"Despite Filipinos being hungry, malnourished, and poor, they still give him an awesome 91-percent job approval and trust ratings."
Incredible failure of governance on three crucial fronts—education, agriculture, and health.
Filipino students consistently rank in the lowest rung or bracket of participants in tests for math, science, reading, and even writing.
Among Grade 4 students from 58 countries tested through TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), Filipino students ranked exactly last.
In the PISA ranking of 76 countries, in 2018, the Philippines also languished in the last rung, in terms of reading, math, and science capability.
Have you ever read the learning modules for elementary kids dished out by the Department of Education? Shakespeare would be ashamed with his comedy and tragedy plays.
Comedy because some of the DepEd entries are ridiculously funny. Many questions have sexual innuendoes and double-meanings, and are sexist and violative of gender rules. Tragedy because these learning materials were supposed to have been prepared by supposedly learned people at DepEd.
Among the mishaps were “painful” grammar errors, wrong math equation, and modules depicting gender stereotypes. The modules are used by 24 million pupils.
At Agriculture, before William Dar became the secretary, the Philippines had an average growth in agricultural output of 0.2 percent per year, in the last 20 years.
The population is growing at 1.8 percent per year or almost two million babies a year. Yet, agricultural output increases by just 0.2 percent per year. The effect is a food shortage. We need to import two million tons of rice a year. The Philippine archipelago has double the coastline of the United States, meaning we have plenty of seafood. But we are protein-deficient. We import seafood, we import pork, we import canned meat products of all kinds. With food short, malnutrition and hunger creep in.
A hungry or malnourished child has stunted brain development. Which means large-scale stupidity.
No wonder the Philippines consistently ranks last, in international competitions among students in math, science, and reading.
Ironically, according to World Bank data, Filipinos have an average or mean schooling of 9.4 years, longer than the 7.7 years of Thais; 8 of Indonesians; and 8.2 of the Vietnamese but shorter than the mean years of schooling of Malaysians, 10.2 years.
Yet, in international competitions among students in math, science and reading, the Philippines is routinely beaten by the Thais, Indonesians, the Vietnamese, and of course, by the Malaysians. The reverse results could mean Filipinos don’t learn much while in school, maybe because the Philippines has more holidays than any other country on earth, teachers themselves have little to teach and of course, because of those inane instructional materials of DepEd.
With stunted brain and malnourished body, life becomes short. The global average life span is already 72 years. The Filipino’s average life span is only 71.1 years, just below the global average of 72, and lower than the life span of Thais 76.9 years; Malaysians 76; Vietnamese 75.3; and even Indonesians, 71.5 years.
The still many of us who defy the odds of becoming stupid, hungry or malnourished, and having a shorter shelf life face even bigger odds when it comes to our health.
When I was in grade school, we got free milk and free vaccination shots. My kids in their infancy had to get DPT3 (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus), and measles inoculation from a private pediatrician. They were not cheap.
Today, if you have kids in public schools, aside from receiving stupid lectures and even more ridiculous instructional materials, chances are they won’t get their required inoculation from DPT and measles.
According to World Bank data graphed by the World Street Journal on Dec. 13, 2020, the Philippines is one of the worst performers in the world in terms of vaccine rollout. Bangladesh, a much poorer country, achieved 100 percent in DPT3 and 90 percent in measles. In contrast, the Philippines achieved 12 percent in DPT3, and 2 percent in measles.
DPT3 (1949) and measles (1963) vaccines have been around for decades. They are easy to administer and do not require the sub-zero temperatures of the COVID-19 vaccines. Yet, the government inoculates only one of every 8 kids for DPT and only one of every 50 for measles. With this dismal vaccine performance, how can you expect the government to properly, efficiently and promptly vaccinate 70 million Filipinos against COVID?
Under the Philippine Constitution, health is a constitutional and a human right.
Section 15, Article II, Declaration of Principles and State Policies says: “The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them.”
Section 17 mandates that “The State shall give priority to education, science and technology…”
The same Constitution guarantees the three basic rights—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (referred to in Section 1, Article III, Bill of Rights, as ownership of property). But without health, there is no life. Without health, there is no liberty (only lockdowns). And without health, there is no happiness.
In a way, President Duterte is lucky. Despite Filipinos being hungry, malnourished, and impoverished, they still give him an awesome 91 percent job approval and trust ratings.
Now, is that because Filipinos are insane, stupid or simply hopeless given a government where incompetence is the norm and corruption is standard operating procedure?
