‘Life in the farm is hard, and this has been one of my motivations to strive harder’

That is Jovie Ann Decoyna, 24, from Benguet, youngest of the six children of a farmer and a domestic helper, and the highest scorer in last year’s nursing board exam, speaking.

Her statement reminds me of my own life “in the farm” which indeed was hard. Who else do I remember when I think about that life but my father?

I did not appreciate the agriculturist for waking me up early every morning to help him tend to his garden of egg plant, tomato, okra, chili, pechay, cacao, etc.

In fairness to him, I only spent few minutes in the garden every morning and afternoon to water the plants and help him uproot weeds or till a new plot. But I was only less than ten years old and the few minutes I should have spent in bed seemed eternity. It was forced labor. The sprinkler weighed twice as much and the well where I got the water was twice as far as when I was fully awake. And in the afternoon, while my playmates rolled and chaseed after bicycle tires or played bog-uy or taksi, I was there in the garden planting or watering animosity or uprooting whatever good will he had shown towards me.

We had no tv and I did not know about Voltes V or Heman my cousins from Manila would talk about when they came home for Christmas vacation. They seemed so intelligent, confident, clean and smooth while I felt sloppy, awkward and clumsy. I blamed my work in my father’s garden. The soil made my little fingers coarse, my sun tanned skin made me awkward, and the little muscles growing in my arms made me clumsy and that place of work-without-play made me want to run away.

And I did plan to run away.

To the left of our house was a rice field, after that a peace of land left to trees, shrubs and wild plants, and next to it the sea whose rumbling we could hear from the house when the weather is bad. To the right of the woods is a swamp that extended towards the river. And across that river is the poblacion.

I imagined somewhere between the woods and the swamp I could hide and survive by trapping and grilling birds. My father did not love me enough. Instead of letting me sleep or play, he made me work in his garden of tears. If he could not take care of me, I might as well take care of myself.

I try to remember what I planned to do when I was already Tarzan. How I would go about my day to day life while I was a run away child in the jungle. But as far as I can remember, all I knew was that I would run away and trap and grill birds. Maybe the rest of the day I would be making and setting the traps to catch birds, and at night, I would be nursing the wound left by my father’s cruelty. I did not also think where I would live or sleep at night. I only have this picture of me sitting under a tree and looking far away, sorrowful.

I did not attempt to run away because I was afraid of my father who seemed to read my mind. He warned me one day that if I run away, he would not look for me. I could try if I wanted to find out.

I never found out.

Maybe I talked in my sleep, and my mother who shared the bed with me and my sister SP was closely listening and reported my plans to my father who was sleeping in another room.

My father and I did not bother about kamote, alogbate and saluyot (local vegetable) shoots. It grew everywhere and all my mother or our helper would do was go out to the fields and cut them out and bring them home. In cities like Manila, they are very expensive.

Life in the farm is hard. I did run away eventually and I realized I miss so many things about it.

Decoyna said she was open to the idea of working abroad but, given the opportunity, would prefer to work in a hospital in Baguio.

She would rather be home too.

From 4 years, Ched is making Nursing a 5 year course to eliminate nursing review centers

The Commission on Higher Education is aiming at the elimination of review centers that allegedly cost P12,000 to P18,000 nursing reviewees per review. To do this it announced that Ched will revise the nursing curriculum. The result: 5 year nursing course beginning school year 2010.

Ched chair Emmanuel Angeles: “The cost is almost the same when another year is added to a four-year curriculum. Yet, in the proposed curriculum, students need not attend courses in review centers which sometimes charged exorbitant fees to prepare for their licensure exams. A review course will be incorporated in the curriculum.”

Further, Angeles laments that “parents are already paying for a five-year nursing program including the review yet less than 50 percent (of nursing graduates) pass the licensure test.”

According to Angeles, a 10+2+3 scheme in the education system with the skills necessary for them to compete with  both local and international job markets.

The scheme works this way: 6 years of primary, 4 years of secondary (10)+ 2 year technical school or pre -university program before finally pursuing a three-year specialization course.

Nursing review lasts only 4 months, but as Angeles noted, less than fifty percent make it. So, why not add another full year where review classes are integrated. Besides, as to the review classes, they are optional. Meaning, you may attend or you may not.

The government can do that–add another year to a course despite riots from parents and students, of course. But it has built hospitals, schools, roads, buildings, among others. Did these projects stop persons both natural and juridical from building private hospitals, private schools, private roads and buildings?

No.

The primary reason for the change of curriculum  is to improve the quality of our nursing graduates. The elimination of the nursing review centers is secondary. Why Ched played on the secondary reson is to make the idea appealling to people who will be affected by the 1 year extension by insisting that the extension and the necessary expenses incurred offset the expenses for the review centers who fill the need left unsatisfied by the 4 year course.

So, will Ched be able to eliminate nursing review centers?

No. But “yes”, according to Ched Chair Emmanuel Angeles.

Why kidnapping continues in Sulu

N.B. The Philippine National Police’s mandate is to protect the life, liberty and property of the citizens. As such, it is the PNP’s duty to rescue the kidnap victims and to run after the kidnappers. The military’s duty is to protect the territorial integrity and the political independence of the country. Since the kidnapping incidents are mere money making criminal acts and they do not constitute a threat to the territorial integrity or the political independence of the country, the military should have been out of it. However, the PNP and the military may help each other, of course. When I use the word “military” and “soldiers” they include the members of the PNP.

Following the kidnapping of Andreas Notter of Switzerland, Eugenio Vagni of Italy and Filipino Jean Lacaba, the three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Secretary of Defense Gilbert Teodoro warned journalists and foreigners to coordinate with the military first before they roam Sulu. “We do not want to risk our soldiers’ lives” rescuing the kidnapped victims, the Secretary said. He noted that the three ICRC kidnap victims refused the military escort offered to them and their refusal resulted to their kidnapping.

I observed the sense of helplessness and at the same time the sense of urgency in the Secretary’s statement, and I also expressed my dread about the implication that statement brings:

1. The civil government in Mindanao does not have the control over the area,
2.The Abu Sayaff mocks the authorities,
3. And the military is no longer willing to die fighting the bandits.

As to number one,  if the government has control over the area, it does not need to require people to coordinate with the military before people can freely roam Sulu.

As to number two, the kidnapping happened just outside the provincial capitol of Patikul, Sulu.

As to number three, Teodoro was only echoing what I believe his ground troops were saying to him, that they are no longer willing to risk their lives fighting the bandits to rescue the kidnapped.

That the military is no longer willing to risk their lives fighting the bandits to rescue the kidnapped does not mean however that it has refused to do its duty of protecting the country and its people. It only means that our soldiers have been in Mindanao long enough to realize that politicians use the conflicts—including kidnapping—in Mindanao to further whatever plans for personal gain they have in mind at the expense of the soldiers’ lives, not to mention the Philippines’ reputation.

Their experience thought them that the government is not sincere in putting an end to the sowing of conflicts in Mindanao, particularly in Sulu, as it runs after the bandits only when the issue is hot. But it does not do anything militarily or otherwise, when the issue has died down.

Today, the Philippine Daily Inquirer in its report “Kidnappers told: Form coop to get ‘ransom’ of livelihood aid” mentioned that Sulu Vice Governor Nur Anna Sahidulla visited the three ICRC captives and spoke with the kidnappers in an undisclosed area in Indanan, Sulu. The report also mentioned Sahidulla’s claim that the hypertension medicines of one of the kidnap victims from Italy, Eugenio Vagni, and the books for the kidnap victims were delivered to them.

Although Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan denied this fact, he was quoted saying: “It is easy to send the stuff (books and medicines), but it should be discussed first”.

“EASY.”

Governor Tan says as if locating the kidnappers is as “easy” as reciting the letters of the alphabet. Like he has no knowledge of the amount of time and money spent from transporting battalions of soldiers from all parts of the Country to Mindanao to scouring the jungle for the kidnappers and the kidnap victims.

Governor Tan, in rejecting the offer to help of actor Robin Padilla and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Nur Misuari, even has the guts to brag: “We can solve this and we do not need any help. Padilla and Nur Misuari should not involve themselves in this problem anymore. We will ask for their help if we need it.”

Such display of arrogance.

The fact that there is again an incident of kidnapping only shows that he, the great Governor of Sulu, Abdusakur Tan, cannot and has not solved the problem. Of course, Gov. Tan only said that in the context of the present problem. If that is so, is he trying to say that he can resolve this particular kidnap crisis but he cannot prevent kidnapping from happening again?

Where and what is the source of his arrogance?

Every thinking person wonders: is it possible that the military has no idea about the location of the kidnappers and their victims? How come the provincial officials of Sulu even sent its representative, in the person of Vice Governor Sahidulla, to meet the victims and talk with the kidnappers; and how come, the Governor of Sulu is even bold enough to say sending medicines and books to the kidnap victims is “easy”?

Of course, the military knows. But soldiers are group of people who only obey orders. How can they not know with all their intelligence and with all the technical help America is giving in the form of unmanned drone and who knows what else?

Battles are expensive, but the Philippines can afford a battle with Abu Sayaff. That no military rescue is undertaken may be due to the safety concerns for the victims. But the fact that kidnappings happen over and over again, and that said kidnappings are conducted by the same group of people who use different name each time, and the same people are known to the provincial officials, has only one explanation: that there exist collusion between the kidnappers and the local government, and between the local government and the national official/s where orders for military actions come from.

Ces Drilon, the senior reporter of ABS-CBN, may even have an insider knowledge about this collusion having been a kidnap victim herself and having had countless conversations with her captors.

But Ces is aware no witness will collaborate her story should she come out. More importantly, she has a family to protect. If there was something about her kidnapping that she was grateful about, it was for the realization that, for her family, she was worth more than the millions of pesos paid for her ransom. That she was valued by her family so high it’s beyond price. She is not about to do a “foolish” act again because this time, for all her value which is beyond price, she might end up in a box so small and so dark only candles can give a meaningful light.

Besides, should she come out, what is the guarantee that the culprits will get convictions and the kidnappings will stop?

For all its complexities, it takes only one thing to solve the kidnapping problem in Sulu. But for all their professions of love and loyalty for the Philippines, no one among the national leaders has the political will to put a period to this menace in Sulu.