of the na ture of public office as a public trust. The gross mis conception of democracy as the rule of a majority formed and created by the ignorant, the semi-literates, the half wits, the indifferent, the bribe-takers, the trouble-mak ers, the hoodlums, and thugs is not worth defending, pre serving, and observing,. It is erroneous and must be avoid ed. It is not the authentic idea of democracy as the ins titution designed for the pro tection of the dignity of man and the worth of the human life. Democracy cannot be established and realized by the most adroit mechanical and procedural devices of electoral regulations. The new Constitution must give emphasis on the personal qualifications of the voter and on a strict adherence to their observance. These, in brief, are some of the grounds which should be considered in revising the Constitution of the Philip pines. — By V. G. Sinco. Febhuaby 1969 45 DIPLOMA MILLS IN OUR SOCIETY The Director of the Bu reau of Private Schools, Mr. Narciso Albarracin, has or dered a resurvey of some private institutions of learn ing under his supervision, "to determine,’’ according to a news report, "if conditions existing at the time of re cognition of (the) courses offered or at the time of (the) approval of (the) sta tus of colleges and univer sities are still being main tained.” Director Albarracin wants to knowt in other words, which schools have developed into seats of learning and which have degenerated into diploma mills. It is import ant to make the distinction, for the limited facilities and personnel in the hands of the bureau should be used, perhaps exclusively, in the rigid policing of the diploma mills to put an end to their standing as filling stations and assembly lines. The good ones among the private colleges and univer sities need not be guarded as if they were potential cri minals, neither should they be subjected to such rules and regulations as will pre vent them from entering upon unorthodox but pro gressive experimentations. They are easily known by the quality of their labora tories and libraries and, more important, by the atti tude of their governing bo dies, and if they are worthy, they are a necessary adjunct to the educational system of the country. It is the diploma mills — and these abound in the downtown area of the bust ling city — which pose grave and eternal problems to the community. Their factory standards which dictate that no obstacles should be placed to the entry of as many stu dents as possible and which prohibit the holding of any 46 Panorama sort of qualifying examina tions are a major factor in the emergence of novel but hardly respectable values. The students they turn out, by the very nature of the slipshod education to which these have been sub jected, easily graduate into that class of citizens who live barely within the margin of the law. Unfortunately, because of the increasingly vast number of the diploma school gra duates, the government is compelled, if only for poli tical reasons which are al most always confused with democratic principles in these parts, to draft them into the public service. The result is an appalling inefficiency. This is mani fested as much in corrupt practices as in the handling of routine matters, particu larly those in which the un connected people are in volved. The other more serious result is the transformation of diploma mill standards into social values against which the thinkihg and be havior of civil servants are usually judged. In a way, the effort of Director Albarracin to do something to identify the sub-standard colleges and universities will go much deeper than his inspectors realize. The simple act, for instance, of enforcing the rule regarding the size of classes and the rule govern ing the qualifications and teaching load of instructors and professors might be the first long step toward reform and improvement. It is unwise to predict that the Director will be heeded by the owners and operators of the diploma mills. After all, he will touch them where it will hurt most — the pocket book. Like any manufacturer, the diploma mill owners and operators are after the pre servation of a high rate of profit. And this can be done only by lowering pro duction cost, and this means keeping the sizes of classes inhumanly large and the wages of the teachers as close to the basement as possible. It is comforting to ima gine that the Director of Feqruaby 1969 47 the Bureau of Private Schools has entered upon a crusade. For nothing but a crusade will clean large sec tor of private education. And nothing like a crusade will prevail against the po werful and politically in fluential groups which reap vast profits at the expense of students, and ultimately, of society. But will a crusade against educational money - maker which are also a source of funds with which to corrupt the electorate in an election year gain any headway? The fact that this question must needs be asked illustrates to what extent the scale of va lues by which the people abide has deteriorated. — I. P. Soliongco, Manila Chroni cle, Feb. 15, 1969. OF GOVERNMENTS Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and must therefore trust the governed — they must have no choice but to trust them. — Thomas Jefferson 40 PANORAMA Panorama Reading Association PANORAMA invites the educated public to join its Association of Readers. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION is dedicated to men and women who appreciate the variety and quality of its articles as sources of liberal ideas. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION includes stu dents, businessmen, professionals, proprietors, employers, and employees. It is also open to clubs, schools, and other ac credited organizations. PANORAMA has been in existence for over Thirty Years. PANORAMA provides excellent material for classes in history, government, economics, political and social studies, lite rature, and science. It may be adopted for secondary and college use. PANORAMA is not a fly-by-night publication. It was bom in March, 1936. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines Contents The Southeast Asian University .............................................. 1 National Language Law ............................................................. 2 Improvement of Voting System .............................................. 5 American Pressure on Sabah ....................................................... 8 Our Top Speed-Reader Now in U.S...................................... 11 The Problem of Student Violence ........................................ 14 The Importance of a Library ................................................ 18 The Old Filipino .......................................................................... 21 The Whys of University Orientation .................................... 25 Quo Vadis, Romulos? (continuation) .................................... 30 The Need for Press Standards ................................................ 37 Grounds for Constitutional Reform ......................................... 39 Diploma Mills in Our Society ................................................... 46