Czhareen Anne Briones

Scars of the Philippine Society A normal day went dark that morning when this annoying kid who had the habit of begging for money inside jeepneys, sang a distressing song about why they were suffering while I had a privilege to go to school. I was about to get coins from my purse but I suddenly realized that I cannot be fooled again. I instead turned my head outside but the view made it worse. As the kid’s intentional irritating voice bothered me, I saw a delusional world of barren walls and lamp posts with pictures of politicians hanged on them, and the disturbing resonance of the jingles on TV. These were proofs that the presidential campaigns are all over the place again. The streets seemed to be a gallery of promises and uncanny, if not witty, catch phrases making people release deep sighs. As for me I see these sighs as vomiting from the soul a filthy habit; a disgusting belief that this country will get better as soon as we have elected new leaders. For the past decades I ask you, did it? It did not, obviously. As a student and Iskolar ng Bayan, we experience a commercialized, colonialist, and fascist education system which had always been an issue not just in UP but to the schools all over the country. It is stated in Article XIV, Section 1 of the Constitution that, “The state shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all”. Going back to the song of the kid with the lyrics, “Hindi kaba nagtataka na ako’y nasa lansangan at ikaw ay papasok sa paaralan?” seemed like education is a privilege. It was disheartening to see children living their lives on the street begging for money when in fact, they should have been given the chance to make their lives better. Despite the “No Collection Policy” of DepEd Order 41 Series of 2012, prohibiting all schools from collecting fees from kindergarten to fourth grade, (“DepEd: “No Collection Policy,” 2014)sending children to school is still expensive. According a survey from Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey, “one in every ten or about 4 million Filipino children and youth was out-of-school in 2013” (“Out-of-School,” 2015). This is still an alarming number considering the efforts to make education accessible that reflects the lack of support to quality education. In the end, education was just an effect of the major problems of corruption and lack of justice in our flawed system. If nobody ever gets punished, cases of stealing from the Filipino people will always prevail and the money intended for the right to quality education will be gone. For the next six years those tarpaulins and posters of the political candidates will stay there, like scars in the society made by the broken promises and the cry for help will reverberate through the deep sighs of the disappointed masses. To the youth and to all of the Filipino people, can you prevent that? To the national candidates, do you think you could change that? References: DepEd: “No collection policy” in public schools still in effect. (2014, May 28). Retrieved March 17, 2016, from http://www.deped.gov.ph/official-statements/deped-“no-collection-policy”-public-schools-stilleffect Out-of-School Children and Youth in the Philippines (Results from the 2013 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey). (2015, April 20). Retrieved March 17, 2016, from https://psa.gov.ph/content/out-school-children-and-youth-philippines-results-2013-functional-literacyeducation-and