Seriously,
if I have 4.8 million pesos in my bank account, I am going to spend my semestral
break in Boracay. I will buy a house and lot near the beach or perhaps a
second-hand Ferrari car. Four point eight million pesos with nine zeros. That is
a lot of money. But that is not too big for a state university which has a population
bigger than 15,000.
The
university has traded a thousand dreams for a blue, lifeless mechanical luxury.
This was the belief of most students and parents after the only state
university in the province has decided to officially close its maritime course
offerings not so late in September this year. The news itself was devastating.
But not really devastating at all since the university has purchased a 4.6-million
bus before the closure was announced.
Why
was the new NORSU bus a big issue for the parents whose sons can no longer
continue their maritime education here in the university? CHED declared its
closure because the school failed to comply with their requirements. I mean
equipment and qualified teachers. The parents believed that the school was not
responsible enough for the welfare of its students. It was their initial
reaction for the issue. Who can blame them anyway? They worked hard, to send
their sons to college only to find out later on that the university who
promised to fulfill their dreams had no choice but to fail them, to sink their
boat, to break the hearts of a thousand CME students.
Transferring
to another school sounds easy, sounds good. But for a parent whose job is only
to sell goods at the canteen, to drive a pedicab,
and to do whatever they can to have an income, that is just financially hard. No
nearby state university can offer a maritime education as cheap as NORSU.
The
former university president said that NORSU is business, that spending the
funds wisely will ensure a good future for a starting business. With this, he
is able to turn a rusty vocational school into a university. I believed in him.
Why invest millions if you cannot get something in return, right?
Then
I came to realize. Did he mean that the new NORSU bus is a good investment? Did
he mean that the new buildings inside the university are good investments? For display,
yes. But for the students who lost their chance to attain a college education
because the school failed to meet the requirements of the government, the
future has again become too distant. Something is wrong with us, with our
system. Let us not compromise the welfare of the students next time.
Is
it possible that instead of the bus, the school should have spent the 4.6
million for academic purposes? Invite qualified teachers to teach in CME and
other academic programs who lack qualified instructors. If they refuse to teach
because of the modest salary, let us give them free lodging, food, and
transportation every time they come here. This investment is not as bad as the
multi-million worth of stagnant vehicle in display which will later on rust,
and if the driver is not too careful enough or if fate permits, will scatter
into pieces below the cliffs of Sipalay, Negros Occidental.
The
United States made a statement that Philippine seafarers are on the “white
list.” This means that we are doing well abroad. We Filipinos comprise the
largest population of seafarers in the world.
Shall
this be the time that the NORSU administration focus more on academic programs that
are in demand in numerous industries and stop giving a ‘blind eye’ to our needs?
You
should know that I am a student majoring in Geology, a very demanding job in
the mining industry today. But not even once I was able to hold the arm or to
peek at the eyepiece of a polarizing microscope here in the university. I was
able to experience one during my on-the-job-training but I can hardly recall
how to use it because I did not grow up with such kind of equipment here. And
oh, it is just worth more or less 200,000. Two hundred plus geology students
would be happy to have that.
The E-martial
law
As
soon as possible, I suggest that you download as many torrent files/free
downloads as you can while supplies last because once the new cybercrime law
reaches the peak of its demands to the netizens (citizens of the internet) of
the Republic of the Philippines, it is going to be too late and you will run
out of internet freedom. Unfortunately, latest movies, songs in the hit chart, games,
and reference files will no longer be available for downloads in the internet.
Even though this idea is just an initial assumption of some concerned citizens,
this is likely to be true because the said cyber law is derived from an
international law which prohibits websites from hosting movies, songs, software,
and electronic files with legal patents or copyrights.
Perhaps
the law itself is reasonable after all. It can be noted that the film and music
industry have lost millions of dollars because of piracy. A few days after an
original track, software, game or movie has been released, a pirated version is
already available and is ready for download. With this, the entertainment industry
has been very adamant in eradicating piracy, this time, by means of cyber law.
No more file-sharing and torrent downloads.
I
understand the entertainment business sector, why they want this law to be
implemented so badly. But one of the lawmakers in the congress made a rather
ridiculous explanation on why cybercrime law is necessary. He cited a good
example—social networking sites. I mean Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Blogger and
others. According to him, these social sites can be a medium of libelous intention
towards others [libelous came from the root word ‘libel’ which means to state a
false statement towards others; to make people think bad about them]. The
actor-turned-senator said that a Filipino who posts a libelous “shoutout” on
his wall is a crime. Worse, people who are going to like his post are criminals
too.
Are
you getting my point? The Department of Justice and the Philippine government,
after this law is imposed, can easily ban Facebook and other social networking
sites in just a snap of a finger. That is how bad this cybercrime law could be.
That is how ‘kill joy’ our politicians could be. Is this possible? Yes. It can
be noted that a country in the Middle East banned all websites that are
affiliated to Google, after Youtube, a Google-owned video hosting and streaming
site, hosted and streamed an anti-Islamic video about Muhammad.
But
is it really our fault? Why give us the blame when in fact we are just receiving
these files second hand? Does buying or downloading a pirated copy of ‘Ice Age:
The Continental Drift’ makes an ordinary citizen a criminal? I don’t think so. Just
because they cannot put the culprits of the cyberworld behind bars means they
are allowed to cut our freedom of the internet. Instead of limiting internet
freedom, why not trace the hackers/crackers/pirates and hand them over to the
authorities? The Philippine government can do that… or perhaps they cannot. Government
websites and servers are repetitiously hacked by a group of local hackers early
this September who are against the cybercrime bill. Our government talks about
cyber crimes big time yet their computer system can be easily entered and
compromised by a group of Filipino hackers so easily like they are just logging
into their Facebook accounts.
The
bottom line is that I am against it. You should, too.
