Halalan 2013 Maguindanao Log 2. (Read the first log here)

COTABATO CITY—In Mindanao, this was one bout to watch. Symbolic in many ways, the battle for the governorship of Maguindanao tested the new political climate of the province after 2010.

The two contenders were former political allies, mounted together during the previous election to fight the Ampatuans. They are even related by blood.

Datu Tucao Mastura, mayor of Sultan Kudarat town (not to be confused with the province) a few kilometers north of Cotabato City, is the uncle of re-electionist Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu. A “distant” one though, Mastura clarifies.

Mastura, the elder and a “kingmaker” in the province, supported Mangudadatu’s bid in 2010. Mastura even fielded his nephew Dustin as Mangudadatu’s running mate and acted as campaign manager.

But strained relations and supposedly broken promises during Mangudadatu’s first term parted the two.

(Shots by Mores Heramis & Gani Taoatao)

Tucao Mastura was the provincial chair of the Liberal Party in 2010 when Toto Mangudadatu ran under Lakas-Kampi-CMD. Mangudadatu and other local leaders later trooped to the LP. Following differences, Mastura bolted and ran under the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

Like other high-profile head-to-heads this election, no words were minced as the two attacked each other and dredged up past offenses. The row reached the national awareness with ABS-CBN’s KampanyaSerye documentaries.

Both accused each other of coddling the Ampatuans. Mastura said Mangudadatu reneged on his campaign pledge to bring back the provincial capital to Sultan Kudarat town and then left Mastura and company in the air.

Mangudadatu countered that Mastura power-tripped even with no position, acting as governor by approving or killing projects. He claimed the Masturas such as his vice-governor were maligning him and hindering his initiatives.

Simultaneous meetings de avance. (Shots by Gani Taoatao & Mores Heramis)

If anything, the exchange of diatribes reflected how candidates could openly speak and campaign in Maguindanao this time around.

Not far behind though are allegations of back-handed violence between both camps, who signed a peace covenant months before.

Both charged the other of masterminding killings. When a grenade was thrown at the house of Mastura’s mayoral candidate in a Mangudadatu bailiwick, the former blamed the latter. Late in the campaign, a fire razed the Liberal Party headquarters in Sultan Kudarat town. The owners of the property claimed they were threatened previously by Mastura’s men. No incident was conclusively linked to either candidate.

Yet beyond that, the verbal war hardly became violent.

The barbs leveled off two days before the polls, as Mastura and Mangudadatu simultaneously held packed meetings de avance in their home towns.

Toto Mangudadatu and his children at the LP meeting de avance. (Shot by Gani Taoatao, ABS-CBN News)

Amid long, winding speeches by local candidates, the standard-bearers appealed to each other to lay off the personal attacks.

Halfway through Mangudadatu’s event in Buluan, one of his daughters took the podium. As her siblings sat with their father nearby, she broke down to tears asking her “Lolo Tucao” to stop saying that Toto risked the life of his wife Genalyn in 2009. Genalyn’s fateful trip to file Toto’s candidacy ended in the Maguindanao massacre.

Asked by reporters after, Toto Mangudadatu said his children were hurt hearing the insinuations and wanted to speak out. He urged his rival to focus on his platforms and achievements instead.

Up north, Tucao Mastura told our news team the same message for Mangudadatu: act professional and stop hurling false charges. It was the end of the campaign anyway so it was best to tone down, he said.

Top: A child at the audience of Mastura’s meeting de avance; Bottom: Toto Mangudadatu’s son, Buluan vice mayor Datu King Jhazzer speaks at the LP event. (Shots by Mores Heramis & Anjo Bagaoisan)

It all ended in a tumult of cheers at the hall of the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex here in Cotabato City on May 15. The hall, part of the ARMM Governor’s compound, was where the provincial Comelec met to canvass the results.

Three remaining towns had yet to transmit their votes that afternoon: Northern Kabuntalan, Gen. Salipada K. Pendatun, and Sultan Kudarat. Mangudadatu had now comfortably led Mastura by 90,000 votes. He already arrived there from Buluan in an armored tank awaiting his apparent proclamation.

But it took hours persuading the Board of Canvassers to lower the limit for calling the election. In the end, the Comelec agreed that even if all registered voters in the three municipalities voted for Mastura, it would not be enough to beat Mangudadatu.

UNA attorneys there raised no objections. Mastura was absent, but he told a news crew that his camp planned to file an electoral protest.

The stage was crowded as the board finally raised the hands of Mangudadatu and his running mate Lester Sinsuat before midnight.

(Shot by Gani Taoatao, ABS-CBN News)

After Mangudadatu’s other party mates and relatives were proclaimed, he called on the rest of his family and supporters to the stage for picture taking. An elderly man approached and shook his hand, prompting Mangudadatu to embrace him. It was Datu Midpantao Midtimbang, one of Mangudadatu’s gubernatorial rivals in 2010 and Mastura’s party mate.

Interviewed before his proclamation, Toto Mangudadatu clearly wanted to change the post-election rhetoric.

He told Jorge Cariño: “I myself will find a way for us to reconcile.”

Then, to other reporters he aired an apology to Mastura for any hurtful words he might have said. “It was just because of the election.”

Now that the Maguindanaoans have chosen, this election will hardly be the last we will hear of Tucao Mastura, patriarch of one of Maguindanao’s powerful and influential clans.

But as the tide of politics here changed in the past three years, the next three will tell if these two TMs will find themselves on the same side again.

Holding up Peace signs for the cameras: Vice Gov Lester Sinsuat, Gov Toto Mangudadatu, and Rep. Zajid Mangudadatu (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

2013 campaign posters in Buluan (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

BULUAN, MAGUINDANAO–The rural air is occasionally broken by blaring music. It’s different from the familiar amplified chants calling Muslims to prayer five times a day. The sources of the music: roving rented mini-pickups packed with speakers and dressed in campaign posters.

One vehicle plays a down-tempo, pop tune repeating the nickname of a provincial candidate as a chorus. Another passes by moments later, blasting a rap-style song in Maguindanaoan extolling the virtues of another candidate.

It’s my second election coverage here in Maguindanao. With me are the same reporter, a few same crew mates, and some newbies to this election hotspot. Some elements have changed in three years, the sound of campaign jingles one pleasant surprise.

Our set up at the Maguindanao provincial satellite office in Buluan (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Our haunts have changed too, mirroring the changes in local politics. Since we arrived, we’ve set up our live point outside the Rajah Buayan Silongan Peace Center here in Buluan–the de facto capitol building which was not around in 2010.

Last election, we were stationed outside the provincial complex in capital Shariff Aguak. The capitol there is still imposing but unoccupied. The compound’s sole tenants are a brigade of soldiers.

We merely pass by Shariff Aguak on our two-to-three-hour trips from Cotabato City. The standout mansions of the Ampatuans still loom near the capitol, yet even this bailiwick of the clan seems less hushed than it looked before. More residents roam the town center, and the campaign posters are more varied.

Army vehicles at the old Maguindanao provincial captiol in Shariff Aguak (Shot by Gani Taoatao, ABS-CBN News)

There is less tension in the air as Maguindanao faces its second election since the infamous massacre in Ampatuan town. The main friction is largely political—the tiff between electoral rivals Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and Sultan Kudarat Mayor Tucao Mastura.

A fragile peace accord holds up for now, and we have heard no reports of violence since our arrival in May 4. Security forces, while hands-off from the electoral process, are not taking chances.

(As this blog was being posted, the writer learned that a convoy of a mayoralty candidate in South Upi town was ambushed the day before, killing an escort.)

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF, a stakeholder in the current peace panel, is banking on the midterms elections to determine the turnout of the accord.

Interviewed by our reporter Jorge Cariño, MILF chairman Al Haj Murad says they encouraged registered MILF members to vote on May 13. But he adds the command gave no specific candidates to vote for.

It rains here at least once a day, a cool respite from otherwise hot afternoons. But the interruptions that still need getting used to are the daily power outages that have plagued Mindanao for months.

PCOS machine delivery convoy at Datu Saudi town (Shot by Gani Taoatao, ABS-CBN News)

Stable electricity is crucial for an election reliant on automated machines to count votes. Such concern met the arrival of convoyed trucks hauling Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) machines and other election paraphernalia to the Maguindanao towns.

At some subsequent final testing activities, the power outages coupled with delays and the hot weather gave a preview of what to avoid come Election Day.

Flown from Manila to Cotabato City, the election equipment are first kept under lock, key, and plastic cuffs at a warehouse there. A handful of trucks divide the transit of 722 PCOS machines throughout the province. Each delivers to one town at a time and returns to Cotabato for the next batch.

Under lock and guard in Datu Saudi (Shots by Gani Taoatao, ABS-CBN News)

Once received at municipal halls, the paraphernalia are stored in a room whose door is padlocked, nailed shut, sealed with packing tape, and signed by three officials. The three should also be present when the room is opened for the testing.

None of the 17 PCOS machines assigned to Datu Saudi town malfunctioned during the final testing and sealing witnessed by our news crew there. But the testing only begun by noon instead of the 9 a.m. schedule. One of the officials arrived late.

Then a blackout struck as the testing began, putting the reserve batteries for the PCOS machines to use. Each machine has two.

Final testing and sealing in Datu Saudi (Shots by Mores Heramis)

The Commission on Elections already dismissed concerns of power failure disturbing the polls, pointing to backups like the batteries and portable generators which were delivered with the machines.

Amid the testy testing illuminated only by sunlight, the election officer of Datu Saudi had to reach a compromise with restive election watchers unable to observe inside the cramped testing hall.

Still, a good report in this area so far.

Maguindanaoans, like other Filipinos, are counting that their votes on Monday will get counted correctly and with few, if any, problems.

Without chairs, test voting at Datu Saudi is done against the wall (Shot by Gani Taoatao, ABS-CBN News)

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Last day of absentee voting (Shot by Edgar Soberano, ABS-CBN News)

I stared at the list I jotted down on a sheet of grade-school-ruled pad, asking myself if I was ready to take the plunge.

I had a nagging feeling–second thoughts even–to be sure. I was casting my vote for the first time, and this list of candidates for senator and party-list was my assurance that my first time was being done right.

The list was a digital one at first–a rough draft sitting on my laptop. When I learned in February that media workers like me could vote earlier, I hurriedly listed names that had the best chance of getting my vote.

I only went back to the list the day before, April 28. The three-day period of local absentee voting (LAV) for soldiers, police officers, civil servants and the media had already begun.

This mini-Election Day felt like a final exam. I went through a review, scanning the profiles of the 34 senatorial bets on the Halalan 2013 web sites of ABS-CBN News and of the University of the Philippines.

I watched the final leg of the Harapan TV debates. I shuffled my digital list as the candidates faced the nation. I thought I wouldn’t complete my Magic 12. But after Harapan, I was already weighing who to retain or replace in an already-full lineup.

(Shot by Chito Concepcion)

I had already covered a national election in 2010. Assigned out of town, I, like most of my colleagues could not vote. Thankfully, my registration remained active when the Comelec approved a petition to include members of media in the absentee vote.

This time, I had to grab the chance. Voting was one right—and duty—I did not miss out on, even as a student voting for the school council or for national candidates in mock university polls.

Little late

But the Comelec’s approval near the end of the voter registration period in October, came a little late for other press people. Many long-time media workers had deactivated registrations after years of not getting to vote. Some failed to register altogether.

Checking the voters’ lists with Jenny Reyes (Shot by Chito Concepcion)

Come February, the Comelec said media organizations would have to submit lists of their employees working on Election Day. Their names would be checked against the record of registered voters.

What didn’t come through was that media workers also had to fill out and pass forms to their offices. The deadline: April 2.

The roll of absentee media voters posted at the Comelec National Capitol Region (NCR) office reveals how the information dissemination turned out. In NCR, only the top TV networks and some radio stations had lists. Some top Metro newspapers were absent. Even then, the organizations with the most registered only had a hundred. Others ranged from forty, ten, or less.

The day I was to vote, I was assigned to the Comelec main office, mere steps from the polling center at the Comelec NCR office.

An hour before voting closed on April 29, I was convinced the list I prepared was thought through well enough. I finally decided to go.

I brought along our cameraman to shoot voting footage in case others arrived with me. The precinct—a vacated office fitted with a long wooden conference table—was empty when we came.

Media voters trickled in ones or twos that day. ABS-CBN reporters like RG Cruz and Atom Araullo came and voted alone.

At least the process was quick and smooth. Sign on the registration sheet, get a ballot and two envelopes, affix a thumb mark below the ballot, and take a seat to fill it out. The list I made became useful. Absentee voting was manual, the votes written down.

After voting, I placed the ballot in one envelope and sealed it with a special sticker. It went inside a larger envelope sealed with another sticker. My signature at the front would be my only identification with the ballot after it went inside the old-school yellow ballot box.

The bulk of voters had come the day before and the next. Still, poll workers there lamented that the media turnout was hardly half—mirroring the actual May vote.

Reporter RG Cruz voting before coverage. (Shot by Edgar Soberano, ABS-CBN News)

Media vote

The press person’s ballot, like everyone else’s, is private–even sacred. But a friend remarked: what if the media’s votes were counted and the tallies released (or worse, leaked) early?

The Comelec assured us the votes would be totaled along with the other ballots on Election Day. And press people would keep their votes to themselves knowing it would affect their professionalism. But the comment shows how potent the news media can be even in their poll choices.

Here, after all, are the men and women who have had the closest contact and access to many, if not all of the candidates. They ask the questions and help determine the issues voters want candidates to address.

Voting with Jenny Reyes (Click the photo to watch RG Cruz’s TV Patrol story)

This is, of course, no claim that all media practitioners are well-versed with the issues and candidates. Like me, they also need some review and study.

It was the media’s overlooked numbers that drove the argument of Atty. Romulo Macalintal’s LAV petition to the Comelec. Around 300,000 to 400,000 media workers would benefit, he said.

Inday Espina-Varona of ABS-CBN’s Bayan Mo iPatrol Mo, one of the first absentee voters, said: “Next time, we should all vote. How many are we in media? 10,000? 10,000 very opinionated people.”

The Comelec resolution allowing media people to vote early actually pegged the national count at more than 213,900. With that potential, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes had to rue the eventual turnout.

Not only Brillantes was surprised. Colleagues at the office, even some news anchors who had active registrations were taken aback when they found they were not qualified to vote early. Other press people learned it the hard way–at the actual polling center.

(Shot by Edgar Soberano, ABS-CBN News)

But like all first times, few experience it first. The 2016 Presidential elections will surely see more media workers getting registered.

As for my first time, it did not end with a plunge. Getting the ink-stained finger was easier than actually deciding whose names to vote–the ideal scenario.

My thoughts recalled two long-heard quips: “Those who don’t vote have no right to criticize,” and “We are to blame for the leaders we elect”.

For one who has seen long lines and even chaos at polling precincts, all I could hope is that the speed and order I just met would also mark the first times of others who don’t get to vote this early.

And for one whose career revolves partly around politics, I hope the candidates I wrote in that ballot would make me proud I voted for them.

(Shot by Chito Concepcion)

Who doesn’t want instant fortune? The rags-to-riches dream is so ingrained in popular culture we spot it from game shows to get-rich-quick schemes. One ‘90s Hollywood movie where Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda split a lottery ticket as a tip puts it this way: “It Could Happen To You”. What if it did?

That’s the surprise that met Pip. An orphan raised by his domineering sister and her blacksmith husband, the teenage Pip one day learns he has “come into fortune”.

The catch–Pip cannot know who the source of his fortune is until his benefactor says so.

Pip’s self-told story takes him from the foggy marshes of Kent to the seedy apartments of 1800s London, where he tries to shut out his erstwhile life and pursue his dream of becoming a gentleman.

Still, the past catches up with him through the characters he meets in the city–each holding connections to his childhood. Some have never left his mind–most especially Estella, Pip’s unrequited childhood love.

But Pip’s supposedly-unlimited fortune slowly alters him and how he treats those close to him. Only his devotion to the indifferent Estella grows, fed by a notion that her hand is part of his “expectations”.

Then his patron shows up one night.

Charles Dickens first released “Great Expectations” in weekly installments over nearly nine months. It explains the novel’s length and the plot’s intriguing twists and turns.

Dickens relies heavily on descriptive scene-setting to transit us between acts. But it can go too far for the 21st-century non-native English speaker, who has to read aloud through many an “accented” dialogue.

Writing style aside, he weaves a classic morality tale of how wealth can corrupt and how gaining the world never guarantees satisfaction.

We watch Pip trickle then tumble down, wondering if he’ll turn back. Yet he narrates with a certain naïveté that you think he remains the child who was terrified by an escaped convict at the beginning. I had to visualize him a little older as the chapters progressed. But even early on he describes his surroundings with a measure of wit and irreverence mature for his years.

While Pip is faulty and can be stubborn to change, we feel for him and take his side. And no other aspect of his story makes the reader relate to him more than his feelings for Estella.

Pip and Miss Havisham, played by Helena Bonham Carter in the most recent movie version (Courtesy Telegraph.co.uk)

“Great Expectations” also hits at the reality of love’s expectations. Case in point: Estella’s guardian Miss Havisham, a rich old spinster embittered by a lover’s deceit. Under her influence, Estella grows up to spurn Pip’s unwavering affections.

Pip’s other relationships have bright sides nonetheless. We admire friends like Joe, Biddy, Wemmick, and Herbert, who stay behind him through his slips and slumps. Amid the restlessness and uncertainty of Pip’s future, their scenes also lead us to smile, chuckle, even shed a happy tear.

They make us trust that second chances are possible. And we hang on to see if these chances happen in the end. They can be a fresh start at making a living, a chance to love again, or a redemption from past wrong.

Like Pip, his friends, and their “great expectations”, our own collective discontent is a hint at something better ahead.

(I read the free e-text version of the book at Project Gutenberg. Get it here.)

*Past bookshelf reviews:

• “A Tale of Two Cities“
• Intro to Christie
• Agatha Christie’s heroines

BULUAN, MAGUINDANAO—Things were different when the previous sitting President last visited this province.

Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s low-profile stop at Shariff Aguak, the capital of Maguindanao, late in March 2009 was hardly note-worthy and routine at most.

On her itinerary was a briefing on the Solid Waste Management Program in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and a ribbon-cutting at the newly-built P218-million provincial capitol complex.

The photo-ops of Arroyo and her hosts, the Ampatuans, took a different light eight months later, when 57 corpses of civilians and media workers were found and dug up in Ampatuan town.

Arroyo and the Ampatuans in 2009 (Best available photo from the Office of the Press Secretary, c/o Pinoy Weekly)

The so-called Maguindanao massacre was tagged on the ruling clan, particularly Andal Sr. and his son, Andal Jr. In turn, it also tainted Arroyo’s term being the climax of hundreds of extra-judicial killings during her stay in power.

Year 2013 found them replaced by rivals and detained under criminal charges. But politics has its way of repeating itself. Maguindanao still proves the election trophy crucial even to opposing administrations.

Last April 12, red, yellow, and green frills welcomed Pres. Benigno Aquino III to Buluan, hometown of re-electionist Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu.

No longer is the governor’s seat in Shariff Aguak, where the palatial capitol complex came to signify the opulence of the Ampatuans amid the squalor of the province.

Aquino flew from Cotabato City where he checked on projects being implemented by Mujiv Hataman, the ARMM caretaker governor who is vying for an elected term this May.

This next stop was more political than administrative—an opportunity to raise the hands of Mangudadatu, Hataman, and the Liberal Party (LP) bets here. Nearly all top officials in ARMM and Maguindanao had now aligned themselves with Aquino.

Buluan’s nearly-completed gymnasium hosted the area’s first LP rally. Residents–estimated from 50,000 to 70,000–endured the midday heat and lined up through security checks.

The covered court could not contain all, explaining the second stage put up outside. Spectators listened to local candidates there while sitting or standing under gigantic umbrellas.

There, Team PNoy senatorial candidates Koko Pimentel, Jun Magsaysay, Risa Hontiveros, Bam Aquino, Sonny Angara, and Loren Legarda first gave their campaign speeches before repeating them inside the gym.

The attendance shows what has changed in Maguindanao in more than three years. Even a political rally here was unthinkable before.

Liberal Party bets in ARMM and Maguindanao.

The understated memory here is the 2007 elections, when then-Congressman Aquino and other senatorial bets lost heavily here due to systematic cheating.

Aquino recalled seeing the election returns from Maguindanao.

“Huwag mo na tignan, sasama pa loob mo,” he remembered fellow candidate Chiz Escudero telling him. Where election inspectors had already signed off a candidate’s supposedly “finished” tally, new rows of marks were expediently added.

“Kung sasama ang loob ko, mas sasama loob mo,” Aquino remembers replying. “Tinalo kita dito.” Aquino said he got 13 votes in that return; Escudero, 12.

Arroyo’s Team Unity slate bagged a landslide “12-0″ in Maguindanao, allegedly helped by the Ampatuans. While it did not affect Aquino and Escudero’s ultimate wins, Maguindanao spelled the difference between Pimentel and Team Unity bet Miguel Zubiri for the final Senate slot. Pimentel lost, but gained the seat after Zubiri resigned over the cheating allegations.

Still, no one is openly declaring a 12-0 in Maguindanao for Team PNoy–despite some bold claims for the national results.

Mangudadatu and partymates in Maguindanao.

Gov. Toto Mangudadatu avoided the term when reporter Jorge Cariño asked him about it, since it evoked poll fraud. “Wala na iyon ngayon. Pero kampante ako magsalita na mananalo silang lahat dito,” he said.

Buluan Mayor Ibrahim Mangudadatu could only urge his allies to commit an 80-percent vote for the LP. At this, the President commented, “Kung tataasan nyo pa sa 80 percent, ‘di po ako magagalit sa inyo.”

What mattered, said Pimentel, was that the true votes of Maguindanaoans would be cast and counted this time.

“Kung lahat kami manalo–ang Team PNoy, so be it. Kung mahaluan kami ng from UNA (United Nationalist Alliance), so be it.”

Aquino’s keynote address was tellingly more sales pitch than accomplishment report–no different from his recent speeches at other “community meetings” elsewhere.

(Courtesy Radio-Television Malacañang)

With no direct attacks on his predecessor, Aquino’s allusions to the “transformation” of Maguindanao were commentary enough.

Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani Jr., while unnamed, did not escape Aquino’s tirades. He said Guiani was hostile to aid sent by the national government amid flooding in mid-2011. Guiani is gunning for another term against current vice mayor and LP bet Muslimin Sema.

“Inaway ang lahat ng tumutulong sa kanya,” Aquino said. “Ang reklamo lang pala ay, ‘Bakit hindi niyo idinaan sa akin lahat ng tulong na iyan?’”

Earlier, Hataman hinted at his own opponents in the regional race: “Kahit pulitiko mula sa ibang probinsya, gusto nang mamuno sa ARMM dahil sa mga reporma na ginagawa natin.”

Foremost among those reforms is the Sajahatra Bangsamoro project set to create an entity replacing the ARMM. Tellingly, there were no reported hostilities that day, a far cry from the clashes that killed 27 when Arroyo came in 2009.

But beyond the much-raved headway in the peace process, the audience inside and outside the gym hardly heard specific responses to other issues plaguing the region.

Power outages disrupted the program. The longest delayed the President’s appearance onstage. The sound system conked out and the Malacañang video technicians had to wait for electricity to resume their coverage. No mention of the now-common occurrence when Aquino took the podium.

He barely touched on the Maguindanao massacre, only noting how Mangudadatu “gained strength” from it to govern and reconcile disputes. No one has yet to be convicted for the killings–a hanging point for Aquino’s administration.

Aquino did say he doesn’t promise an end to the nation’s problems.

“Palagay ko kaya kong ipangako sa inyo na pagbaba ko sa pwesto at nagkita tayo muli, sasabihin niyo may problema pa kayo.” Problems, he said, borne of the solutions his government is pursuing.

President Aquino is counting on the May elections to reflect the changes his administration has made here in transparency and good governance. Yet he is hoping those changes would also convince the citizens of ARMM’s most vote-rich province to support him and his handpicked teammates.

(Shots by Isagani Taoatao, ABS-CBN News)

*This writer was also in Maguindanao during the 2010 elections. Read his blog entries about the polls here.

Imus Mayoral candidate Homer Saquilayan (Shot by Angelo Valderama, ABS-CBN News)

The covered basketball court at the Narra Homes Subdivision in Imus, Cavite vibrated with shouts and music the afternoon of April 4.

It was no summer sports league. Instead, Imus was having its own version of the many events enveloping the country since March 31–the start of the campaign period for local positions.

At an enlarged stage inside, the candidates of the “Team Saki” slate–named after their mayoral bet Homer Saquilayan–were working up the assembled supporters into cheers.

A live rock band jammed the intro tunes to pop hits like “Call Me Maybe” as each contender was introduced.

The contenders are one side of the intense political battle permeating Cavite that spilled into Imus. They wore azure collared shirts printed with lines in all caps: “No more lies”, “No more deceptions”, “No more corruption”.

The shirts and the speeches hit at the administration of Saquilayan’s opponent, Mayor Emmanuel Maliksi. The two are at odds over Supreme Court and Comelec rulings in March declaring Saquilayan the duly elected mayor of Imus. Maliksi, however, refuses to leave city hall.

But the city candidates (there since noon) were not the only reason for the excited crowd. Even the subdivision guards and barangay watchmen outside were racking their heads over the flow of vehicles entering the already-cramped subdivision from the narrow main road.

Welcoming streamers announced the main attraction—Cavite reelectionist governor Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla, vice-gubernatorial candidate Jolo Revilla, and Revilla’s girlfriend, actress Jodi Sta. Maria.

The hot afternoon meant good business for nearby home-based stalls selling cold refreshments. One heavyset owner already took on blending halo-halo ingredients as the orders piled up. But she laughingly told her vendors, “Kapag dumating na si Jodi Sta. Maria iiwan ko na kayo!”

Candidates Jolo Revilla and Jonvic Remulla (Shot by Angelo Valderama, ABS-CBN News)

By 4 p.m., the motorcade of Remulla and Revilla arrived. The governor, wearing a personal collared blue shirt, his running-mate in white, met screams in the court. The band struck up “Mangarap Ka” as the tandem walked to the stage.

The opening melody of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” accompanied Saquilayan as he handed the microphone to Revilla.

Female shouts of “Jolo! Jolo! Jolo!” met the actor, who smiled and quickly replaced the chant with Jonvic’s name. Soon the band joined in with a beat.

Revilla held forth on his accomplishments as a barangay captain in Bacoor for the past three years and the problems in Cavite he assured the crowd he and Remulla would solve if elected.

But seemingly he saved his biggest pitch for their votes for last.

Leaving the platform for Remulla’s turn, Revilla boarded a black van parked outside the subdivision gate. After a while, the van drove near the court entrance and Revilla got off with Jodi Sta. Maria in tow.

Chiara Zambrano meets Jodi and Jolo with some questions. Click the pic to watch her Bandila report. (Shot by Angelo Valderama, ABS-CBN News)

The people outside began to shriek and greet Sta. Maria by her TV screen name, Maya.

“I don’t have work today, and it’s also my choice to support Jolo’s campaign,” she told reporter Chiara Zambrano while walking hand-in-hand with Revilla.

Then the “showbiz” question: was she uncomfortable that her boyfriend is running against her former brother-in-law Jay Lacson?

“No, wala, wala,” she answered with a smile. “Kasi past na yun, e. Kumbaga, bagong chapter na ito ng buhay ko.”

Sta. Maria is separated from Panfilo Lacson Jr., with whom she has a son.

Jolo Revilla and Jodi Sta. Maria entered the covered court besieged by even louder squeals, outstretched arms, and attempts at kisses. As if on cue, the band crescendoed to the chorus of “Please Be Careful With My Heart,” the theme of Sta. Maria’s hit teleserye.

(Shot by Angelo Valderama, ABS-CBN News)

The rivals of Remulla, Revilla, and Saquilayan were also staging a less hyped-up proclamation rally that day in Dasmariñas, more than 15 kilometers south.

There were no live bands or celebrities onstage. But Jay Lacson and gubernatorial bet Ireneo “Ayong” Maliksi were being backed up by the biggest personality in the land, President Benigno Aquino III.

Aquino urged the crowd there to support the local bets of his Liberal Party and not those who supposedly relied on “good looks” and “ineffective amulets.” Amulet, of course, referring to the “Agimat” movie roles that shot Revilla patriarch Ramon Sr. to fame.

Jonvic Remulla and Jolo Revilla are running under the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats party, which has no bets vying for national office this election.

Remulla could not help but tease the two. He said Jodi couldn’t visit Jolo when he was ill, unlike her onscreen boss “Ser Chief” whom her character brought a bowl of “lugaw” when he was down with “a little” fever.

Jolo then took the mic to introduce Jodi, whom he called “ang nag-iisang nilalaman ng puso ko.”

Sta. Maria alluded to her housemaid character by thanking “Ser Chief” for allowing her a “day off” for the sortie.

(Shot by Angelo Valderama, ABS-CBN News)

“Narinig niyo na po ang bawat plataporma ng bawat isa po sa mga kandidato na nandito po ngayong hapon,” she said. “At siguro po, alam na rin po ninyo kung bakit po karapat-dapat na sila ang inyong ihalal ngayong eleksyon.”

At a loss for words, she had none more to add but thanks for the welcome. She still had a “gift” to give the assembly–a live rendition of “Torete,” a ballad from her TV show’s official soundtrack.

The audience roared as Revilla stood and approached Sta. Maria as she sang. He took her hand, put his arm around her, arranged her hair, and used her towel to wipe off his forehead.

The scene was no different from the noisy and jam-packed mall shows of Jodi’s “Be Careful With My Heart” cast mates. Only this time, the leading man was her real-life “Ser Chief”.

It’s nothing new. Celebrity couples have long colored elections, with the more popular lover helping drum up support for the other’s campaign.

Locally, there’s Richard Gomez and Lucy Torres, ER Ejercito and wife Maita Gomez, Manny and Jinkee Pacquiao, even Jolo’s father Bong Revilla and his wife Lani Mercado. And nationally, Senators Kiko Pangilinan and Ralph Recto with their spouses Sharon Cuneta and Vilma Santos.

Jolo Revilla is not the only celebrity running in the 2013 elections, but he is one of few banking on a little celebrity help from one closest to his heart.

(Shot by Angelo Valderama, ABS-CBN News)

Revilla, leading Jodi Sta. Maria down from the stage after the song number, said he respects Jodi’s decision to get involved in his campaign.

“Mas gugustuhin ko na wag siyang ma-involve. Pero, mas ginusto pa rin niyang sumama sa akin at ikampanya ako… Nandito ako para sa kanya, at nagpapasalamat ako sa suportang binibigay niya sa akin.”

As the stars made their exit trailed by a crowd of unrelenting fans, the city candidates and their supporters remained to clean up the remnants of an ended sortie.

A student looks at the slate posters of UP Diliman’s STAND-UP, ALYANSA, and KAISA 2013 USC bets (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

When a Philippine news website released the results of the University Student Council (USC) elections in the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, readers questioned the choice of coverage. The update came out under its “Nation” section. Was it relevant to non-members of the UP community?

While this article is not an endorsement or defense of the site’s editorial judgment, a glance at this particular student activity may offer some points in light of the coming midterm elections.

As an open campus, UP Diliman is exposed to events and issues in the so-called real world. More so, the dynamics of the students, teachers, and the community in and around UP make up an academic mirror to issues facing the country.

And perhaps the yearly elections for UP Diliman’s USC reminds us of the Philippines in many ways.

The USC polls and the three-week-long campaign before them are a mix of the traditional and the ideal. There are elements familiar to national politics and others yet to be seen on a bigger scale, both good and bad.

Up for grabs are 33 university-wide positions and 250-plus posts in each college council.

This battle for voters, albeit among more than 23,000 students, can rival a KampanyaSerye-style local race in intensity–fortunately minus the violence known to some hotspots.

The issues can get hot and the exchange of diatribes even hotter. They range from matters affecting college students to matters relevant to the national, an involvement inseparable from the Iskolar ng Bayan. Even non-students in UP say they have a stake in the polls.

The results may have no direct bearing on the national scale, but the leaders these students elect and the stances they take will help determine the direction of the student movement led by many from this campus.

Party lines

This 2013, UP students mark 100 years since electing their first student council. To some, this year’s polls continue to test if students will keep to or depart from the brand of student leadership and national participation represented by their outgoing leaders.

UP Diliman’s polls last February 28 resulted in a council led by KAISA, the youngest of the three university-wide political alliances/parties. In a first, KAISA won top posts chairperson, vice chairperson, and number one councilor.

After students gradually voted in fewer candidates from previously dominant parties STAND-UP and ALYANSA since 2006, the incoming 2013 USC faces the challenge of agreeing on a direction to lead the campus in.

In predominantly Left-leaning UP politics, the parties all tag themselves as activists. Nevertheless, their stands on issues like tuition increase, state subsidy for education, or even the latest public scandal can vary.

This Left spectrum is color-coded too: red STAND-UP is the extreme of the left, blue ALYANSA is on the opposite end, and yellow KAISA often stands in between.

Supporters of the 3 parties react as their bets win (and don’t win) in the 2013 USC elections. (Shots by Anjo Bagaoisan)

This dedication to ideologies differs this brand of politics from nominal student body exercises. It is a big deal here for parties to be involved or have a say in campus and national issues throughout the school year and not just when elections are nearby. Do otherwise and you’ll be called out for it at the campaign.

Compare this to Philippine party politics, where the tying bonds of parties are their founders or leaders and their relationships to the administration. Party names and colors are worn and shed like clothes nearly every three years. And no issue, since national party ideologies revolve around very similar motherhood goals.

Jumping parties in UP Diliman is taboo and even rare. And while some personalities have risen in fame from the party lines through the years, they have come and gone. Still left are the parties that train and attract a new generation of leaders and voters.

Yet political parties in UPD share some similarities with their national counterparts. Their histories involve splits and break-ups–although in UP’s case, they arose largely out of differences in ideology. STAND-UP, ALYANSA, and KAISA could all be traced to past dominant party SAMASA.

The parties also have bailiwicks among the colleges and courses, making the voting behavior of UP Diliman students an observable trend, akin to the red and blue states in the US.

Personalities vs issues

Nevertheless, USC elections every year cannot avoid classic elements associated with national campaigns.

Unlike its national counterpart, UP’s election code sets no limits or monitors on campaign spending, much less guidelines on the sizes and locations of posted campaign material.

Thus by February, the campus becomes littered with flyers, posters, and stickers as parties and candidates engage in a race for recall. The flyers are filled with programs, statements, endorsements, or attacks. The posters and stickers—stuck from jeepneys to waiting sheds—are emblazoned with the names and pictures of those running.

For the parties, a vote for their ideology should mean a vote for their entire slate, no matter if the candidates are veterans or not. But straight voting has hardly been the cumulative case in UP Diliman, at least since youngest party KAISA came into the scene in 2005.

The elections are in large part popularity contests judging from past results, as students still consider their personal knowledge of candidates when casting their ballots.

With such a scheme, parties still devote their energies into drumming up their running personalities. It’s seen in the wearing and repetition of nicknames during room-to-room campaigns and in the rhyming slogans worthy of a commercial.

The 2013 candidates for USC Chairperson in a poster for a “teleserye-inspired” debate put up by the campus publications. (Courtesy Solidaridad / The Philippine Collegian)

The reality of personality politics often centers on the battle for USC chairperson. The most-promoted names in the lineups, the chairperson candidates are the main faces of their parties during the campaign period. That’s not to mention the clout any party would have over the council when their candidate wins.

Their clashes are focal points in the election, especially when well-known students face off for the top post. In 2000, Raymond Palatino of STAND-UP (now Kabataan partylist representative) beat now-broadcaster Mariz Umali of SAMASA, ensuring STAND-UP’s dominant presence in local politics.

The chairperson race is also where black propaganda can overshadow the more-pertinent issues permeating the campaign.

In 2013, the candidate who bore the worst brunt was KAISA standardbearer Ana Alexandra “Alex” Castro. She eventually won the election by more than 1,500 votes over both her opponents, but not without being charged with flip-flopping stances and called derogatory names during the campaign.

Independent candidates for the USC are few and rare. And not always do UP students vote them into the council. Eventual winners often presented a stand-out campaign focus—like Kester Yu, who won top councilor in 2009 with an environmental platform. This year, no independent candidate ran for the university-wide posts.

Parallels

This year’s polls did not merit the media attention they got in 2012, when the USC’s first transgender chairperson Gabriel Paolo “Heart” Diño won in a comeback victory for ALYANSA. The news stories then focused on Diño’s win as an achievement for gender rights in the country.

Hardly noticed too was the effort behind one of the country’s largest campus election automated counts. On its fifth year of large-scale use, UP Diliman’s “Halalan” open-sourced system consolidated votes cast via computer terminals in colleges spaced kilometers apart. All a student needs is his/her student number and a pre-generated password.

The UP Linux Users Group or UnPLUG developed the system. They started out automating the votes in UP dormitories back in 2005, then in selected college council votes afterward. Only after winning an IBM server in an international contest did UnPLUG have the means for a university-wide count in 2009.

A student prepares to list down the 2013 USC winners at Vinzons Hall. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

The automation turned what was a vigil till early morning at the Vinzons student center into as early as 30 minutes. Recently, the wait has gone back to two hours at most to account for manual votes, colleges that finished late, and preparation by the University Student Electoral Board for its proclamation of the results.

Like its national counterpart, UP’s automation has its share of delays and glitches nonetheless. Last February 28, 58 of the 11,245 votes cast (5.15 percent) were still manual due to difficulties for some students in casting their votes. Even so, no fears of manipulation or major malfunction have yet to materialize.

The proclamation at the Vinzons lobby is as festive and as noisy as the national. Supporters of the three parties come in color and in force to cheer up or cheer down winners. Election day is also the center of attention for a number of student publications, including the campus radio station dzUP.

But despite a reputation for awareness and involvement, it is still a challenge to get most UP Diliman students to vote. University-wide turnout has hardly breached half the student population in recent years. This year it was only 48.4 percent.

Some students say they are “tired” of the politicking and the mudslinging, others of the extreme focus on the national compared to the local. While they have a say on issues outside campus, these students also ask what their council can do for them as fellow students–one parallel with the national psyche. And it is something the parties have taken to balancing between.

First-year students at UP Diliman are told they are entering a microcosm of society. The tuition increase of 2006 helped dispel that notion, as financial means now determines in part who enrolls in the so-called “national university”.

All the same, the USC elections show that the future leaders and voters are a parallel of their countrymen, both in how this political exercise is and could be done.

Last of two parts. Read Part One here.

(First published Tuesday, 16 June 2009)

OFFICIALS of the Commission on Higher Education are used to dealing with members of congressmen making all sorts of demands—from requests for scholarships to following up the permits of nursing schools.

But the buck of political pressure does not stop in Congress. It goes all the way up.

A former commissioner recalled being contacted by a Malacañang official to order CHED to relax its requirements, specifically the one requiring nursing schools to have a partner tertiary base hospital.

The former CHED official also pointed to a school owner, a close supporter of President Gloria Arroyo, applying to open other nursing campuses. The school, which did not meet the hospital requirement, was among 23 that were ordered closed by CHED in 2005. CHED then received an order from Malacanang to give that particular school a permit.

Three years after, the school’s owner figured among the President’s choices for CHED chair. Arroyo eventually picked Dr. Emmanuel Angeles of Angeles University, who was not involved in that controversy, to be chair.

Presidential support lacking

Describing the relationship between the Palace and CHED, the former official said, “If the President supported us more, CHED would have been stronger.”

Infographic by Mark Angelo V. Ching & Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan (Click to enlarge)

As it was, the number of nursing schools in 2007 increased by 230 percent from 2001. Most of these perform very poorly in the Nursing Licensure Exams (NLE). In fact, one out of every two nursing schools whose graduates took the board exam last November scored only 50 percent or less.

Data also show that from 2001 to November 2007, a dozen schools have scored zero to 3 percent in at least three exams. Four of these have already closed down due to the low number of enrollees or other market forces. Eight, however, are still operating.

The dire state of nursing education is quickly blamed on CHED which, under its Memorandum Order No. 30 issued in 2001, could have closed down substandard educational institutions such as those eight schools that scored low percentage points. It could have also phased out the nursing programs of about six schools that garnered only four to 10 percentage points in three exams in the last five years.

Former CHED chair Carlito Puno said, however, that owners of the nursing schools do not follow the commission’s orders. For instance, a commission decision in 2005 raising the required passing rate from 10 to 30 percent and phasing out underperforming nursing schools triggered a war between the regulatory body and the school owners.

Had the 30 percent passing rate been applied to the exam performances from 2004 to 2008, CHED could have closed down two out of every 10 nursing schools nationwide by simply computing their average scores.

But Puno said, “My God, they really fought us. They brought us to court.”

Court case vs CHED

The school owners, for instance, filed a case against CHED in the regional trial court in Pangasinan, where their leader, lawyer Gonzalo T. Duque, president of Lyceum Northwestern–Florencia T. Duque College in Pangasinan, was based. The owners succeeded in getting the Dagupan trial court to issue an injunction and a temporary restraining order in June 2005 preventing CHED from closing them down. Owners of nursing schools elsewhere in the country then began invoking the TRO to prevent their closure.

An assessment of the performance of the nursing schools from 2004 to 2008, published by the Professional Regulation Commission as required by the PRC Modernization Act of 2000, showed six schools whose nursing programs should be phased out based on NLE scores. These schools are located in Metro Manila, Regions 1 and 8, Soccsksargen and the Cordillera Administrative Region.

The PRC data also showed eight other schools in various parts of the country whose nursing programs should be closed down. One is in Metro Manila, while the others are in Regions 2, 3, 5, 9, 10 and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The case of the two nursing schools in ARMM is a totally different matter altogether. These two schools are the worst performing in every board exam. But William Malitao of the CHED Office of Programs and Standards (OPS) said, “They have an autonomous CHED there. It is in charge of the regulation of these two schools. We can’t do anything about them.”

These two ARMM schools are also owned by powerful families in the region with ties to the ruling party Lakas-CMD.

As for the other underperforming nursing schools, Malitao said they still invoke the TRO to this day. This is why CHED still has not closed down any nursing school based on performance rates.

Puno learned from a retired Supreme Court justice in 2006 that the TRO applies only to Pangasinan. The law also sets an expiry date for TROs. But CHED has been treading gingerly on this matter.

The school that spearheaded the move for the TRO, Lyceum Northwestern–Florencia T. Duque College, was founded in 1969 by Dr. Francisco Q. Duque Jr. and his wife, Florencia. Duque was the health secretary during the term of the late President Diosdado Macapagal.

Duque’s son, Francisco III, is now President Arroyo’s health secretary. He was the executive vice president of the Lyceum Northwestern–Florencia T. Duque College from 1991 to 2000. Documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Duque and seven of his relatives each held around 12 percent of the college’s stocks as of 2003.

To get around the TRO, the commission decided in an en banc resolution in 2007 to phase out the nursing schools on the basis of other deficiencies, such as lack of a base hospital and qualified faculty members rather than poor performance in the board exams. But even on those bases, Malitao admitted that CHED has not yet phased out any nursing school.

“We have no budget to tour and make an inspection of the schools,” he said. “The appropriation for CHED only goes to its internal operations. There is not enough money for regulation.”

CHED’s 2007 financial statement showed that less than 40 percent of its P1.6-billion budget went to maintenance and other operating expenses. No particular amount was allotted for the inspection of schools.

Effect of global crisis

The mushrooming of substandard nursing schools in the country flies in the face of the global economic crisis that has narrowed down prospects for nurses seeking employment in the so-called traditional nursing markets, most especially the United States. New markets for nurses, however, are opening in countries like New Zealand, Norway and Japan.

The problem is not that the demand for Filipino nurses has gone down, but that the continuing local and foreign demand is not enough to employ the oversupply of nurses, said Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) president Teresita Barcelo.

According to the PNA, about 100,000 nurses are currently jobless. That number does not count the 39,000 new nurses who passed the November 2008 nursing licensure exams and the thousands of others who graduated this summer.

Moves to address the crisis in nursing have so far focused on providing jobs for the graduates. The Arroyo administration launched in February the Nurses Assigned to Rural Services or NARS program, a P500-million year-long program that is part of the government’s Economic Resiliency Plan to deal with the financial crisis.

The program aimed to send 10,000 nurses to public hospitals and health centers in the country’s poorest areas. The nurses would be paid monthly stipends of P8,000. In addition, they would acquire the work experience that overseas employers require.

More than 11,000 nurses applied for the 5,000 slots of the program’s first six-month cycle that began in April. But while the administration is attempting to address the lack of jobs with an emergency employment program, this has room for just 10 percent of the jobless. Members of the nursing community interviewed for this report pointed out that the government should address the root of the problem.

Government, they said, should impose stricter measures on nursing education, a job that is supposed to be done by CHED. The board exams last November, for instance, saw the biggest number of examinees so far at 88,000. Only less than half, or 44.5 percent, passed.

Josefina Tuazon, dean of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing, said the present crisis might actually present a strong reason for CHED to resist political pressure that is preventing it from cracking down on substandard nursing schools.

“How do you justify opening new schools when there is unemployment?” she said.

Former and present CHED officials, however, suggested that the problem and the solution might be structural in nature.

Administratively under Malacañang, CHED’s chair and commissioners are all appointed by the President. Getting its funds from Congress, CHED officials think they cannot afford to displease the lawmakers who have the power to approve—or cut down—its budget.

CHED officials also say the commission needs a bigger budget. Malitao said a bigger subsidy would help the commission monitor the performance of operating schools. Congress should also amend

Republic Act No. 7722, or the Higher Education Act, which serves as the CHED Charter to give the commission more teeth in monitoring and closing down underperforming schools, he said.

But for Tuazon of UP and Barcelo of PNA, it’s not just money that CHED needs. The commission, they said, needs the political will to implement its own rules.

“Just because of the fear of litigation, you cannot implement a guideline?” Tuazon said, referring to the court cases filed by owners of nursing schools.

New guidelines

Last May, CHED reviewed and issued a new set of guidelines for nursing schools in time for the new schoolyear. Under 2009 CHED Memorandum No. 14, schools must comply with all requirements within three years after getting their permits.

The new memo also added detailed qualifications for deans and nursing instructors, and required base and affiliated hospitals. However, the new curriculum was reduced by 10 units and the hours required for hospital experience by 154.

Sanctions were expanded from one paragraph in 2001 to seven. Nursing schools are now required to keep their average board exam passing rate at 30 percent for the next three years or else be phased out. But the phase-out starts in 2013 and covers first-time takers only.

With decreasing demand overseas for nurses, the consequent decrease in nursing schools just might help improve the quality of nursing education.

Hopefully, Borromeo said, people would stop regarding nursing as merely a lucrative profession. “Those who have less-than-ideal reasons for opening a nursing school will probably get discouraged, which is good,” she said.

After all, Barcelo said, nursing schools should be teaching their students “the right values” rather than just preparing them for jobs abroad. Such students should be taught “what it means to be a nurse.”

She rued that many nursing students today do not even have their hearts in the profession because they were simply forced by their parents to take the course in order to help their families financially.

The current state of nursing schools and the prevalence of such an attitude among the country’s future nurses combine to make a distressing picture.

And that, Barcelo said, “is the sad story.”

(The authors are journalism graduates of the University of the Philippines. This two-part report is an abridged version of their thesis, which was done under the supervision of UP journalism professor and VERA Files trustee Yvonne Chua.)

Note: This two‐part report was the output of my thesis with Mark Angelo Ching, which was supervised by Prof. Yvonne Chua and edited by Prof. Chit Estella. We chose to investigate the state of our nursing schools partly due to our concern with the increasing number of jobless nurses. We also saw that the media has not looked deeper into this issue since the 2006 exam leakage controversy. For our research, I took care of interviewing most sources and researching the Congress archives, while Mark compiled and analyzed nursing board exam performances of schools. Our work on this thesis familiarized us with the dealings of the Commission on Higher Education and the problems that still need to be addressed in nursing education. Vera Files (Part 1 & 2), The Manila Times, and GMANews.tv (Part 1 & 2) released the report.

First of two parts

(First published Monday, 15 June 2009)

NURSING schools all over the country will be opening their doors this week to thousands of students with the great white cap dream—getting a nursing degree, working in a hospital abroad and earning a comfortable living.

But not all these schools are qualified to offer the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. In fact, some of them were supposed to have been shut down years ago for failing to meet the requirements of the Commission on Higher Education, while some new ones were not supposed to have opened at all.

The fact is, many students are spending their parents’ hard-earned money on substandard nursing education because CHED has been unable to weed out the poorly performing nursing schools.

In 2004, CHED declared a moratorium on the opening of more nursing schools after professional nurses complained that nursing schools were sprouting like mushrooms, even as more students were failing the nursing licensure exams. The problem reached tipping point in 2006 when news of a leakage in the exams made headlines.

But political and business pressures exerted on CHED have been preventing it from effectively regulating nursing schools and closing down those that perform badly.

CHED records show that from 2004 to 2007, more than 120 schools began offering nursing courses compared to only 98 new schools in the same time span before the moratorium. A total of 459 nursing schools operate in the country today.

Number of nursing schools in the Philippines, 1998 – 2007 (Source: Commission on Higher Education)

CHED officials revealed that the commission even allowed more schools to open by continually processing pending applications. As recent as August 2008, CHED exempted certain schools from the moratorium through a verbal agreement among the commissioners. This agreement was not made public by CHED. Even now, a number of schools are reportedly applying to open, one of them with up to 17 new campuses.

Special status

Nursing, along with maritime education, currently occupies a special status in the CHED’s system of granting applications to schools seeking either to start operations or offer new courses.

New nursing and maritime programs need direct approval from the commission’s main office in Quezon City before they can take in students, unlike other courses which may be processed at one of the CHED’s 16 regional offices.

The centralization of applications for nursing courses was enforced in 2004, near the time when the commission issued Memorandum Order No. 27 freezing the opening of new programs, said William Malitao of the CHED Office of Programs and Standards (OPS).

Approved in May but released in August that year, the moratorium was recommended by CHED’s Technical Committee on Nursing Education. The committee cited as reasons the “proliferation” of institutions offering the course, the “marked deterioration” in quality of nursing graduates based on the declining board exam performances, and the lack of qualified faculty, deans and tertiary hospitals that would serve as partners to nursing schools in training the nursing students.

To open a nursing program, a school must meet four requirements: a dean with a master’s degree in nursing; faculty members with master’s degrees; facilities such as a library and a nursing skills laboratory; and its own or partner tertiary base hospital where students can be trained or have related learning experiences (RLEs).

Most schools fail to comply with the requirement on tertiary hospitals, said Elsa Florendo, supervisor of the health sciences division under the CHED OPS. Tertiary hospitals offer the full range of medical services, from childbearing to surgery. Because not all nursing schools own tertiary hospitals, they go into partnerships with one or more hospitals.

In Metro Manila alone, close to 70 tertiary hospitals provide RLEs for nearly 100 nursing schools. Usually, in the mad scramble for slots with the hospitals, some schools offer to pay more for the partnership.

4-year application process

Schools that apply for CHED recognition of their nursing program must also go through four stages of permits in four years. An initial permit is given on the first year when a school fulfills the initial requirements. Two preliminary permits are issued in the next two years, until the school is finally recognized on the fourth year.

Malitao said some contracts with hospitals expire just when the nursing schools are on their last stage of obtaining recognition from CHED. The graduating batch of these schools therefore could not take the board exam until their schools have found another partner hospital.

The four-year application system did not always sit well with officials outside the CHED. Transcripts of congressional hearings in 2005 showed some lawmakers decrying what they called CHED’s “abuses” and “injustice” against nursing schools that were denied permits after a year of operation. One congressman from Central Visayas argued that this was unfair to the school owners who had already invested money in the enterprise.

Dr. Teresita Barcelo, barely warming her seat as president of the Philippine Nurses Association, also criticized the system of application and said this was too slow. By the time an application reaches the CHED central office, the new nursing school has already begun admitting students even without the initial permit. When the CHED notices such schools, the latter counters with the question: What would they do with the students?

Moreover, CHED did not impose a limit on appeals from schools that lack one or more of the requirements. Requests for reconsideration therefore go on and on.

Dr. Fely Marilyn Lorenzo, who headed the CHED Technical Committee on Nursing Education when the moratorium was issued in 2004, recalled that there were 25 schools with pending requests during her time.

CHED, however, keeps confidential the schools whose requests were in the pipeline. This has led to the perception that the number of such schools may in fact be infinite.

Dr. Josefina Tuazon, dean of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing, said the secrecy has led to the suspicion “that the moratorium is not actually being fully implemented.”

Even the commissioners began to wonder about the pipeline’s extent. A commissioner who was appointed in 2005 proposed that CHED stop considering the schools still applying since there appeared no sign that the list was ending. Nothing came out of the proposal.

‘All kinds of pressure’

Malitao denies that politics or business had anything to do with the apparent violation of the moratorium, but former CHED officials say otherwise.

“It’s not really easy. You’re subjected to all kinds of pressures,” said Carlito Puno, CHED chairman from 2005 to 2007. Now president and CEO of United Coconut Chemicals Inc. or Cocochem, a position offered to him by President Gloria Arroyo after he was replaced by now Social Security System head Romulo Neri, Puno said he now lives a quieter life managing a company that has kept him out of the public eye.

At CHED where Puno had served since 2001 initially as commissioner, he and other officials had to balance not just the interests of students, faculty and school administrators, but also those of politicians demanding certain benefits from CHED, such as the allocation of up to a hundred scholarships each for their constituents. For 2008 and this year, CHED got funds for nearly 52,000 scholarships amounting to P851 million.

Puno said the national budget hearings were the frequent battleground for these clashing interests. CHED, like other government agencies, gets its funds through the annual national budget approved by Congress. It is often in the hearings of the House Committee on Appropriations where lawmakers can assert their power over other government agencies.

Thus, legislators with an axe to grind with CHED are able to get their point across to the commission. In the case of nursing schools, such members of Congress usually have financial stakes in them or have constituents or supporters who own these schools.

“If you don’t give in to them, at the next budget hearing you’re dead,” Puno said in Filipino. “They‘ll mock you, humiliate you, postpone the approval of your budget, schedule your hearing at ten in the morning and call you about it at midnight.”

Needed: ‘Consistent signals’

Transcripts of the appropriations committee hearings during Puno’s term and earlier do not paint that exact picture. In the records, some lawmakers in fact chastised CHED for failing to act on the increasing number of nursing schools at that time. One other lawmaker from Central Visayas, for instance, demanded to know if all the new nursing schools in his province had permits from CHED.

But Puno said many of the heavier demands were not made during the committee hearings but elsewhere. True enough, the transcripts showed congressmen repeatedly asking CHED to address their parochial concerns before or beyond the hearings.

In a CHED committee hearing in 2004, Puno’s predecessor, Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, pleaded with congressmen to send CHED “consistent signals.” De la Rosa said politicians wanted CHED to be strict with certain nursing schools but lenient with others.

Many in the CHED and outside agree that political pressure on nursing schools contributed to De la Rosa’s resignation, only months after his appointment. During his term, CHED had ordered the closure of 23 nursing schools for not meeting its requirements. Many of them remain open.

The pressure was also too much for the technical committee headed by Lorenzo, who is also a professor at UP Manila. She resigned months after De la Rosa did, citing “serious differences” with the CHED leadership under Puno.

Lorenzo said the technical committee eagerly pursued reforms in nursing education by keeping under tight watch the underperforming and substandard nursing schools. It also moved to extend the nursing curriculum to five years, which the commission opposed.

Lorenzo said while Puno assured the team that CHED would support the cleanup that it would undertake, such support did not come when political and business pressures began. Frustrated that its attempts at reforms were getting nowhere, the technical committee resigned. A few months after, the scandal on the nursing exam leakage broke out.

(Read Part Two here)

(Last of three parts. Read Part 1 / Part 2)

2. HASHTAG FEVER

While a world of its own, the Twitterverse has also become a second home for television—the Philippines included. Viewers take to social media to comment on shows they are watching, a number to support or bash the personalities starring in them.

Netizens use the # or hash sign to mark names, topics, or phrases dominating the online conversation.

At first these “hashtags” emerged during live TV events, such as the finales of reality shows like “Pinoy Big Brother”. The hashtags gain consensus among Twitter users before making the site’s “Trending Topics” list.

TV networks and shows soon put up Twitter handles of their own, opening a line of feedback to the public.

Since tweets with specific hashtags could be monitored, news organizations have used them for special coverages too. For instance, the #Harapan, #Halalan and #Eleksyon2010 tags in 2010. In 2012, news orgs followed the Corona impeachment trial with hashtags like #CJonTrial. And newscast TV Patrol welcomed its 25th year in 2012 with #TVPatrol25.

By picking a particular hashtag, TV shows can track all tweets directed at them and gain exposure (and more viewers) when the hashtag trends.

2012 saw pre-recorded shows like soap operas, sitcoms and documentaries also jump on the hashtag bandwagon.

Some programs merely flashed the hashtag at the beginning or end of each segment. Others like live productions constantly showed their hashtags onscreen during the entire telecast. Shows like “Party Pilipinas” and “The X-Factor Philippines” even made distinct ones based on the themes of their weekly episodes.

But even as TV shows tried to direct the tweets, viewers still dictated what would trend. The best example for the year are the weekly trending topics based on the guests of the late-night comedy talk show “Gandang Gabi Vice”.

1. MEETING THE THIRST FOR NEWS

Viewers gained much in the way of news and information in 2012. TV news met reenergized content and new players, all in time for Filipinos to face the big events of the year.

Primetime weather anchors: Kim Atienza of TV Patrol; Nathaniel Cruz of 24 Oras; Lourd de Veyra of Aksyon; and Mai Rodriguez of Solar Network News

The newscasts increased emphasis on weather reporting by acquiring advanced forecasting tools, updating their visuals, and even hiring meteorologists.

With services like Metra and Weather Central, weather reporters went beyond general temperatures to predict the likelihood of rain, the amount of rainfall, and specific conditions at different times of day.

The new tools came in handy as the country braved calamities like the Hagupit ng Habagat and Typhoon Pablo.

2012 was also the year of news channels, which stood out during the Corona impeachment trial.

The trial became the premiere for the new kid on the block—Solar News Channel. Free-to-air and all-English, Solar took off from its wall-to-wall coverage of the trial and slowly introduced newscasts into previous channel TalkTV.

In October, TalkTV rebranded into SNC and unveiled a slew of local news talk shows to complement its lineup of imported current affairs programs.

Magsaysay and Hontiveros at the Solar remote studio in the Senate during the Corona trial.

Solar News Channel is billed as a news service highlighting “news you can use” over the crime-and-entertainment offerings of other TV news organizations. It is helmed by veteran reporters Jing Magsaysay and Pia Hontiveros, both formerly with the ABS-CBN News Channel or ANC.

ANC lost other talents like Mai Rodriguez and Twink Macaraig to Solar and other networks last year. Macaraig moved to TV5, which is expected to put out its own English news channel.

Macaraig left ANC’s afternoon shift, which the channel replaced with a new block of newscasts with specific focuses. “News Now” covers breaking national stories at 2 p.m. and business stories at 3 p.m. “The Bureau” reports world news, while “@ANCalerts” reports the latest in technology and social media.

Even government-owned People’s Television Network (PTV 4) was revitalized with revamped programs, a new logo, and a bold slogan—“Telebisyon ng Bayan”.

Aiming to lessen its image as the administration propaganda arm, PTV still airs infomercials in the afternoon. But an ongoing congressional review of its charter promises the public channel less restrictions on its sources of funding, and an opportunity of going against the commercial channels.

The Philippines’ news channels as of 2012

GMA News TV continues its streak as the most-watched news channel, while introducing entertainment programs such as classic movies to its lineup.

TV5’s Aksyon TV channel stepped up production of current affairs shows last year, after many of those airing on the main channel were replaced by a daily newsmagazine, “Reaksyon”.

As the networks focus on separate news channels, among the casualties are midday newscasts “Balitaang Tapat” of TV5 and “Iba-Balita Ngayon” of Studio 23, which went off the air this year.

But clearly media companies are recognizing that Filipinos are not only hooked to variety shows and teleseryes, and that there aren’t enough sources of news on TV.

*Read PART 1 & PART 2.

(Do you agree with this list or have your own idea of 2012’s top TV trends? I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments section.)

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Related 2012 Yearenders online:

 
 • This blog’s Most-visited posts for 2012
 
 
 
 • ABS-CBNnews.com’s Top stories for 2012
 
 
 
• CMFR’s “The year that was in the news media” 
• New players in the media landscape
 
 
• The big news in TV news for 2012, according to MediaNewser Philippines.