The 2010 Presidentiables Blog Poll closed – #1-villanueva; #2-gordon; #3-teodoro; #4-aquino

several tens of thousands voted in our poll here at The 2010 Presidentiables Blog  Poll which was first opened on december 2, 2009. this is probably one of the most successful internet poll on the 2010 presidentiables given the sheer number of voters.

this was the 2nd presidentiables poll we opened here with the first one including the undeclared but claimed candidates. this poll only includes the official COMELEC list of presidentiables.

we like to thank everyone for viting in the polls and posting your comments her.

on may 10, we will open a new poll – an exit poll. you will be asked to vote the presidentiable you actually voted in the election.

eddie villanueva

erap estrada

gilbert teodoro

jamby madrigal

jc de los reyes

manny villar

nicanor perlas

noynoy aquino

richard gordon

know your candidate better and find out specifics on all the other candidates,  compare them,  click here :

• platform of government – published platforms of goverment of the presidentiables
• presidentiables stand on issues – know the stand of all the presidentiables on specific issues and topics

 

May 2010 SWS-BusinessWorld Presidentiables Poll – no change among laggards; teodoro doubles Class E rating

the standings of the laggards group, teodoro, gordon, villanueva, perlas, madrigal and de los reyes have not change.  their over-all ratings show inability to move. with just 3 days to go before election time, there is really not much these candidates to do to change the outcome of the poll results with the same result most likely will be mirrored in the election results after the may 10 election.

the only notable change is the rating of gilbert teodoro where his rating in the E socio-eco class doubled from previous 6% to this poll period at now 12%. while this is definitely a very impressive showing, it had no impact on his over-all rating. to us it appears teodoro has been stuck at the single digit numbers.

Former Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” C. Teodoro Jr., the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party’s candidate, remained fourth with an unchanged score of 9%.

Bangon Pilipinas bet Eduardo “Bro. Eddie” C. Villanueva was fifth with 3%, followed by Partido Bagumbayan’s Sen. Richard “Dick” J. Gordon (2%), Ang Kapatiran’s John Carlos “JC” G. de los Reyes (0.3%), and independents Maria Consuelo “Jamby” A. S. Madrigal (0.2%) and Nicanor Jesus “Nick” P. Perlas (0.1%)

Six percent of the respondents were classed as undecided. This category included votes for disqualified Kilusang Bagong Lipunan bet Vetellano “Dodong” Acosta and others.

As in three prior surveys, the last BW-SWS poll had respondents being asked to fill out ballots in a simulation of the May 10 exercise. Polled were 2,400 registered voters, divided into random samples of 300 for Metro Manila, 900 in the Balance of Luzon, and 600 each in the Visayas and Mindanao.

(The BW-SWS polls for December and January involved the interviewers providing lists of candidates and asking the respondents to choose.)

The error margins used were ±2% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila, ±3% for the rest of Luzon, and ±4% for the Visayas and Mindanao.

They were asked: “Kung ang eleksyon ay gaganapin ngayon, sino ang pinakamalamang ninyong iboboto bilang presidente, bise-presidente, mga senador at party list ng Pilipinas? Narito ang listahan ng mga kandidato. Paki-shade o itiman po ang naaangkop na oval katabi ng pangalan ng taong pinakamalamang ninyong iboboto. (If the elections were held today, whom would you most probably vote for as president, vice-president, senator, and party list of the Philippines? Here is a list of candidates. Please shade the oval beside the name of the persons you would most likely vote for.)

source: http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=10589

jamby madrigal – corruption fighter

source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100503-267780/MARIA-ANA-CONSUELO-MADRIGAL-In-serving-people-work-becomes-joy

MARIA ANA CONSUELO MADRIGAL: In serving people, work becomes joy

By Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:18:00 05/03/2010

 (Editor’s note: The presidential profiles will be running in no particular order but as the stories come in from reporters in the field.)

(Fourth of a series)

MANILA, Philippines—Diving is one of the things Sen. Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal loves.

The view under water is simply spectacular, she says.

The sharks and the barracudas do not scare her.

Where she is now in Congress, she says, these species abound and she is fighting them with hammer and tong.

Corruption is the campaign theme of Madrigal, who is running as an independent candidate for president in the May 10 elections.

She passionately talks against shenanigans in government, particularly in real estate deals, as though she were on a jihad.

If that were so, it was because she learned what being a ship captain was like at a very early age.

At a time when most Filipino children’s familiarity with a boat was confined to those made of paper, Madrigal already was at home on the real thing.

At age 5, ships became the playground of this future senator and aspirant for captain of the ship of state.

“I’d gone into holds and hatches, and I could tell if a ship was a tanker or container. I grew up with that,” she says.

“Many of the captains and CEOs of today’s shipping companies were trained by Madrigal Shipping. We can be proud to say we trained very good people.”

These captains also followed the ideals of the family—incorruptible, hard working.

Old rich family

Madrigal was born on April 26, 1958, to one of Manila’s old rich families.

Her father was a son of the late Sen. Vicente Madrigal. Her mother, Amanda Abad Santos, was a granddaughter of Jose Abad Santos, appointed by President Manuel L. Quezon as president during the war against the Japanese forces and former Chief Justice.
Her granduncle, pre-Commonwealth Assemblyman Pedro Abad Santos, founded the Socialist Party of the Philippines.

Her aunt, Pacita Madrigal-Gonzalez, a senator during the Quezon and Magsaysay administrations, was also the first head of the Social Welfare Administration, now the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Vicente and Amanda Madrigal were natives of Ligao, Albay, and San Fernando, Pampanga, respectively.

Aside from Filipino and English, Madrigal has a working understanding of Kapampangan and Bicolano.

Best moments

She also speaks fluent French and Spanish, some Portuguese and German.

Madrigal started learning European languages during her family’s religious pilgrimages to Lourdes (in France) and Fatima (in Portugal), among other places.

corruption is the number 1 issue in the 2010 philippine election

read the platforms of government of all presidentiables here

read the platforms of government of the presidentiables here: https://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/category/platform-of-government/

or read here: https://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/category/presidentiables-stand-on-issues/

or read specifics here:

• erap estrada – the president who will finish plans for the poor
• jamby madrigal – corruption fighter
• presidentiables stand on how they will generate jobs
• eddie villanueva – a vote for what is right and good governance
• richard gordon the transformer
• richard gordon’s new platform of government for the win in the 2010 election!
• presidentiables stand on improving philippine education
• presidentiables stand on cha-cha and arroyo as speaker
• on nuclear energy : aquino, de los reyes, madrigal & perlas no to nukes; gordon, teodoro, villanueva and villar yes to nukes
• nicanor perlas’s platform of government
• richard gordon’s vision for a new philippines
• presidentiables stand on population growth
• eddie villanueva’s platform of government
• A SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH THE FILIPINO PEOPLE : THE PLATFORM OF SENATOR BENIGNO “NOYNOY” S. AQUINO III

presidentiables stand on how they will generate jobs

 

source: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/talkofthetown/view/20100501-267548/How-theyll-generate-jobs

How they’ll generate jobs 
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:13:00 05/01/2010

FILIPINOS CONTINUE TO LEAVE FOR JOBS OVERSEAS. THERE ARE SIMPLY not enough jobs available in the country. While remittances help keep the economy afloat, the social costs of a parent or spouse working abroad are huge. A bright spot is the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, which has absorbed tens of thousands of college graduates. But the BPO sector benefits mostly the middle class. It is closed to the poor who have less education. A big number of Filipinos are unemployed or underemployed or have simply given up hope of finding a job. How the next administration will address the unemployment problem can be gleaned from the answers of the presidential candidates to the following questions:

How will you generate jobs? What policies and programs will you pursue to create jobs?
What kind of jobs will be generated under your administration? What sectors, industries?
Will you encourage the export of labor?

Benigno Aquino III
Liberal Party

THE NO. 1 ITEM IN OUR PLATform is job generation. The theory is we could increase the quality and remuneration of jobs available here. It might not match those in other countries but with the added benefit of having your family and you are a first-class citizen here. We might have enough people who will decide to stay.

We want something like (US President Franklin) Roosevelt’s job creation program—building schools or public works projects with a big labor bias. If the project will not be delayed and it’s OK cost-wise, then we will choose a labor-intensive program.

We have so many areas that have a big potential like the BPO sector, IT and agriculture, particularly post-harvest production. Agriculture can be subdivided [into subsectors]. There are also many others that have not been exploited like fruits, [which can be processed into] fruit juices.

My understanding of the law is that the state cannot make it a policy to export our workers. Nevertheless, I want to make sure that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and our embassies and consulates really help all our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

A very significant portion of the population are OFWs outside the country. So the main point is that if they leave, it’s because they want to and not because they have to.
Interview by Philip Tubeza

 

JC de los Reyes
Ang Kapatiran

WORK IS A WAY OF FULFILLing part of our human potential given to us by God. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers, owners and managers must be respected—the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to organize and join unions, to economic initiative, and to ownership and private property.

Ang Kapatiran shall ensure rapid and sustained economic growth for sustainable poverty reduction and better quality of life for all by:

Reviewing and rationalizing all outstanding public debts and limiting future government borrowings within the growth level of our exports or GDP;

Raising private and public savings rates to increase total investment rate;

Enhancing investments in human resource development, especially by strengthening education in the sciences, mathematics, engineering and English;

Streamlining government bureaucracy to reduce personnel expenditures;

Drastically improving tax administration and revenue collection;

Abolishing laws, rules and regulations that give government revenue personnel the discretion to allow or disallow certain deductions or exemptions;

Prioritizing agricultural development to attain a high degree of self-sufficiency by encouraging productivity through the introduction of new technologies and support-infrastructure;

Creating microfinance and other credit facilities for small enterprises by harnessing OFW remittances and more exports for economic development;

Encouraging livelihood through the formation of cooperatives and other small enterprises and development programs to alleviate poverty in the grassroots level;

Implementing the agrarian reform program;

Promoting industrialization by encouraging the expansion of useful industries, including telecommunications and information technology;

Attaining a stable balance of trade by encouraging the development of new export products and improving existing ones.

In summary, Ang Kapatiran shall work for a “job-filled society”—industrialization for the economic well-being of all, agricultural development, microfinance and other credit facilities for small- and medium-enterprises, and positive investment climate to reverse the outflow of OFWs.
Interview by Jerome Aning

 

Joseph Estrada
Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino

WE WILL GET RID OF THE secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the New People’s Army (NPA). So we will start developing the countryside. Right now, the government cannot develop the countryside.

In the early ’50s and ’60s, informal settlers or squatters were concentrated in Metro Manila. Today, in all urban areas, there are squatters because the countryside remains undeveloped. There’s the NPA. In Mindanao, there’s the MILF.

We will concentrate on services and agriculture to generate jobs. When there’s peace and order, there’ll no longer be [adverse] travel advisories from other countries. We will improve our tourism.

We cannot stop the export of labor soon. Maybe within two to three years. It will take time to generate jobs. Like for example, during my time, if you will remember we planned to change the economic provisions of the Constitution so that we can generate jobs.

We will allow foreigners to own land here except agricultural land. If we allow foreigners to own land they can compete with our local realtors and once (they own land) they will develop that. Once they develop that, it will generate jobs.
Interview by Norman Bordadora

 

Richard Gordon
Bagumbayan

WE HAVE NATURAL TRAITS and skills for tourism. We can be the beach capital of the world. We have enough airports already. Our problem is we have to do some policy on certain airports to be declared “open skies.” Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam have open skies.

The educational system is producing many hotel and restaurant management graduates. That is the future. Because of the tourism law which I authored, we can now invite more investors to build establishments without overtaxing the environment.

We can spread out hotels. Tourists will not want to go to Boracay every year. They want to go to new destinations. Our graduates can be tuned into tourism and entrepreneurship. But our education must also leapfrog to information technology. So you will want more software development.

We may have to export labor for a while, but we will encourage enhancing labor skills. I am not going to send a maid. I am going to send a governess. There is a value added.

We also have to make sure that we harness savings instead of encouraging a consumption-based economy. We will have a provident fund in which we are able to raise money from the savings of our overseas workers. Professional people should run the fund as they do it in Singapore.
Interview by Edson C. Tandoc Jr.

 

Pulse Asia April 2010 Presidentiables Poll : estrada ties villar at 2nd, aquino widens lead

The survey fieldwork was conducted from April 23 to 25, 2010 using face-to-face interviews. Key developments in April 2010 include the following: (1) defections from the Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) mostly to the Nacionalista Party (NP) and the Liberal Party (LP); (2) election-related issues such as the purchase of ultraviolet lamps (UV) because the UV readers of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines were unable to read the UV markings on the ballots, the scrapping of the P 700 million contract for the purchase of ballot secrecy folders, and the re-bidding of the contract for the purchase of indelible ink; (3) completion of the printing of ballots for the May 2010 elections; (4) various incidents of election-related violence across the country; (5) Senator Francis G. Escudero’s endorsement of Senator Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III for president and Makati City Mayor Jejomar C. Binay for vice-president; (6) accusations made by former President Joseph E. Estrada and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile against Senator Manuel B. Villar, Jr. that while serving as Senate President in 2007, Senator Villar used his position to pressure the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) to decide in his favor on a matter concerning the public offering of his real estate company’s shares; (7) Senator Richard J. Gordon’s filing of charges against two survey groups; (8) petitions from various sectors for a parallel manual count of votes; (9) the Supreme Court’s final ruling allowing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to appoint the next chief justice (but not the next Sandiganbayan Justice); (10) calls for the resignation and disbarment of Department of Justice (DOJ) Acting Secretary Alberto Agra following his decision to clear two key suspects in the Maguindanao massacre; and (11) increase in power rates despite rotating brownouts in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

http://pulseasia.com.ph/pulseasia/story.asp?ID=716

SWS-Business World april poll : aquino holds lead, villar drops. villar’s down trend to continue.

source: http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=9817

this poll was conducted middle of april, about 4 weeks from election time and it shows aquino’s lead continue to be strong at 38% while villar shows downward trend at 26%.  aquino having a strong double digit lead  and villar showing a declining trend is good news for aquino and very bad news for villar.

we are reading the poll results with just 2 weeks to go till election time. with nothing new and no remarkable or outstanding efforts done by villar since survey time till today, a 2 week lapse,  it is difficult to expect that villar’s down trending trend has been arrested or reversed. in marketing, the way to arrest and reverse a declining  sales and market share trend is to some new and heavy marketing efforts. not doing anything new and heavy means the trend will continue. this should be true for villar.

in fact, the past two weeks has not been good for villar. erap estrada and juan ponce enrile exploded a new scandal – the VLL and PSE scandal where both charged villar used his influence and power on the PSE to allow him to sell his shares on the IPO of VLL which was supposed on escrow. rules of the PSE disallowed the release of shares for sale by owners to protect investors.

we have said in this blog that villar is getting hurt by the C-5 corruption scandal since early this year, then it got solidified as a dead weight with the villarroyo charge. this VLL-PSE scandal has the potential to confirm in the minds of voters of villar’s weakness in character where he tends to use his power and position for personal gain. the gain in this particular instance is worth billions of profits in the sale of his VLL stocks.

with the VLL-PSE scandal breaking out in the last two weeks and with no to little new and heavy efforts done by villar, we can expect further deterioration of villar’s ratings.

we are now at the point of no return. the only way the trends will change is doing a hail mary pass. who has the guts or who is most desperate to do it?

teodoro, gordon and villanueva supporters – don’t waste your vote, vote for any of the 2 front runners

on request, we are posting here this article written by sweet.twins in one of the pinoy bulletin boards.

~antenna1

for the teodoro, villanueva, gordon, madrigal, de los reyes and perlas supporters – do not waste your vote by voting for the candidate you support, vote instead any of the two front runners who you think is better for the country – villar or aquino.

by this time the fact is these presidentiables – teodoro, villanueva, gordon, madrigal, de los reyes and perlas do not have a chance to win the election. if you vote for any of them, villar or aquino will win without you having a say on who will be president.

why waste your vote? your vote can make a difference between villar and aquino. it will probably be a very close election for both of them. since it will be close, a single vote will matter a lot.

you have a chance to elect the president of the country, use it to elect who between aquino and villar you think is best for the country.

based on the latest polls, aquino will get 18 million votes, villar 17 million, teodoro 3 million, villanueva 1.5 million and gordon 1 million votes.

only 1 million will separate villar and aquino. let’s assume just 1/3 of teodoro supporters abandon teodoro and vote for either villar or aquino, then these teodoro supporters would have elected the president.

its possible the gap between villar and aquino will be smaller and that means supporters of teodoro can really make a difference.

on the other hand 1 more vote for teodoro, or this time 3,000,001 votes will NOT make teodoro win.

assuming 50 million voters, this is how the latest SWS poll might translate to votes:

• aquino 18 million
• villar 17 million
• estrada 7.5 million
• teodoro 3 million
• villanueva 1.5 million
• gordon 1 million

even if all the supporters of estrada, teodoro, villanueva and gordon vote for any of them, that will only be 5.5 million votes, that is NOT going to make any of them win. however, if these 5.5 million or even 1/3 of them vote for either villar or aquino, they choose the winner!

all the presidentiables, both the front runner AND laggards groups are talking about the same thing – the economy. jobs. education, poverty alleviation and health care. both are talking about fixing these in our country.

we know the laggards groups will not win this election. make your vote count by selecting one of the two front runners who you think will be able to deliver better on the economy, jobs, education, poverty alleviation and health care.

you may want the country’s economy, jobs, education, poverty alleviation and health care to improve but voting a presidentiable who obviously will not win will not do that. so elect one of the front runners who you think can do vest in fixing those.

the laggards groups are not talking of anything different. in fact the laggards group even have a very strong disadvantage of not having a a large political party to back them up. even teodoro’s political party is now being reduced to nothing. it will be much more difficult to be effective if a presidentiable without a strong political party is elected. basing it on this one, the real choice is really down to aquino or villar, the front runners.

that is how few these voters are and how futile their votes will be if they continue to vote for these candidates.

it is none of richard gordon’s business on how i vote

i  find grave offence on richard gordon’s damage suit against SWS and Pulse Asia. one of gordon’s lawyers said gordon wants me to cast my vote using the “track record and platform” of candidates. while that is a good idea, it is not his freakin business on what i use as basis for the vote i will cast.

he has no say on what criteria i use and it is totally up to me.  this is a free country and part of what democracy is all about, in fact  elections per se is that i exercise my vote in whatever manner i please.

“We want the public not to base their votes on the candidates’ winnability, but on their track records and platform,” Tagalda said.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100422-265780/Gordon-files-damage-suit-vs-2-survey-firms

what is to richard gordon a “credible and correct survey results”? is it one where he is leading in the poll or where he is not getting a 2% rating? gordon is lodging this suit for one and only one reason – he is failing in this election campaign as seen by the survey results.

surveys are a measure of voters sentiments and in this case the voters are speaking plainly – the voters are rejecting gordon where he is getting very low ratings across the board, across all demographics, socio-eco classes and geographies.

it is hypocritical for gordon to speak of “public interest” when in this case, it is obvious public interest has no bearing on it but only his personal interest. he is on this route because he wants to defend his personal interest. he thinks survey results is killing his campaign when in truth he is just denying the fact that it is himself who is killing his chances in this election.

“While it is true that surveys are part of our freedom of expression, such freedom is not without limits especially where, as in this case, public interest during election periods warrants that these survey companies at least publish credible and correct survey results,” Diaz said.

this first paragraph at the PDI story on his suit says it all – he is suing the companies because he is doing poorly in the polls. if the results were different, we will probably not hear any complaint from him and he will probably make a big deal of it.

being a senator himself, he should know the value and power of public opinion. he is perhaps shocked by the current results where in this one, public opinion is going against him.

what does gordon want to do? force everyone to think like him? deny the voters a variety of information and data?  take out variety and force everyone to think the same?

gordon also has an inflated ego – if everyone used “track record and accomplishments” as basis for this election, he probably thinks he will get elected. if that is the criteria used, gordon will NOT be the first choice, it will probably be manny villar or erap estrada.

we think it is too presumptuous of him to say others are not using stringent criteria in their selection. how can he say such things?  it has not occurred to him that voters are probably using very stringent criteria, some may even be “track record and performance” but voters are seeing him as failing in those.

perhaps gordon has a severe case of superiority complex where he thinks everyone who does not agree with him are inferior to him. he thinks there is something wrong in others just because he is not a front runner at the surveys.

Presidential candidate and Senator Richard Gordon has filed a P650,000 damage suit against two survey firms for their allegedly false and misleading survey results which have not shown Gordon as among the top contenders.

gordon’s logic is fatally flawed. he says surveys are flawed and yet he uses the survey results. his poor showing in particular for saying it is making him lose the election. if the surveys are flawed, then he should question the methodology and design of the surveys, have them changed and conduct the surveys again to get good results. there is no need for him to stop the publication of the results to the people, just have the methodology and design corrected to his specifications. he can even get a research agency to conduct the poll using his ideas.

gordon needs help. and he does not deserve our vote.

pulse asia march 2010 presidentiables poll results : point of no return – an election for aquino to lose and villar to win

the results of this latest pulse asia poll, march 21 to 28, 2010 is highly consistent with the march 2010 poll of  SWS for the same month – villar’s ratings dropping, aquino holding and the effect aquino the front runner is widening his lead over villar.

not much has changed for the others. teodoro continue to be stuck at 7% rating but gordon has shown improvement going to now 2% from 1%. however, with the +/- 2% pts margin of error, that means no change for gordon.

we think we have reached a point of no return for most of the presidentiables, starting from teodoro, gordon and down the rest.  with lack of funds, lack of time and lack of support, these presidentiables have no luck at this election.

what we previously said stands – this election is for noynoy to lose, villar to win and estrada as the dark horse.

even on estrada, with little movement on his ratings, the dark horse label may have been lost as well. he is probably destined to join the rest.

The survey fieldwork was conducted from March 21 to 28, 2010 using face to face interviews.  Prior to and during the conduct of the survey, several events grabbed the headlines and these are as follows: (1) the Supreme Court’s declaration that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has the authority to appoint the successor of Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno and the protests that followed the high court’s decision; (2) various appointments made by the President following the Supreme Court’s ruling; (3) the start of the official campaign season for the local elections; (4) election-related concerns including double registrants in the voters’ list, downgrading of security features in the ballot, and questions regarding the nominees of several party-list groups and Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Chairperson Jose A.R. Melo’s dismissal of a “failure of elections” scenario despite these and other problems; (5) the possible disqualification of several presidential candidates due to failure to abide by election laws regarding airtime limits on their campaign advertisements and placement and size of their campaign materials (e.g., billboards); (6) the expression of support for the Nacionalista Party’s (NP) presidential candidate, Senator Manuel B. Villar, Jr., by some allies of President Arroyo in Cebu; (7) reports regarding the falling-out between President Arroyo and Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Jesus Versoza following the latter’s declaration that he will not support any attempt to extend the President’s term should there be a failure of elections in May 2010; (8) the government’s decision to retain its original growth target of 2.6% to 3.6% despite the El Niño phenomenon; and (9) continued oil price hikes.

source: http://pulseasia.com.ph/pulseasia/story.asp?ID=712

presidentiables stand on improving philippine education

THE COUNTRY’S spending for education as a percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) is shrinking compared with those of other countries in the region. Partly for this reason, the Philippines suffers from a shortage of classrooms even as participation rates deteriorate. The elementary-school participation rate dropped from 96.8 percent in school year 2000-2001 to 85.1 percent in 2008-2009, while the high-school participation rate slipped from 66.1 percent to 60.7 percent.

Academic performance in Science and Math among elementary and high school students remains dismal.

We can glean from the answers of the presidential candidates to the following questions how the next administration will address the challenge of improving Philippine education:

How will you arrest the declining school participation rates?

How will you solve the classroom shortage?

Will you increase the budget for education under your administration?

By how much?

How will you improve the quality of education in the country?
Are you in favor of an additional year (a total of 11 years—7 years elementary and 4 years high school) for basic education? Why? Why not?
What about teachers’ salaries?

Benigno Aquino III
Liberal Party

ONE OF THE REASONS FOR the decline in school participation is the poor health of pupils. The health program must be supplemented by a feeding program. But where do you get the money?

You build 40,000 schools or enroll about a million students in private schools. If you enroll the same class in a private school instead of building classrooms, chairs or blackboards the price difference is P100,000 per classroom, which can fund the feeding program.

The facilities are already there and the private schools become your partner in taking care of the overhead.

The ideal education budget is 5 percent (of GDP) but we are only around 3 percent today.

Before I spend money, I’ll make sure that I already have it. We’re targeting to increase the tax effort by 2 percentage points or about P150 billion, depending on the deficit that will be bequeathed to us.

And then you have P280 billion lost to corruption, which could have been used for policies, programs and projects.

Increasing the number of school years is also our position. The 10-year program is compounded by the fact that we have ‘‘shifting.” What was once eight hours a day of classes is now down to four hours.

And then the students are hard-pressed. I asked education officials during the budget hearings in the Senate because it was said that science and health concepts were being discussed [in the same period]. Does that mean they tackle three subjects in one sitting?

“Do [students] have this book called ‘English for You and Me?’ ” I asked. “Yes,” they replied. “Do you do this every year?” I said. “No, every five years,” they said. “How come after five years, you still come up with a book that has 500 errors?” I asked. They never gave a good answer.

On teachers’ salaries, we have the Salary Standardization Law-3 which the chief executive has to implement. At the same time, for the entire bureaucracy, you want the concept of meritocracy to be the prevailing mode governing promotion and increases. Interview by Philip Tubeza

JC de los Reyes
Ang Kapatiran

IMPROVEMENT IN EDUCATION as well as in the delivery of other basic public services rests largely on eradicating graft in government. This way more funds can be made available to address the need for more classrooms, teachers, books, an increase in teachers salaries, and more state universities.

Theodore Roosevelt said: “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” Hence, the Ang Kapatiran shall:

Build a nation of character and promote the integral development and total well-being of all Filipinos through values formation.

Discourage the glorification of sex and violence, pornography, dishonesty, vice, materialism and hedonism, and replace them with structures of virtue, peace, responsibility and achievement.

Actively promote responsible parenthood and natural family planning.

Encourage media to foster values that contribute to the formation of a national commitment that is maka-Diyos, maka-buhay, maka-bayan at maka-tao.

Promote the culture of life, peace, active nonviolence and progressive disarmament.

Declare as contrary to public policy, morals and interest, good customs and the common good the glorification of the culture of death and violence.

Enhance investments in human resource development, especially by strengthening education in the sciences, mathematics, engineering and English. Interview by Jerome Aning

Joseph Estrada
Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino

CHILDREN STOP GOING TO school because of hunger. We have to ensure that there is enough food for our people.

Doesn’t the Department of Education have a feeding program? They give instant noodles to the children. But even the money for the noodles is stolen. It still boils down to food security and addressing corruption.

We will use the military’s engineering corps to help build classrooms, and give more freedom to women to plan their own family size.

Of course (I will raise the education budget). I gave the biggest per capita budget to education. You can check the records. During the first week of my administration, I raised the allowance of teachers.

I’m in favor of an additional year. The disparity between the rich and the poor continues to grow. The rich families are able to send their children to nursery, kindergarten. The children of the poor go directly to Grade 1. The children of the poor have no chance of competing. In San Juan (when I was mayor), I put up daycare centers that provided free preschool education to the children of the poor. Interview by Norman Bordadora

Richard Gordon
Bagumbayan

WE ARE GOING TO MAKE sure that our children will get the best in education. I want to attract better teachers by raising the monthly salary to P40,000. I want our children to get Kindle (a device that can store electronic versions of books and other references) in schools instead of error-ridden textbooks.

I will get the needed funds for these by imposing a 50-centavo tax on text. If we impose a tax on some 2 billion text messages sent every day, we can raise P365 billion in one year. That is the contribution of every Filipino, rich and poor, so that my maid’s son can have the same education as what my grandchildren have.

I will also subsidize the salaries of private schoolteachers as long as they show a good record. The fund will be administered by a health and education acceleration program. It is not really a tax but our contribution to education and health. If people discover that the text money goes to improve education, I’m sure they will text more.

I will use the P170 billion originally allocated to education (in the national budget) in improving classrooms and health. We will address the shortage of classrooms. This budget will also cover food in schools.

I agree to adding two years to basic education but not immediately because we will need more budget for that. But I’d like to do it within my first three years as President, especially if our tax on text will be successful.Interview by Edson C. Tandoc Jr.