IT WAS NO accident that it was the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police that penetrated the Batasan Pambansa and stuffed the ballot boxes with fake election returns to make it look like Gloria Arroyo won the 2004 elections.
Established in 1983 initially to help combat insurgency and later to “destroy enemy forces that undermine the nation’s stability,” the police commandos are trained as a rapid deployment force and to “noiselessly operate in the shadows.”
WHEN Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivers her eighth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa session hall today, she will be standing close to where, three years ago, police commandos say they replaced genuine election returns (ERs) with fake ones in ballot boxes that were being readied for a recount of the 2004 presidential election.
The ER switching at the Batasan had been talked about and reported on since 2005, when Arroyo apologized to the nation for talking to an election official while the votes were being counted, in what has since been known as the “Hello, Garci” scandal.
WITH seven years to go, the Philippines is in danger of not meeting all the targets that have been set for countries to provide “Education for All” by 2015.
“Education for All by 2015 – Will we make it?”, a midterm review of progress across the six EFA goals released recently by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO, said the country is “at risk” of not achieving the goals on adult literacy andgender parity.
THE delivery of textbooks from the Department of Education in Manila to far-flung areas is usually a boring and mundane obligation.
But come July, select communities in remote areas will be welcoming the arrival of textbooks with celebrations resembling town fiestas, complete with dances and décor.
