Presidential table talk

Media

Part of The Philippine Educator

Title: Presidential table talk
Language: English
Year: 1947
Rights
Fulltext: ~/ . ' '• Presidential. .,. TABLE TALK MARCELINO BAUTISTA I c 1~ In the July issue ·of our magazine Because it.' would be very difficult to ' ac-. ~ ·~ we reported to the Association that a count for such ·''individuaL - remittances. - " · proposed bill presented by school au tho- however, we pr~_fer that re!llittan:es of '"{. rities in th:l last session of Congress, membership dues be made by districts . . ; which would have resulted in the im- Total membership to date is only-, 14,196: provement of the school system, had This, out of a prospectiv-e 57,0001 _ .. Are ~ been squelched. It is not our plan to we or are we not -interested in -organi.z- -~ ~ take .this apparent rebuff as final. The ing ourselves, and presenting a· unjted - Congress of the Phi~ippines will still do front o~ ·all matters affecting the - school"'- something for the school system if suf- system and the people engaged . in• .tht' ficiently impressed with the fact that the educational services of .the government? . JJroposec;l educational bill ' (we fondly 3. Between now an~ .the next session called it the Educational Act of 1947) of Congress, we intend to revive, .work is what the people wan.t. Let us get our out, .and work for the. - following_.bills;· • · Pare.ot-Teacher Associations strengthen- a. The Educational ; Act. of 1948 (The · ed let us discuss the provisions of this 'same ·as the Educational Act ·of - bill · jn the meetings, and let us get the 1947.) · . ,,_ : . ; , ... fiiil!l meetings approve resolutions a~ king our b. A general retirement act for a \I ;, res_pective Congressmen to sponsor or gov·ernmeot emp1oyees, if we 'can-· · .<~~pp_ort t.he pas~age ?f the bill in the not get a--s-eparate teachers~ pension . next session of Congr~ss. The demo- act. · ·' cratic processes shouTd ·of course be fol- c. Improving the salary allo·catiOns-'Of - lowed and .We Sho'uJd enQor_se o'r reject I 'positionS for teacherS, derl_<:s,-• artd · the. b·ijl purely on the basis .of its merits. school o(licials .. . (I.t .. pa_~sed ;; the It i!> OU! feeling that the presen't~ re- . Lower House in .the last session.) . sources . of . the government . will not ' pe d. Secu~ing ca~h eg.uiv~lent.· fo·,- ·: tjle .able to meet' adequately th e demand for service credit given to 'teachers .ior · the re\•amping of the schoo i system; the . proportioO,al '~a cation 'pay 'ren. hence the _ prol?osal. dued in .i94.1 'and in '1945 (pri;~ to 2. We hav-e .hesitated ·to puql_ ish a ta- ;'ul~ 1} ' .. ·_.· .' ': . .. . , • • , , o 1 t, p 1 • ... I • • , bulation of the memJ>erships received so e. Rem~vin? SOIJf.~,e~, ·. ~~ tn~q~a)_!.ttes ' far from the -dif.fe.reqt school divisions; in the pegging of salaries due to the we were afraid to ell).barras.s those that o~~r~tion of . tl,l~ S~l~ry .. ~t~nd~~dhave not made much of a remittance. ization Law and its various inter, '·. .. .. . V•: e are of the belief that their failiue pretations. , . t~ se~d in their me~bership fees is due, What other measures do the fllernl?ers not t~ .a.ny i!ldifference but to a misun- of_ our Association want us to work for? derstanding of the process of getting -Let us not have too many. of .t.hese; ~et affiiiated. A chool division does not us concentrate on a few, and if we. c.an haYe to wait to be organized into a get these few approved, we shall have DiYision Association before its teachers done well. can send in their membership dues. 4 . \Ve have not yet elected youl:' Ex;eThose may be sent even by supervising cutive Secretary-Treasurer because we districts; in fact, individual teachers do not have enough funds to be able to could send in their dues individually. offer th ! position to capable people. -If VOR MODERN QPTI:.C.AL NEEDS-SEE KEEPSAKE .OPTICAL-SO Escolta 23 24 PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR .. , · we oHer the position to someone, he will e\~ subscriptions are · coming in .at a ask, "How much money do you have? tremendous rate. Please assgn anethWill .tbere be enough ·to insure it? sta- er clerical-messenger for the morning bility?" I wish we could give the right work." We cannot let the Editor down. answers as soon as possible. . This is Send in your dues. why We need your One peso very badly. •, 5. yOU ' must haYe known ··by now that We -r-equested the Director of Education our Director had almost been drafted to give us an office J;OOm in the P S to run for the senatorial election next compound for the prospective Execu- ove.mb;r. Several Provincial Boards tive Secretary-Treasurer. We were to and Parent-Teacher Associations had pay the u~ual nominal rentals. Rentals sent resolutions to the Central Comdowntown for smaTI office space are at mittee of the Liberal Party. asking that \east P150 a month. This is what the he be drafted. Whenever he was asked Director said in reply: "I believe it w111 about his prospective candidacy, the DirJook better if you have your PPSTA ector always said, "I have been ap'pointlocate its office elsewhere. I do not ed by the President to head the Bureau want any people to believe that your of Education, and I will stay here as long Association is merely a tool of the as he wants me to. He alone can decide Director of Education. If it should whether or not I should run for the come to such a pass that you will fight Senate." The Liberal Party mugols the Director of the Bureau of Educa- asked the Secretary of Instruction if he tion himself, you will not be in a posi- thought that the Dil·ector ~ould be dis. tion to do so if you are occupying an pensed with in the Bureau of Education. office space which he provided for you." This is what the Secretary wrote to He does seem to expect that someday Pre!!ident Aveline: "I should like to say the Association may have to work · offhand . . . that if I could have my again~t him l This need not be, since he own way r would ·retain him in his pre-is with us. sent position as Director of Education. 5. I have a feeling that our Editor Director Abada is an able ·man, keen in feels he is a little overworked. He has perception and decisive in action, and bee-n doing the work of Editor, Business by training, experience, and sympathies Manag:er, Accountant, messenger, gen- is eminently qualified to hold this poeral utility man-all in one. Why? Be- sition the importance of which is obcause we have not appointed the people vious.' particularly so at' this time when who should perform these other func- the Government is confronted with many tions. We have not done so because we difficult educational problems pressing wanted to save money so that we can for prompt and adequate solution. soon set up the Office of the Executive "It appears to me, however, that there Secretary-Treasurer. But I have not is a general feeling. among the teachers told the Editor that we need at least which is fully shared by the numerous PiO,OOO a year to set up an office for the parent-teacher asociations scattered all PPSTA. I have a feeling that we have over the country that now, more than not been fair to him. This is what he ever, they need somebody in the Philipwrote to me recently: "Incidentally, if I pine Senate who ha~ come from their did not know you, I would think you ranks, who thoroughly understands the have abandoned me and the Philippine problems of the schools and of their Educator. I want someone to help me profession, and who has on more than in the pro'lfreading. If I have to do all one occasion proved himself ready to this myself, my eyes will , make me re- go out of his way to help them. It is sign soon. Addressing the subscription not for us to ignore, let alone thwart! copies alone takes two weeks to do on this sentiment among our publis school the typewriter. The work has mounted. teachers. For this reason, much as I PRESIDENTIAL TABLE TALK 25 should want Director Abada to stay in his present position, I feel I should endorse his candidacy for the office in question. That he will make a very . valuable addition to the upper chamber of our _ Congress, I '!ave no. doubt. "I am of the opinion that the candidacy of Director Abada will be an asset to the Liberal Party in the coming elections, especially if there is some · kind of assurance that the Party will back him up in his proposals to i~prove the school system and the lot of the teachers. With such a prospect before them, .I feel that the teachers as a body will give tHeir support to the entire ticket of the Party, knowing as they do that their candidate . Director Abada, if elected, will perforce need the backiRg of his colleagues in the Senate There is a large pertion of our intelligent population who think, in all earnestness, that US . . . (Continued from page 17) As it is, what do we have in our organization to keep it running? We have a president who is. tied to a ~esk skyhigh with . o{ficial work and who can hardly be expected to devote more time than what he is devoting now to the welfare of the organization, considering that he does not rec.eive a single centavo. We have the editor and proofreader who is also of the Philippine Educator business manager, advertising manager, circulation manager, and 'office manager of the PPST A, all in hi~ evening hours and a few minutes' visit at the office in the morning and in the afternoon. During the day, he administers a big high school in Manila. In keeping the PE alive and kicking, he is assisted by a part-time 'clerk-messenger who receives a salary of thirty pesos a month and devotes nearly all of his four hours to addressing and wrapping the subscription copies of the PE. (Some consider this •\" ,: , ...... the problems of our scho~ls are, serious ':~ and transcendental. An educator of the -' caliber of Director Abada is needed in the Congress to present adequately a plan which /'Viii assure an effective 'so- ,_ lution to th•~se schools problems, and ' I have every reason to believe that -·the :. people will rally behind the· Liberal Party if it sponsors such a plan .. Fo·r it has been adequately demonstrated ·that our people consider the schools as the - fountainhead of their liberties." Up to .. the last ballotting of the recent conven: tion of the Liberal Party, the Direc'tqr's . name wa~ prominently mentioned. - - 6. Let us have your subscriptions so-~ that we can go on improving the magazine. Let us get a subscription for a! least every five teacher!:. This wilt be , considerable help toward making · themagazine what you want it to be. · a miracle.) 'The other office help is a clerk-bookkeep~r who works also part time and who docs all the typing .. p.f the PE and PPSTA, Aside from these, we have- only a few active sympathizers and God above to help. . All this economy is necessary so that we may live within our income. We are not a well-financed organization yet, although we are now making '.much noise. Our power should be slowly built with patience and perseverance and faith and hope. Our power is not now but in the next few years. We do not care to predict how far away thi-; day is, but as long as we work on and or. and on, building slowly _ but surely, working unselfishly and unselfishly supported by the thousands of teachers who are now daring to hope, we shall succeed. By the way, the annual memoership is only one peso Have you clipped in your share of our group insurance? And do you keep yourself informed by reading the .Philippine Educator? Yearly snbscription, 12 issues, is f7.00. How abo.1t it, partner? FOR MODERN OPTICAL NEEDS-SEE KEEI SAKE OPTICAL-80 Escolta