“Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science.
Truth is what stands the test of experience.”
- Albert Einstein
This column would like to yield this space to a petition to save Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) amidst the corruption scandal within the agency. Under the leadership (or the absence of it) of Boboy Syjuco, this department has deteriorated and became a milking cow of some people.
It is sad that an agency that benefits the poor and the working sector would be threatened to be abolished just because of the corrupt action and irresponsibility of its head.
Indeed there is no question that TESDA needs to be improved and that there is so much to be done for the agency to be able to achieve its mandate. But we cannot deny that with the worsening education and employment situation in the country, TESDA, in its small way, is filling in the gap for thousands if not millions of Filipinos.
This column is encouraging this blog’s readers to support the petition below which by the way can be signed online. The online link can be found at the end of this article.
* * * * * * *
To: Philippine Congress
We are pleased over the positive developments during the past weeks concerning the corruption case against Syjuco and the five members of the TESDA Bids and Awards Committee (TESDA-BAC). The corruption scandal is nearly over as all the aforesaid officials have been found guilty of grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) for their participation in a P 9.2 Million anomalous transaction involving the printing of a book entitled Salabat for the Filipino Soul.
Malacañang has upheld the PAGC ruling and ordered the dismissal from government service of the five TESDA-BAC members. On the other hand, Syjuco’s case has been forwarded to the Committee of Peers due to his cabinet rank. While we are eagerly hoping for the Committee of Peers to finally bring the case to its just conclusion, we are deeply saddened by the emerging bid among some of our legislators to abolish TESDA and to transfer its functions to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
As you may know, TESDA was established through the enactment of Republic Act No. 7796 otherwise known as the "Technical Education and Skills Development Act of 1994.” Signed into law by President Fidel V. Ramos, the need for it arose from the key recommendations of the 1991 Report of the Congressional Commission on Education. These recommendations came about as a result of a national assessment of the state of education and manpower development in the Philippines.
Three offices – the National Manpower and Youth Council (NMYC) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Bureau of Technical and Vocational Education (BTVE) of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), and the Apprenticeship Program of the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) of the DOLE – were merged into one in order to “reduce overlapping in skills development activities initiated by various public and private sector agencies, and to provide national directions for the country's technical-vocational education and training (TVET) system.”
In general, TESDA is mandated to:
1. Integrate, coordinate and monitor skills development programs;
2. Restructure efforts to promote and develop middle-level manpower;
3. Approve skills standards and tests;
4. Develop an accreditation system for institutions involved in middle-level manpower development;
5. Fund programs and projects for technical education and skills development; and
6. Assist trainers training programs.
TESDA has gone a long way since its inception. In an assessment of TESDA’s performance during the period from 1995-2000, the said agency earned an average rating of 2.71 or Fair by various stakeholders and an Independent Review Panel. Moreover, the report concluded that there is still a lot of room for improvement. This indicates that even after just a few years since it was established, TESDA already showed potential to serve as “a conductor, a referee, a policeman, a helper, a strategist, a planner, a visionary for the TVET sub-sector.” Combining three agencies into one is no easy task and yet, TESDA in its early years has managed to come up with “notable initiatives.”
The assessment report made various recommendations to strengthen TESDA and what surfaced as the most urgent need to further strengthen the TVET sub-sector was to push for adequate funding for TESDA. More recommendations were made and every one of them pointed to strengthening TESDA, focusing its mandate and instituting reforms within the agency. Not one suggested that TESDA be abolished or be placed under another jurisdiction.
Now more than ever, the country needs to address the issues concerning our manpower development. With the degrading state of our education system and the job-skills mismatch that has been pointed out as the major cause of the unemployment among our youth and labor force, we must reform TESDA in order for the institution to become more responsive. Placing it under the management of DTI will only defeat our purpose of developing our manpower as the two agencies cover different mandates and have different expertise. In addition, doing so will only result to a multi-layered bureaucracy that would not have the sufficient focus and resources to address the needs of our middle-level manpower.
We call on our legislators not to be swayed into abolishing TESDA just because of the Syjuco corruption scandal that has negatively its performance. Ever since he became Director-General, Syjuco has only brought shame to TESDA. This is because he has merely used the agency as a tool to further his political and vested interests. This is evident on how the budget of TESDA is concentrated in District 2 of Iloilo where he served as former Congressman and how he spends excessively on programs that have nothing to do with improving the plight of the TVET sub-sector and publicity stints meant to raise his profile and please GMA.
Our legislators should banish Syjuco, not TESDA. The whole agency does not deserve to bear one man’s failings.
SAVE TESDA! SACK SYJUCO!
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This blog fully supports this petition and is encouraging you to sign along at the following web address: www.petitiononline.com/sacboboy/petition.html.
(Send your comments and reactions to: for text messages to 0919-348-6337; for e-mails to ianseruelo@gmail.com.)
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Time to Move
“ The road may be rough, the weather may forget us But won't we all parade around and sing our songs, A magic kingdom, open-armed…”
- from “Bandwagon” by R.E.M.
A new movement against illegitimate debt was launched during the last weekend in Quezon City . It is aptly called People Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID!). This movement held its first assembly and also launched its People's Petition calling for the creation of an Independent Citizens' Debt Audit Commission.
This column thinks that this is a timely undertaking given the country’s worsening debt situation. No thanks to the sitting fake president! Further, last year was a year when a lot of anomalous big projects were exposed – projects that end up jacking up the country’s debts. Well, it’s not as if there was a year that I can remember when there was a shortage of corruption-tainted debt-creating “projects”.
What made 2007 stand out as the “Year of the Corrupt Trapo” is the boldness by which corruption was done. Just think about the ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) project, the World Bank textbook scam, the Cyber Education Project (CEP). And we can add to that the Austrian Medical Waste Loan. Not all of these projects were initiated in 2007 but it was that year when these anomalies came to light.
It is distressing to note that after these sham projects were exposed, it was met with rage from the public alright, but only took a few days or weeks for the anger to die down. What is ironic is that this anger always ends up building our mounting apathy. We seem to say “Well that is how it is. What’s new?” And every time this kind of event happens we retreat back to our shell and say “I said so. Those trapos (traditional politicians) will always be trapos.”
These actions undertaken by a broad network of social movements, civil society leaders, people's organizations, communities and personalities in organizing the PAID! movement and calling for a debt audit are clearly meaningful steps to the right direction.
Here are excerpts from the group’s manifesto:
"More than just the burden of payments, there is the fundamental injustice. While citizens are forced to pay, much of these debts were contracted without full public transparency and accountability, and without full compliance with democratic processes, and did not benefit the people.”
"Many loans were accompanied by unfair terms and harmful conditionalities. A significant number has been tainted with deception and fraud, or used for questionable purposes such as financing of ill-designed, unnecessary, and even inoperable programs, or repayment of earlier loans for onerous projects such as the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant."
It is high time that we start asking questions. Now, is the time that we demand transparency and accountability from the government.
How much is the country’s outstanding debt and exactly how much are we paying annually? Who contracted the loans and what were the loans for? What procedures were followed? Were these procedures in compliance with the principles of transparency, accountability, due diligence, democratic decision-making?
How were the loans used? Were the funds actually spent for the intended purposes? What were the terms and conditionalities accompanying these loans? What were the effects of the loan-financed projects and policies on communities and on people’s lives?
What were the environmental impacts of these loans and projects? What are the accountabilities of creditors? What are the effects of automatic and continuous payments of these debts today on the lives of the Filipinos?
Answers to these questions are what Independent Citizens' Debt Audit would like to be presented and revealed to the Filipino taxpayers and consumers. It is these questions that PAID! seeks to be answered as it calls for the creation of a Congressional mechanism to audit the country’s debt.
This audit, as PAID! envisions, should go beyond mere accounting as it should examine past and present government policies, transactions and contracts that have contributed to the accumulation of public debts. This action shall be a step for the review and rationalization of laws and regulations relevant to borrowings, public guarantees and debt payments.
One of the main organizers of this movement is the debt watchdog Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). During the 13th Congress, FDC was successful in getting the joint resolution on debt audit passed unanimously by the House of Representatives. However, it was stalled in the Senate due to the inaction of some legislators.
Now, let us get this moving once again. Let us start talking about this issue as this involves the future of the country. Let us start knocking in unison so the halls of Congress will be filled with our calls. To paraphrase a landmark manifesto: We have nothing to loose but the chains of indebtedness.
(Send your comments and reactions to: for text messages to 0919-348-6337; for e-mails to ianseruelo@gmail.com.)
- from “Bandwagon” by R.E.M.
A new movement against illegitimate debt was launched during the last weekend in Quezon City . It is aptly called People Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID!). This movement held its first assembly and also launched its People's Petition calling for the creation of an Independent Citizens' Debt Audit Commission.
This column thinks that this is a timely undertaking given the country’s worsening debt situation. No thanks to the sitting fake president! Further, last year was a year when a lot of anomalous big projects were exposed – projects that end up jacking up the country’s debts. Well, it’s not as if there was a year that I can remember when there was a shortage of corruption-tainted debt-creating “projects”.
What made 2007 stand out as the “Year of the Corrupt Trapo” is the boldness by which corruption was done. Just think about the ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) project, the World Bank textbook scam, the Cyber Education Project (CEP). And we can add to that the Austrian Medical Waste Loan. Not all of these projects were initiated in 2007 but it was that year when these anomalies came to light.
It is distressing to note that after these sham projects were exposed, it was met with rage from the public alright, but only took a few days or weeks for the anger to die down. What is ironic is that this anger always ends up building our mounting apathy. We seem to say “Well that is how it is. What’s new?” And every time this kind of event happens we retreat back to our shell and say “I said so. Those trapos (traditional politicians) will always be trapos.”
These actions undertaken by a broad network of social movements, civil society leaders, people's organizations, communities and personalities in organizing the PAID! movement and calling for a debt audit are clearly meaningful steps to the right direction.
Here are excerpts from the group’s manifesto:
"More than just the burden of payments, there is the fundamental injustice. While citizens are forced to pay, much of these debts were contracted without full public transparency and accountability, and without full compliance with democratic processes, and did not benefit the people.”
"Many loans were accompanied by unfair terms and harmful conditionalities. A significant number has been tainted with deception and fraud, or used for questionable purposes such as financing of ill-designed, unnecessary, and even inoperable programs, or repayment of earlier loans for onerous projects such as the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant."
It is high time that we start asking questions. Now, is the time that we demand transparency and accountability from the government.
How much is the country’s outstanding debt and exactly how much are we paying annually? Who contracted the loans and what were the loans for? What procedures were followed? Were these procedures in compliance with the principles of transparency, accountability, due diligence, democratic decision-making?
How were the loans used? Were the funds actually spent for the intended purposes? What were the terms and conditionalities accompanying these loans? What were the effects of the loan-financed projects and policies on communities and on people’s lives?
What were the environmental impacts of these loans and projects? What are the accountabilities of creditors? What are the effects of automatic and continuous payments of these debts today on the lives of the Filipinos?
Answers to these questions are what Independent Citizens' Debt Audit would like to be presented and revealed to the Filipino taxpayers and consumers. It is these questions that PAID! seeks to be answered as it calls for the creation of a Congressional mechanism to audit the country’s debt.
This audit, as PAID! envisions, should go beyond mere accounting as it should examine past and present government policies, transactions and contracts that have contributed to the accumulation of public debts. This action shall be a step for the review and rationalization of laws and regulations relevant to borrowings, public guarantees and debt payments.
One of the main organizers of this movement is the debt watchdog Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). During the 13th Congress, FDC was successful in getting the joint resolution on debt audit passed unanimously by the House of Representatives. However, it was stalled in the Senate due to the inaction of some legislators.
Now, let us get this moving once again. Let us start talking about this issue as this involves the future of the country. Let us start knocking in unison so the halls of Congress will be filled with our calls. To paraphrase a landmark manifesto: We have nothing to loose but the chains of indebtedness.
(Send your comments and reactions to: for text messages to 0919-348-6337; for e-mails to ianseruelo@gmail.com.)
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