Panorama

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Part of Panorama

Title: Panorama
Issue Date: Volume XXl (Issue No. 3) March 1969
Year: 1969
Language: English
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extracted text: THE PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE OF GOOD READING 50 C< MARCH, 1969 'JvmJa mA (elloui ^dipuun: PANORAMA need* intelligent readers 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 6000 READING Entered u second class mail matter at the Manila Post Office on Dec, 7, 1HS Dr. M. Carreon cor. A. de las Alas, Sta. Ano, Manila MANILA, PHILIPPINES No. 3 EDUCATION AND OPPORTUNITY A smart column writer recently said that culture is what a person has left when he has forgotten what he learned in college. After I had my laugh, I began to wonder whether there was not a good deal of truth in this definition of culture, for, after all, college education is supposed to teach us how to think as well as what to think. It is supposed to develop the power of reasoning and observation, to fire the imagination. To repeat what we have memorized, of itself is not more in effect than is done by a phonograph record, and 'perhaps is just about as informative. I sometimes question whether the present tendency to depend so much on memorizing knowledge gives a sound basis of education for the future. Knowledge is static, wisdom is active and moves knowledge, making it effec tive. As 1 think back on my own classmates in college, I am impressed with the fact that many of them who had fine memories and stood at the heads of their classes, in some way in the after years missed acquiring wisdom and did not come up to our expectations. Some students can fill their minds with any given subject, book, chapter, and page, and can regurgitate this knowledge at examina tion and thereby win class leadership. Such memorizing (Turn to page 29) ■ The Foundation College of Dumaguete founded by Dr. Vicente G. Sinco twenty years ago (long before he became president of the University of the Philippines), changed its status from that of a college to that of a university on January 28, 1969. FOUNDATION UNIVERSITY IN TRANSITION Human experience should convince every sensible per son that there is no finality to the process of education for all men and women who have caught the vision of the good, the true, and the beautiful. The ineluctable changes in the conditions of life, in the styles of living, in the methods and modes of activity leave their im print on the thoughts and views of men of intelligence and education. Consciously or unconciously we have to face them and be attuned to them if we ever hope to grow in intellectual and moral ma turity to enable us to acquire a feeling of individual ful fillment. And to keep that hope alive, it is not enough that we have some vague awareness of their existence but that we understand their significance, and, understand ing it, we take advantage of their enriching influence. Should we fail to keep pace with the evalution of ideas produced by the inevitable passage of time and the shift of circumstance, we may have to suffer for that failure the tragedy of recession or de terioration in our mental ability, in our moral out look, and in other valuable and precious qualities of our life. It is not the individual student alone that has to face the problem of needed growth that should follow every stage of transition. Every educational institution, in fact every living institu tion, be it economic, civic, or religious in purpose, has to meet this crucial stage of transition if it is to preserve 2 Panorama their vitality and to maintain their power and potential for service to man and society. For no one can ignore with impunity the challenge of the changing conditions of life to develop such correspond ing ideas that could fertilize a man’s mind, broaden his sympathies, and sharpen his intellectual p e r s p e c tives. The man of education should try to keep the lamp of learning ever bright to ena ble him to see the way to better modes of living, think ing, and working. The change of Foundation College to Foundation Uni versity represents this stage of transition in institutional growth. We feel a sense of exaltation and a measure of pardonable pride in conse quence of this change be cause it indicates a decisive improvement in the academic structure of our institution and in its capacity to be of service to people who are in search of moral, cultural, and intellectual betterment. But the present attainment of university status by this institution should be taken only as a transitory step to wards higher levels of acade mic growth. It is indeed the acquisition of a superior educational rank. It is an indication of a degree of in stitutional maturity. Let us not forget, however, that it also involves an added obli gation to maintain a higher degree of efficiency and com petence to breed persons of learning and imagination im bued with a deep sense of intellectual and social respon sibility. Let us all understand that a university worth the name and rank is expected to ad vance the cause of education as a means of acquiring those intellectual values which form the basic factors for a superior life. The uninitia ted believes thal a univer sity should be satisfied if it produces pedants and walking encyclopedias. Of course, a university may pro duce persons of this classi fication; but this is neither its characteristic object!'? nor its essential function. A distinguished educator des cribes a university as a cen ter of independent thought. As such its true spirit is something that infuses in’o every student, who takes his Marsh 1969 work seriously, an unquen chable curiosity and a reso lute determination to learn and to achieve; and it builds in him those sturdy habits of self-discipline, self-restraint, and moderation. It is op posed to every propensity to senseless revolt, irrational action, and stupid imitation. It looks down with disap proval at the political tan trums of juvenile upstarts and the atrocious appeals from man’s lower nature. It cultivates the power of ba lanced judgment and looks askance at the pretentious posture of immaturity and inexperience. The record of universi ties as respectable agents of civilization is ably described by the distinguished philoso pher., mathematician, and educator, Alfred North Whitehead, in these pregnant phrases: "The universities have trained the intellectual pioneers of our civilisation — the priests, the lawyers, the statemen, the doctors, the men of science, and the men of letters. They have been the home of those ideals which lead men to confront the con fusion of their present times... In early mediae val history the origin of universities was obscure and almost unnoticed. They were a graduaF and natural growth. But their existence is the reason for the sustained, rapid pro gressiveness of European life in so many fields of activity. By their agency the adventure of action met the adventure of thought. On this occasion may I remind you that Foundation University is a Filipino uni versity which seeks ways to instill in the mind of every student Filipino ideals of in tellectual excellence. In our effort to grasp these ideals, we have to learn and respect old and new values in Fi lipino life and conduct to the end that when fully real ized they may help us dis cover our identity as a na tion. Paraphrasing White head’s words, Foundation University hopes to use in a modest way these ideals to confront the confusion of our present times. 4 Panorama As the first and only Fi lipino university established in this city and province, Foundation University ex pects its students and grad uates to labor as pioneers for the social, economic, and civic development of this part of our country and to sup port all other efforts which our elders and betters may employ for the welfare of all. The policy of Foundation University is to concentrate on teaching basic principles and authentic ideas to the end that our students may be able to understand and appreciate them for inspira tion and application. As a university it will have to de vote some of its time and attention to teaching the methods of scholarly investi gation and to engage in mo dest and pertinent research work. Our aim is to pursue knowledge for its own sake and for the cause of truth rather than for purposes of promoting pretentious claims of novel discoveries and su perficial findings. My own personal conception is that a university should be directly dedicated to the development of the individual mind and character of man than to the cultivation of possessive and acquisitive powers for the sole use of industrial giants and economic overlords. A university should be the helper of man, not the ser vant of self-seeking power, nor the protector of greed. This is the stage this Uni versity hopes to reach in its journey to the heights of achievement. From this point of transition, your Al ma Mater counts on your enthusiastic cooperation. — Message of Dr. V. G. Sinco on the inauguration of Foundation University of Dumaguete delivered on April 12, 1969. March 1969 5 ■ Not many people have a definite idea what a university is for. This article may be of help in this matter. THE WHYS OF UNIVERSITY ORIENTATION Our country will be much better off with an educa tional system, sufficiently comprehensive, aimed at what our people need as may be revealed in studies and perceptive observations carried out by persons qua lified to plan and to work out institutions and courses especially fit to promote ideals and values deemed in dispensable to the virility of the citizen and the nation. The form, substance, and structure of the cultural, so cial, 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 ways. But we really have to realize that we have adopted foreign practices and notions uncri tically simply 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 ins tance, 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 thoughtlessly and with some degree of belief in their un proved excellence. Much of the poor or defective educa tional performance of Fili pino students in general is traceable to this feature and practice in our schools in our efforts to transplant the heart of a system that the nature of our conditions cannot accept and assimilate. 6 Panohama Educators of high caliber are called upon to under take the innovative task. It is a task that challenges mind, the imagination, and vision. But educators, if true to their profession, should accept whatever mea sure of necessary sacrifice such task demands for its realization. We could not have seen the development of a strong germ of Filipino nationalism if its original champion in the person of Jose Rizal had preferred to enjoy the comforts and splen dors of the centers of cul ture and civilization abroad instead of coming back to the modest environment of his country with all the dis comforts and the relatively primitive conditions which had to be slowly 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 educa tional and cultural chal lenges of our provincial com munities. There are even some who feel proud and superior in being associated with institutions that have but 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 con venience 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-reliance which needs time, determination, and pa tience to produce superior results. Foundation University of Dumaguete aims at leading the Filipino youth away from strictly colonial values by impressing on their cons ciousness the importance of self-dependence and the re acquisition of the best of national traits which are re vealed in their history but which have long been over looked and so may wither on the vine if not redis Matjch 1969 7 covered, 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, labora tories, and other facilities as instruments of university education; the necessary qua lifications, practices, and at titudes expected of univer sity faculty members; and the essential conditions for the maintenance of a uni versity atmosphere as both cause and effect of the in tellectual and cultural im provement 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 Fili pinos. 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 of a univer sity 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 many of our people as higher education, is really defi cient in intellectual depth, breadth, and intensity. Law and medicine, for example, which were known in highly developed countries as the learned professions, are pur sued in our schools more as vocational occupations call ing for skills in action, ma nipulation, and outward ob servation rather than for in tensive mental concentration Panorama and scientific or cerebral ac tivity. Another cause is a sim plistic and purely literal in terpretation of the provi sions of the Philippine law that to be a university an institution should have at least four colleges and a gra duate school plus a library of at least ten thousand vol umes. These formal and mechanical conditions do not necessarily indicate that the institution is engaged in higher learning, that its ad ministrators understand the mission of a university, and that its faculty is actually devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and the quest for truth. After meeting these legal requirements, an insti tution feels entitled to be called a university especially when it has attracted a large student enrollment and two or three teachers with doc torate degrees or diplomas. But formal conditions re quired by our statutes, refer only to the external compo sition and appearance of the institution. They do not provide evidence of internal intellectual growth, educa tional activity directed to wards the improvement of knowledge, and an academic atmosphere which provides the mind of teacher and stu dent with an intangible mi lieu that generates 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 occurred to its teach ers, administrators, and stu dents that a university should possess certain marks and attributes that it should posses by virtue of their de votion to learning and their interest in the quality of their performance? Or have they merely assumed that an institution automatically changes its character, pur pose, goals, and procedures by the fact of the change of its name or by the fact that the Department of Education has authorized it to change its status from college to university? Is it realized by our educators that the rank of an institu tion of higher learning should not be awarded mere ly by reason of age and artMarch 1969 9 tiquity but should be merit ed by a satisfactory record of performance within 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 expected to be done in the field of higher education. But this condi tion should not remain un corrected, if the university is to perform its proper role in the improvement of a people. Hence, it is intel lectually unpardonable for an. organization bearing the title of university without understanding its true char acter, purpose, and proce dures as a higher institution of learning. A college that bears the title of a university should have the intrinsic qualities and the essential conditions of a high center of learning. Should not this be the case, 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 academic inquiry and in the pursuit of intellectual dis covery. Its teachers and stu dents must ever be exposed to intellectual stimulation so that they may learn to experience the ecstacy of mental, moral, and humanis tic achievement. Unless they understand the meaning of higher edu cation and the mental ener gy and the moral stamina it demands, our universities and their students and teach ers 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 10 Panorama MISSING PAGE/PAGES for the lives of those who are dearer to him than him self. That is the man whose judgment will tell you what is going on in America; that is the man by whose judg ment I, for one, wish to be guided. We have had the wrong jury; we have had th’e wrdng group, — no, I will not say the wrong group, but too small a group, — in control of the policies of the United States The average man has not been consulted, and his heart had begun to sink for feaT he never would be consulted again. Therefore, we have got to organize a government whose sympathies will be open to the whole body of the people of the United State's, a government which will consult as large a proportion of the people of the United States as pos sible before it acts. Because the great problem of govern ment is to know what the average man is experiencing and is thinking about. Most of us are average men; very few of us rise, except by for tunate accident, above the general level of the commu nity about us; and therefore the man who thinks common thoughts, the man who has had common experiences, is almost always the man who interprets America aright. I remember speaking at a school not long ago where J understood that almost all the young men were the sons of very rich people, and I told them I looked upon them with a great deal of pity, because, 1 said: “Most of you fellows are doomed to obscurity. You wfl’l not do anything. You will never try to do anything, and with all the great tasks of the country waiting to be done, probably you are the very men who will decline to do them. Some man who has been up against it,’ some man who has come out «f the crowd, somebody who has had the whip of neces sity laid on his back, will emerge out of the crowd, will show that he understands the crowd, understands the interests of the nation, uni ted and not separated, and will stand up and lead us.” If I may speak of my own experience, I have found au diences made up of the “com mon people” quicker to take a point, quicker to under Mabch 1969 15 stand an argument, quicker to discern a tendency and to comprehend a principle, than many a college class that I have lecture to, not because the college class lacked the intelligence, but because college boys are not in contact with the realities of life, while “common” ci tizens are in contact with the actual life of day by day; you do not have to explain to them what touches them to the quick. Today, when our govern ment has so far passed into the hands of special interests; today, when the doctrine is implicitly avowed that only select classes have the equip ment necessary for carrying on government; today, when so many conscientious citi zens, smitten with the scene of social wrong and suffer ing, have fallen victims to the fallacy that benevolent government can be meted out tn the people by kind-hearted trustees of prosperity and guardians of the welfare of dutiful employees, — today, supremely, does it behoove this nation to remember that a people shall be saved by the power that sleeps in its own deep bosom, or by none; shall be renewed in hope, in conscience, in strength, by waters welling up from its own sweet, perennial springs. Not from above; not by pa tronage of its aristocrats. The flower does not bear the root, but the root bear the flower. Everything that blooms in beauty in the air of heaven draws its fairness, its vigor, from its roots. No thing living can blossom into fruitage unless through nou rishing stalks deep-planted in the common soil. The rose is merely the evidence of the vitality of the root; and the real source of its beauty, the very blush that it wears upon its tender cheek, comes from those silent sources of life that lie hidden in the chem istry of the soil. Up from that soil, up from the silent bosom of the earth, rise the currents of life and energy. Up from the common soil, up from the quiet heart of the people, rise joyously to day streams of hope and de termination bound to renew the face of the earth in glory. — By Woodrow Wilson from The Democratic Tra dition in America. 16 Panorama THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH Even the most idealistic of those who lead public opinion too often insist on examining educational insti tutions through the dull glasses of immediate utility. To be sure the promotion of learning usually appears to be worth saving even when viewed through such an unfavorable medium. The most relentless reform ers are at least partially con vinced that at some time almost all research may be materially rewarding. There is, however, a growing de mand for more and more professional training, and there is a tendency to stretch the word “profession” until it comprises every vocation. The utilitarian demand for specialized vocational train ing and the practical man’s contempt for useless know ledge go hand in hand. When su' h influences gain control, an institution of higher learning supplies training, not education, and the promotion of learning is degraded to a vehicle for providing material well-be ing. The liberal arts con ception of a general educa tion disappears and with r the institution’s most im portant contribution to the land. The universities of a country are the sanctuaries of the inner life of the na tion. When they cease to be concerned with things of the spirit, they cease to ful fill their most important function. If I am correct, then, in my interpretation of acade mic history, the future of the university tradition in America depends on keeping a proper balance between the four essential ingredients — the advancement of learn ing, the liberal arts college, professional training, and a healthy student life. None must be neglected; no one must be allowed to predo minate unduly. If this bal ance can be maintained, the March 1969 17 universities of this country, privately endowed and pub licly supported alike, will function both as instruments of higher education and as centers for developing a na tional culture worthy of this rich and powerful land . . . To bring order out of an educational chaos is the mis sion of the liberal arts cur riculum of our universities — that is why it is important that this ancient tradition be not overwhelmed. Those of us who have faith in hu man reason believe that in the next hundred years we can build an educational basis for a unified, coherent culture suited to a democra tic country is a scientific age; no chauvinistic dogma, but a true national culture fully cognizant of the in ternational character of learning. In this undertak ing the schools are involved quite as much as the uni versities, but the latter must lead the way. The older educational discipline, whe ther we like it or not, was disrupted before any of us were born. It was based on the study of the classics and mathematics; it provided a common background which steadied the thinking of all educated men. We cannot bring back this system if we would, but we must find its modern equivalent. Like our ancestors we must study the past, for “he who is ignor ant of what occurred before he was born is always a child.’’ In my opinion it is primarily the past devel opment ©f our modern era which we must study and study fnosC exhaustively and critically. We must examine the immediate origins of our political, economic, and cul tural life and then work backwards. We must now, however, spread the inquiry over so wide a range that the average men will obtain only a superficial knowledge. It does not seem to me to be a step in the right direc tion to dip our children first in one barrel of tinted whitewash and then in an other. The equivalent of the old classical discipline is not to be found in a bow ing acquaintance with, uni versal history and general science, and an exposure to scattered examples of art and literature. Our present educational practice which insists on the thorough study IS Panorama of at least one discipline is certainly sound. For the development of a national culture based on a study of the past, one condi tion is essential. This is ab solute freedom of discussion, absolutely unmolested in quiry. We must have a spi rit of tolerance which allows the expression of all opinions however heretical they may appear. Since the seven teenth century this has been achieved in the realm of re ligion. It is no longer pos sible for some bigoted Pro testant to object if any per son within the universities or without expounds sympa thetically the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. It is no longer possible for a member of the Roman Ca tholic Church to take of fense at a critical discussion of Galileo’s trial. Statements believed to be erroneous are met only and fairly by coun ter arguments. But there is no persecution; there has been an end to religious bi gotry in this country, and there are no signs of its re turn. Will the same conditions prevail in the furture when politiral and economic pro blems are examined? Unfor tunately there are ominous signs that a new form of bigotry may arise. This is most serious, for we cannot develop the unifying educa tional forces we so sorely need unless all matters may be openly discussed. The origin of the Constitution, for example, the functioning of the three branches of the Federal Government, the forces of modern capitalism, must be dissected as fearless ly as the geologist examines the origin of the rocks. On this point there can be no compromise; we are either afraid of heresy or we are not. If we are afraid, there will be no adequate discus sion of the genesis of our national life; the door will be shut to the development of a culture which will sa tisfy our needs. Harvard was found by dissenters. Before two gen erations had passed there was a general dissent from the first dissent. Heresy has long been in the air. We are proud of the freedom which has made this possible even when we most dislike Mabch 1969 19 some particular form of heresy we may encounter. In a debate in the House of Commons, Gladstone re viewed the history of Ox ford and spoke of the la mentable condition of that institution during th® reign of Queen Mary. Quoting a historian of that period he continued: “The cause of the failure is easy to dis cover. The Universities had everything, except the most necessary element of all — Freedom: which by the im mutable laws of nature, is always an indispensable con dition of real and permanent prosperity in the higher in tellectual cultivation and its organs.” With this conclu sion all who cherish our he ritage must agree: without freedom the prosperity most important for this country cannot be achieved — the prosperity of our cultural life. — By James Bryant Co nant in Vital Speeches of the Day, July, 1936. OF PHILIPPINE TOURIST SPOTS Filipinos should be thankful for the wonderful scenery and tourist spots that your country offers. We don’t have those beautiful sceneries in Japan. If properly developed, the tourist spots in the Phil ippines will greatly enhance your tourist industry. — Atsumi Ikeno, Miss Japan of 1968 20 Panorama CONFLICTS, GAPS, DISCREPANCIES IN POLITICAL VALUES The political values of a people are based upon and directly related to the moral, personal, and social values which they have accepted. Gaps, discrepancies, and con flicts between the ideas and ideals we profess in political values and those we prac tice certainly exist today. As we read history, we may feel that they have to some degree always existed. In these days the space between professing and prac tising has increased with the changes time has brought, with the greatly increased size of the country, with the growth of population and of city masses, with the very fact of bigness in all its as pects (business, transporta tion, education, etc.), chal lenging old value patterns and practices. If we could set goals and make some progress in deve loping patterns of political behavior based on sound personal, moral, and social values, we might help in no small way to strengthen the nation. Cynics may say this is impractical idealism; yet Horace Mann’s battle for public education, the educa tion of all the children of all the people, was based on principle, and the battle was fought and won. To imple ment that principle in an unsettled and changing world, with all the implica tions of change, is a task which cannot be ignored if democracy is to survive. Let us examine some of the present discrepancies between political values we profess and those we prac tice. If questioned, we would all say we value our citizen ship, I am sure. We are thankful we are not living in Czechoslovakia. Yet fi gures show that many citi zens do not exercise the baMahch 1969 21 sic right, privilege, and res ponsibility of that citizen ship. Too many citizens do not vote. How many non-voters would give us their reason disgust with politics? Do they realize that imperfect as it seems, our system of poli tics has become the method of operating the government in our democracy? Do they know that the Founding Fa thers planned, not the de mocracy of Lincoln’s "gov ernment of the people, by the people, and for the peo ple” but a representative form of government, in which selected representatives exercised certain powers? The electoral college elected the president (individual members free to vote for can didates as they chose), state legislatures elected U.S. Sen ators, etc. If you say the average voter does not know these things, then I say to you that the public school should have taught him. As our concept of government has changed, our political system has evolved. In many ways that system is out of gear, retaining old procedures un suited to changing times The election of the Presideni by the electoral college and the complicated procedures that might follow illustrate the point. The election oi 1968 focused public attention on this situation. Newspa pers and magazines through editorials, articles, and syn dicated columns have called for action to bring this elec tion machinery up to date. At this writing comes the first announcement of plans for Congressional action on the matter. Once action is begun, will the people con cerned, professing as their goal the good of the coun try, support procedures be nefiting certain groups — po litical, sectional, economic, or whatever they may be? Will the average citizen, profes sing to value his citizenship, follow the work of the Con gressional group and exert any influence he may have for the best system? Will whatever compromises have to be made result in the general good? If we value honesty in government, we will prac tice it. Gaps in the politi cal field exist wherever there 22 Panorama is misuse of public funds, padding of accounts, undue influence of powerful lob bies, and graft. Whenever there gets to be a general acceptance of these practices, or apathy concerning them, there is certainly a discrepan cy between ideals professed and actions practiced. Our political system makes it easy to practice dishonesty in words, too often illustrated in campaign oratory, malign ing political opponents, and campaign literature and slo gans. There is certainly a con flict, also, between the idea of political power held as a public trust and the practice of its use for private gain. To what extent can we ac cept pork barrel tactics, ne potism, rewards and offices given for services rendered, waste of public money through the hiring of sur plus employees, or unintel ligent or uneconomical use of government funds, proce dures too often practiced by the government but not to lerated by private industry? To what extent can we ac cept these practices and feel that the values thus exempli fied are acceptable practices in carrying on the govern ment of our country? Preservation of the twoparty system to avoid the disastrous effects of the splin tering of parties — as hap pened in France, making no party truly effective — will be a problem of the next few years. Attitudes regard ing natural resources — land, water, air — and a fiscal po licy for our country become matters of party policy. Ma ny of these issues are com plicated and complex. In a democracy, citizens should be more than blind, uninformed adherents to a party. As Dr. John J. Ma honey, long a professor in Boston University’s School of Education, has said: The vote ought to be an intel ligent vote, the sober expres sion of a people’s judgment concerning candidates and issues. After looking at spe cific values in our political life, and the discrepancies and conflicts between our profession of values and our behavior, we see the great need for public officials whom the public can trust. Let us hope there will be no March 1969 23 great discrepancies here, al though history is not always reassuring. As time passes, how will our democracy stand the strains within the country and the tremendous chal lenge of world problems that face us? It would seem than an increasingly informed and alert electorate, choosing the leadership of men and wo men of character, however idealistic this may seem, must be the trend if democracy as we know it is to survive. — by Agnes P. Mantor in The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulle tin, Winter 1969. UNIVERSITY CONSTITUENTS Alumni: In this country that strange pheno menon known as the alumni plays a weird and oftentimes a terrifying role. It is very odd, when you come to think of it, that people who have been the beneficiaries of an institution should think that they should control it, and for that very reason. Trustees are in a different category from alum ni. They at least have the undoubted legal right to control the institution. ♦ • ♦ But a university that is run by its trustees will be badly run. How can it be otherwise? Ordinarily the trustees are not educators: usually they are non-resident. If they are alumni, they must overcome the vices in herent in that interesting group. If of their own motion they take an education problem in hand, they can decide rightly only by accident. • ♦ • Academic Freedom is simply a way of saying that we get the best results in education and re search if we leave their management to people who know something about them. — Robert Maynard Hutchins, former President of the University of Chicago, in The Higher Learning in America. 24 Panorama TUmON FEES OF FILIPINO COLLEGES ARE NECESSARY The demand of restless de monstrating students for lo wer tuition fees in largescale enrollment private schools, must ultimately con flict with their demands for better quality education. The popular misconception is that some private schools grant their stockholders huge profits, inferring that private schools that are non-profit in character are free from ava rice. The actual situation is that profits are absorbed largely by greedy school ad ministrators who enjoy pri vileges and fat positions but who cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, claim to be academic assets to an educational institution. In other words, it is not just a matter of stockholder di vidends that should be ques tioned, it is the privileges, financial as well as highsalaried official positions, that have to be looked into. We are of the opinion that a simple study on the struc ture of private schools will prove very clearly that fa mily relationship dominates the dynamics of our “edu cational” system. Another aspect of the high-fees controversy involves itemization. In large-enroll ment schools the items would involve specific amounts billed, and the actual right of a student to such items that he has paid for. Medi cal clinic fees would entitle a student to some benefits but in the context of a large enrollment school, a simple check an the existing faci lities would prove it is not possible to accommodate all the students were they to demand these services. For example a free check-up in a small clinic when students are in the tens of thousands, or the exact circulation of a school paper as against the enrollment, presuming that March 1969 25 each student who pays for this is entitled to a copy. In brief, it is a matter of the students wanting to know their exact rights as paid for so that these item ized facilities cannot be pre sented as extra privileges but as paid for items students are entitled to. The two aspects to consi der on the tuition grievance therefore, are the quality and competence of high-sa laried school officials, their privileges and allowances, and the proper obligation of the school to provide the students adequate facilities on items charged in their tuition. This is not as dif ficult as it would seem, if a genuine dialogue were started among the students, faculty, and school adminis tration. A free press in the school, both for faculty and student, would help air the difficulties and expose the avaricious and incompetent who are at present perma nent fixtures of our private educational system. — Alfre do R. Roces in Manila Times, Feb. 1, 1969. MACHINE ADVANTAGES There is great beauty in the machine: the machine has no temper; it does what it is told with no argument; it has endless energy and never gets tired; it will endlessly repeat dull routine tasks without becoming bored and dissatisfied; it has no prejudice; it will treat equally the slum child in the central city and the affluent child. Most im portant, it can be junked, thrown away when it’s worn out or when it becomes obsolete. — Robert Bush, Theory into Practice, December, 1967. 26 Panorama CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES AND REFORMS Regarding the legislative reforms, a distinction must be made between formal and substantive reforms. A reform that cuts down the number o£ House com mittees is, by itself, a pKOGedural matter that premises no improvement in the qua lity of legislation. But even if it is merely a formal type of innovation,, it is likely to result in grumbling among Congressmen and in econo my. We will explain. The pre'liferation of committees in the House, which number 43, was basically due to patre nage. House leaderships in the past increased the number of committees due to the great number of Con gressmen desiring to be com mittee chairmen. And why did they want to head the committees? Purely because they wanted more power. The chairman of a commit tee decides whether the bill should be given a chance to pass the chamber. If he refuses to report out the bill, that is the end. Somehow a committee however unimpo’tant will hold the power of life and death over some bills, and that is additional power for the Congressman. The reduction of the num ber of committees from 43 to 19 may well earn for Spea ker LaureL rhe ire of dis placed committee chairmen. We do not know how he will placate them, if the re duction of the- number of committees is not a quid pro quo arrangement. The fact remains that the Speaker’s move, if it pros pers, will mean a saving for the House because it will entail thei reduction of per sonnel assigned to the com mittees. It will also mean a consolidation of some po wers, and this, perhaps, will mean a saving in time and effoit on the part of the peoMabch 1969 27 pie who would be interested in the passage oi some mea sures in the House. Thus, it can be seen how a mere procedural reform in the House can involve some courage on the part of the House leadership. It will take a lot more courage and firmness on the part of the same leadership to move from mere formal reforms to substantive chan ges. How does one, for exam ple, go about controlling the output of nonsense of the chamber? Can one actually control the proliferation of appropriation laws that do not have the ghost of a chance of implementation due to lack of money but are passed just the same to show some constituents that their representative has done something in their behalf but which nevertheless con stitute deceit played on the gullible people? How can one go about implementing the broad po licy of selfless service on be half of the people in the field of legislation when ma ny members of the chamber cannot think in terms of the national good because they cannot correlate individual power with national welfare? If the general character of the membership runs in op position to the broad policies of reform that the Speaker has in mind, then implemen tation of the reforms will primarily involve control. One will control House ex penditures, House behavior, and the output of the House. In this connection, there is no room for .pessimism, al though there is plenty of grounds therefor. If the House leadership initiates re forms of whatever type, he ought to be supported in his effort, because it is the critics themselves that have been blaming the House for a lot of ills that the coun try suffers. If the reforms run against the grain of the membership that ought to be castigated for nursing out dated ideas of power and politics. If the immediate future does not provide a fertile ground for Congres sional reforms, the pertinent ideas must be encouraged just the same. Still Speaker Laurel must also give sufficient assurances to the people who ought to encourage his measures by 28 Panorama leaving no room for them to doubt his sincerity. This in fact is the crux of lea dership. Critics are human. They will not see any point in heaping encomiums and encouragements to leaders who say one thing but do another. They would like tc see a display of raw courage by the leader who can stick to his world. Since the Speaker comes from Batangas he just may have that cour age. — Manila Daily Bulle tin. EDUCATION AND OPPORTUNITY . . . (Continued from, page 1) of knowledge has not necessarily relation to wisdom. After all, the best the college can do is to give the students breadth of knowledge, not necessarily depth of knowledge. Personally I have not been in sympathy with the view that because there are already so many well-trained men, something must be done to prevent younger men from entering our professional schools. It certainly is a sad commentary on our times if we introduce unnecessary obstructions and obstacles to prevent students from enter ing the professions or to trap unwary students, so that they may be prevented from continuing their studies after their course is started, unless such procedures result in turning out better men and are not merely evidence of an unconscious trade-union state of mind which tends to make a profession an aristocracy. Let us not get the idea that there are too many doc tors, too many lawyers, architects, engineers, nurses, gro cers, coal-miners, and what not As a matter of fact, it would appear that there are too many of all of us, yet that assumption of itself refutes the argument that we must reduce the number in each class. It is almost a paradox that when we have too much of everything col lectively, we worry most because we have too little indi vidually. — By William J. Mayo, M.D. in Vital Speeches of the Day. March 1969 THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM TN PHILIPPINE SCHOOLS Three days ago, a front page item in the Bulletin said. “The Department of Edu cation’s policy-making body is having serious doubts aver the use of the vernacular as the medium of instruction in the lower grades of the public elementary schools.” On this score we wish to reiterate our observations on this problem last year. Be fore discussing any future plans for our national lan guage, it would be wise to check first on the actual sta tus of that idiom tocjay. What is the status of Filipi no today? To begin with, it must be made clear that Pilipino which is what the hatronal language is called and Tagalog are not one and the same. Tagalog is merely the basis of our na tional language. Too, con trary to what most people believe, Tagalog is not the official medium of instruc tion in the first tvjp grades in the primary school. This is true only in the Tagalog speaking provinces. In the non-Tagalog provinces, the vernacular of the particular province is used. And this holds true only in public schools. Almost ail private institutions employ English as the medium of all levels. In short as of now, Pilipino is not used as the medium of instruction in any level of our school system. To have guides in the so lution of the language prob lem in the Philippines the Philippine Center for Lan guage Study, in cooperation with the Bureau of Public Schools, conducted a careful ly controlled experiment from 1960 in the elementary schools of Rizal province. The test was conducted on three representative groups of children entering Grade 1 in 1960. Each group con sisted of 300 children. 30 Panorama Group I began using English from the very first day at school. Group II started with Tagalog as their me dium of instruction in Grades 1 and 2 and shifted to En glish in Grade 3-6. Group III employed Tagalog in Grades 1-4 then changed to English iu Grades 5-6. The teaching was exactly the same — except for the difference in medium of instruction. After six years, the average scores on a test of English proficiency were the follow ing: Group I — 114 points; Group 11 — 94 points; Group III — 90 points. In reading comprehension in English given by the Bureau of Pub lic Schools, these were the results: Group I — 68; Group II — 48; Group III — 45. The differences be tween the pupils in the first group and the third group is so great that the average student in Group III would find that 85 per cent of the Group I pupils were better trained then to study the English textbooks that he would have to use in high school. These three groups were also tested for reading com prehension and sentence writing in Tagalog. These were the results: Group I — 86; Group II — 84; Group III — 85. The difference among the three is negligible, which means that the profi ciency of the pupils in Taga log was about the same whe ther Tagalog had been used as the medium of instruc tion or not. Judging from the Rizal Ex periment it is very clear that the policy of changing me diums of instruction is not a sound educational policy and that the higher the grade where this change takes place, the greater the dam age. The third question in volves the publication of the needed textbooks in Pilipino. Here we have to cope with both the population explo sion and the information ex plosion. Can we afford to finance the publication of Pilipino books in the secon dary and collegiate level? Any one who is familiar with the state of develop mental book activity in our republic will tell you that this just isn’t possible. Since the war, we have never pro duced enough books for our schoolchildren. We have one March 1969 31 tattered book for every five or ten pupils. If we were to translate the medical and technological books into Pilipino, the cost of the books would be way beyond the reach of our students. Translation is a tedious and expensive process, and the small market volume for technical books in Pilipino would automatically raise the price for such books beyond any reasonable proportion. To make matters worse, new knowledge is going to come in at an ever accelerating rate. Books may be obsolete even before our translators have begun. Collegiate books are going to be so ex pensive that only the very, very rich will be able to af ford a secondary and colle giate education. Let us be realistic. We can't even pro duce enough rice — let alone books. We want to make it a mat ter of record that we are not against the development of our national language. It was our daily column that first suggested that Pilipino be used in our postage stamps. As Secretary of Edu cation, we ordered that all diplomas be worded in Pili pino. We were also the first to recommend that the word ings in our monetary system be in Pilipii o. These are functions that Pilipino can fill. But we are convinced that Pilipino cannot be used as the medium of instruc tion in our educational sys tem without greatly damag ing the educational process* Chauvinism is a very poor substitute for knowledge. What is the future of Pili pino? It will be like Gaelic in Ireland. The Irish hate the English. They tried ve ry hard to eradicate English from Ireland. They even had signs that read, "speak Gaelic. Don’t Use English.” But the signs were in En glish! And today the Irish reputedly are the best Eng lish writers. This does not mean that the Irish have not preserved Gaelic. But En glish had succeeded where Gaelic had failed. The thoughts and ideas contained in this column may on the surface run counter to the spirit of the nation alism of our time. But in the ultimate analysis the true nationalist is the man who points to the right road. — By Alejandro R. Roces 82 Panorama ■ For an early election of delegates to the Cons titutional Convention, as well as the calling of the Convention itself. THE ENIGMA OF THE 1971 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION The holding of the elec tion of delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1970 is a tardy attempt to adopt basic measures for solving problems that have plagued this country since the end of the last World War. It simply prolongs the deadening and oppressive conditions resulting from a structure of government illsuited to the national char acter and to the national conception of political po wer. It merely postpones needlessly the chances of ef fecting a peaceful political and social reform to relieve Filipino society of the evils of political corruption which conscientious officials and citizens condemn. The dan ger is that this delay for immediate constitutional refcym may produce in the meantime violent demands that could be destructive to law and order and justice. The fact is that already there are clear symptoms of social unrest and open omens of economic upheavals. The demonstrations now going on are manifestations not so much of student dissatisfac tion with educational insti tutions as they are citizen protest and angry expression against official irresponsibi lity, illegal accumulation of wealth, ruthless exploitation of natural resources, outra geous disregard of the proper claims of justice, and reck less indifference to educa tional competence and hu man values. There is absolutely no va lid reason for this intention al delay in the election of delegates to a Constitutional Convention and in the or ganization of the Conven tion. It only means that the possibility of relief of poli tical evils the people now desire to see in their gov ernment will have to wait at least 7 or more years March 1969 33 from 1969. For with the election of our officials in November, 1969 under the present unsatisfactory system, the people are condemned to wait till 1974 or later before we could try the probability of a better system of admi nistration than what we have been tolerating under the existing Constitution during the last twenty years. What good does this de lay do to our country? The political and moral climate of the nation is at a very low ebb now. Why then is the country made to wait another 6 or more years be fore some reform may be tried to take the place of the unsatisfactory practices under some features of the present Constitution? There is absolutely no legal, moral, practical, and real justifica tion for putting so far off the election of delegates to the Constitutional Conven tion and the holding of that Convention. On the con trary, there is every reason to hold the election of dele gates as early as possible, preferably this very month of May, 1969. Let us remember how the former Philippine Legislature quickly and promptly pro vided for the election of de legates and the convening of the Constitutional Conven tion that adopted the pre sent Constitution. The time schedule then observed was as follows: In March, 1934, the U. S. Congress authorized the Philippine Legislature to call a Constitutional Conven tion. The Legislature imme diately called for the elec tion of delegates to the Constitutional Convention to be held on July 10, 1934. The Constitutional Conven tion was convened on July 30, 1934, only 20 days after the election. Despite some delay in the consideration of a few novel ideas, the basic draft of the Constitution was finished on October 20, 1934, although the formal signing for certain reasons, which could have been dispensed with, took place only in February, 1935. On March 23, 1935, President Roose velt approved it. Had not this action been made obli gatory by American dictation, the voters of this country would have ratified the Constitution on that date or even earlier. 34 Panorama The prompt action of the Philippine Legislature in 1934 puts in bold relief the sluggish, suspicious, and he sitant manner the action of our Congress in providing for the calling of a Consti tutional Convention in 1971. The law providing for the election of delegates was passed in the early days of 1967. The law provided that the election of delegates should be held in last days of 1970. In other words, al most 500 days would have to elapse before the election of convention delegates could be held. Then the Consti tutional Convention itself will not be held until 1971 or the year following the election. Recently another proposal would still postpone further the date of the elec tion and the Convention. This is like giving hay to a horse already in articulo mortis. Such uncalled for retarda tion of a remedy, which should be made immediately available, looks like a clever but unscrupulous device to enable a number of present officials to remain in power for another five or more years, thus forestalling the employment of a needed re medy. The need for effecting a constitutional reform concur rently with the social change calling for it has been de clared by the Supreme Court of the United States as a wise principle; and so amendment proposals to the American Federal Constitu tion when left unacted for some time become inopera tive and useless. Hence, constitutional changes should take place at the time the urgent need for them arises. Our Congress in the present instance has clearly disre garded this salutary principle without any strong reason at all. Its ulterior motive, how ever, appears to some ob servers as arising from the apprehension of losing the official prestige and finan cial advantages derived from their public positions which may be eliminated or ad versely affected by expected constitutional amendments. One is tempted to ask: Is the present Filipino, after all, incapable and unworthy of the privilege and respon sibility of political indepen dence? One wonders whether this is not what a famed au Majrch 1969 thority calls a case of cons titutional immorality. Why not hold the election of delegates on June 1 and call the Convention on July 1? The ratification may then be held in October, 1969. The people have long been ready and willing to see changes without any de lay. Let it be borne in mind that Congress had long ago began discussing the neces sity of changing the Consti tution way back in 1956 when President Carlos P. Garcia was in Malacanang. Political sovereignty resides in the people. Its exercise is delegated to the govern ment, specially Congress, which is given the unusual power to propose changes to the Constitution according to two distinct methods. By resorting to protracted delays in applying the method it has chosen for revising the Constitution, Congress prac tically deprives the people of their basic and original au thority. As the saying goes: Justice delayed is justice de nied. To prevent the reptition of the abuse of this dele gated power, it is advisable that the people withdraw it completely from Congress and adopt a more trustwor thy method when they ap prove a revised Constitution. There is sense and wisdom in the statement expressed by George Gallup in his book The Miracle Ahead which says: "The goals of a democratic society change little, except over long pe riods of time but the met hods adopted for achieving these goals must be altered as new conditions arise. This is the reason why practices, forms, and systems — machinery of government — must be scrutinized contin uously and why change is so vital to the health of de mocracy.” — By V. G. Sinco, former U.P. President 36 Panorama ■ Wanted: Political Sanity and Official Respon sibility. GREATNESS BEGINS WITH OUR LEADERS* As the year draws to a close and a new — and cru cial — one looms ahead, the time has come for us to speak out what we feel and think about our government. We have had six changes of political leadership since 1946, but what have we to show after 22 years of inde pendence? Graft and corruption has not abated. The cancer has spread to almost every level of government. We have reached a point where it is easier to do wrong than to do right. The current im pression is that one runs for public office in the Philip pines — not for service to the people but for profit and patronage. Crime has increased at an alarming rate in all its vi cious forms. Violence in our cities is matched by violence in the countryside. The rule of the gun is replacing the rule of law. People begin to wonder whether the government has the ability and sincerity to control crime. This is be cause wrongdoers and crimi nals are not caught, much less convicted. A man is shot, and his killer generally goes free. A court case can drag on for years without end. While the influential and powerful get swift jus tice, the poor find justice beyond their means. Meanwhile our poor be come poorer and the rich richer. There are not enough jobs to go around. Our unemployed number in the hundreds of thousands. And those who are able to work soon find that the va lue of their peso has been diluted by rising prices. All about us we see proofs of our misery. Children out of school and begging in the streets. Squatter shanties proliferating in our cities. Mabch 1969 37 Social unrest rearing its ugly head in the provinces. And what of the basic public services that a gov ernment is supposed to offer its citizens? Road repair and mainte nance have been studiously neglected. It is no small wonder that our traffic is often snarled and at a standstill. Mail takes weeks to reach us and our checks are often pilfered or lost. Even water is now a rare commodity; one has to drill for it in order to drink. Garbage collection is a lux ury that comes once a week, if at all, and during Christ mas. We can go on and on and the list will be endless. It is time we declared what we want and expect from our leaders. We believe we deserve a government that is free of graft and corruption. We believe we deserve a government that can control crime and bring order out of chaos. We believe we deserve a government that can offer us a fair chance to earn a liv ing, own a home and enjoy life without the fear that tomorrow rising prices may stop us from buying a de cent meal to feed our fami lies. We believe we deserve a government that can take care of basic public services such as health and sanita tion, education, traffic order, efficient postal system, and adequate water supply. We believe we deserve a government that can gua rantee a regime of justice where every man, rich or poor, will have his day in court. It is not yet too late for our leaders to act. But the change has to begin with our leaders. Our hopes for changing the nation can only begin with a change within our own leaders, for those who rule and those who aspire. They must see the need for change. It is fast becoming a question of our leaders changing their attitudes or means. Change must come one way or another. There is a clamor and pressure from the masses for a change in the values of those who govern. The lead ership that goes about pro 38 Panorama mising instead of solving the basic national problems at their roots does not recog nize this clamor. It has lost touch with w'hat the people want and expect from their government. In any political creed, any leadership that has no com munication with and is iso lated from the people, can hold on to power only by gimmickry. But gimmickry does not solve a crisis of confidence. It masks the crisis until it reaches the dangerous point of explo sion. We need the sincerity of dedicated men who will put the interest of the people above the interest of self, any special group or poli tical party. We need the patriotism of heroes, like Bonifacio, Mabini, or Rizal, who know the meaning of sacrifice. We need the dis cipline of true leaders who will owe loyalty to no other purpose except the welfare of our people. The task before us is na tion-building. Its foundation is not stone or marble but the character and greatness of a people moulded by the character and greatness of its leaders. Greatness for this nation has been promised. That promise has not been kept. We call on our leaders to be great, for only then can this nation be great again. — Editorial, The Manila Times December 11, 1968. FOR INCREASED WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE We are in the middle of a race between human skill as a means and human folly as an end, re sulting in strife, insecurity and sorrow. Unless men increae in wisdom, as much as in knowledge, the increase in knowledge will only be increase of sorrow. — Bertrand Russell March 1969 39 ■ Professor Abercio V. Rotor describes in this article the interesting habits, composition and other pon derous secrets of a common household insect man may yet find with him to outer space. THE COCKROACH: A LIVING FOSSIL Almost simultaneously a litter of startled brown crea tures scampered for the near est “foxholes” as I switched on the kitchen light. These roaches seemed aware of their lowly state: rejected, they shunned the light. Yet the cockroach is a common sight: it lives wherever man lives — from scout tents to millionaires' homes. In fact, wherever there is food and warmth, including rodent’s burrows and hollows of trees and fallen logs. And only re cently, inside television sets and cash registers, safely en sconced like mollusk in a shell. It lives on modest fare and humble circum stances, chews ketsup on clothes, trims papers and books, licks spills in chem istry laboratories, tries soap and paints and devours its molted skin and the egg cap sule of its own species when starved. But with plenty of food, it gorges without any evidence of stomach ache. In fact, the cockroach is an in sect goat with the gluttonous appetite of a goat. One spe cies lives on wood, and like termites, harbors flagellates which convert cellulose into usable forms. That late summer evening I caught a mother roach carrying an egg capsule half protruding from the tip of her abdomen. I wrote on her glass-and-wire cage, Periplaneta, the generic name of the American species, the champion survivor and most popular of the 3,500 known species. That morning I feared Periplaneta would deliver the capsule prematurely: she was clumsy and restless in her desire to escape. It is instinct to seek freedom in captivity. I first thought. Then I recalled her photo 40 Panorama sensitive nature. In no time, she found "safety” in be tween paper folds. Being nocturnal undoubt edly accounts in large mea sure for Periplaneta’s ability to survive. At night she reigns in the kitchen; stalks on clothes and piles; treads the floor and corridor with broad wings, or better still, with six powerful legs; scales garbage cans and drainage canals; surrepti tiously, she even visits sleep ing people to examine fin gernails and food stains on their clothes. Periplaneta has two com pound eyes containing more or less a hundred lenses each, and permitting vision with in 180 degrees. In addition, she has three simple eyes, each carrying a myopic lens. I wondered how I looked to my pet! Steadily tapping and sel dom erect are two antennae, nearly as long as her body. These are not comparable to a blind man’s cane for they are highly sensitive to tactile and gustatory stimuli. They are also believed to stimu late sexual interest by rituous rubbing against those of her partner. The morning sun peeped into the laboratory and my pet squeezed her way out like a stage character after the show. The life of roaches is a colorful drama, dwarfing that of the cat’s nine lives or that of the 3000-year old Sequoia. Roaches trace their ancestry to as early as the Carboniferous and Permian epochs of the upper Paleo zoic era. Their evolutionary line parallel that of the an cient sharks, echinoderms, ammonites and the first rep tiles. But unlike them, roaches have been virtually unchanged b y evolution. They lived among the giant ferns and bryophytes which nearly covered the earth from pole to pole at a time when the world climate was uni formly warm and humid, and when this forest sank to become the coal and oil of today. In the Mesozoic era, fifty million years later, the dino saurs came. For more than a hundred million years, these goliaths ruled the world, and the cockroach March 1969 41 literally crawled the earth even then. Periplaneta’s forebears felt the diastropic rising of the Andes, Alps, Rocky Mountains and Hima layas, precariously lived at the advancing edges of Sa hara and other deserts or at the receding continental lines when polar ice poured into the ocean. When the reptile monsters completely vanished, a new community developed. As flowering plants and mammals found a safe foothold, Periplaneta’s kin — the Arthropods — in creased. But perhaps the most awaited moment was a little more than a million years ago when Man arrived. Since then, man became her indispensable benefactor. Days later my pet was so completely motionless that I thought she was going to die. There were signs that she had fed on the banana which had lately attracted Drosophila flies. There were imprints of sharp mandibles which cut sidewise like axes. Even if there had been no food, my pet could have survived periods of starva tion longer than other crea tures. Without much visible ill effects, roaches can live about a month without food or water, two months on water alone, five months on dry food but no water. Periplaneta no longer car ried the egg capsule. The fetid odor, much alike the stink bug or skunk, was fresh and it reminded me of rice with black fruss grains. This . is another Periplaneta’s protective me chanism: her aroma discour ages potential predators. I found the egg capsule securely glued to a corner. I transferred it into a suit able culture dish where I maintained proper tempera ture and humidity. After two weeks, newly-hatched nymphs swarmed. A late comer treaded its way, wet, and curious about a new world. I counted fourteen healthy nymphs, almost ex actly the same in appearance as their mother except for the size and the absence of wings. The offspring lived under copied conditions in the laboratory, growing by leaps and bounds every time they shed off their old ar mor. The nymphal phase is 42 Panorama known to be completed al ter It) to 13 moltingK. Periplaneta died. Ants had dismantled her and left her armor. The wings were de tached from the powerful muscles which moved them The outer pair was tough and narrow but the inner pair which was broad, dim, transparent but profusely ▼enated, was collapsible so it could be tacked neatly under the outer pair. The <uain body segments — head, thorax and abdomen — char acteristically possesed by all insects, had been severed, their fleshy contents gnawed away. Not to be mistaken for the head was a broad triangular helmet partly cov ering the head and the base of the wings. Across it was a yellow band nearly touch ing the base, a distinguish ing feature of the American species. Three pairs of legs were all unusually long. Each leg had an additional seg ment, the coxa, like that of man and of higher animals. Partly for this reason, roaches are unbeatable in the insect world for instant starting and stopping, rapid dashing, abrupt swerving. While our skeleton is in ternal and calcareous, Peri planeta’s was external, like a medieval armor, flexible and many times more durable than bone. The exoskeleton protected delicate organs from injuries, aside from be ing a framework. As a protective armor, the exoskeleton, made of a com plex substance called chitin, can scarcely be improved upon. One of Nature’s bio logical masterpieces, it pro tects the body from being soaked with water or from drying excessively and from disease organisms. Chitin is insoluble in acids, alkalies, other solvents and enzymes. It is probably the chief thing that enables the roaches to live in the great est variety of conditions. Today, cockroaches are cosmopolitan in distribution. Still discontented, they are headed for space. The Ma deira species can beat the astronaut who can withstand only 1/100 of the radiation this species can tolerate. Man blacks out at 12 g’s Mabch I960 43 (gravity pull) and suffers serious internal damage be ginning at 18. Periplaneta’s relative can withstand 126 g’s for four hours while going nonchalantly about its busi ness. I discarded Periplaneta’s remains and continued my research on her remaining children, looking back to more than 350 million years and pondering over their secrets as living fossil. — By ABERCIO V. ROTOR, from The Manila Chronicle AVERSION FOR POLITICS I have been brought up in politics and poli ticians are a strange breed. They live in a tight little community for which the world has less and less use. In the difficult period through which we are passing, it is not political maneuvers, how ever adroit, which will present solutions to our mounting problems. The real search should be for that which will cut across boundaries, transcend po litical ideologies and create conditions for the health, progress and happiness of the whole human race and not just a section of it. My aversion for poli tics grows and I realize more and more strongly that man’s search today is not for the ending of his physical hunger alone — or for the means to raise himself to better conditions of living and greater comfort — his yearning goes far beyond these things. He longs for dignity, security, peace and above all for a purpose in life. — Madame Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit 44 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 Education and Opportunity ........................................................ 1 Foundation University in Transition ..................................... 2 The Whys of University Orientation .................................... 6 Bonifacio and Rlsal ....................................................................... 11 Life Comes from the Soil ........................................................ 14 The Search for the Truth ........................................................ 17 Conflicts, Gaps, Discrepancies in Political Values Zf Tuition Fees of Filipino Colleges are Necessary 25 Congressional Committees and Reforms ................................ 27 Language Problem in Philippine Schools 30 Enigma of the 1971 Constitutional Convention ......... 33 Greatness Begins with Our Leaders ....................................... 37 The Cockroach: A Living Fossil ............................................ 40 THE COVER: One of the permanent structures on the campus of Foundation University of Dumaguete is the Education Building.