Champion of the poor

Negros Occidental Governor Joseph G. Marañon has paved the way to making his province the capital of non-formal education in the country. Because of his support, about 2,190 out-of-school youth and adults in four municipalities and one city in the province have completed the Non Formal Accreditation and Equivalency (NFE A&E) Program, an alternative learning opportunity for the poor.

Conceived by the DepEd Bureau of Non Formal Education in 1988, the A&E Program aims to provide learning opportunities to out-of-school youth and adults who have not finished elementary or high school. Most of the learners in Governor Maranon's province reside in far-flung barangays and in haciendas of Ilog, Isabela, Manapla, Don Salvador Benedicto and Sagay City. The graduates have had no resources to finish their schooling. The governor, a son of a public teacher, values education as a means to fight poverty. He says, "No education or lack of education, is the root of poverty."

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The community-based learning system provides more than 155 learning modules developed by DepEd for the learners to become self-effective; skilled in interpersonal communication and relationships; aware of community, local an global socio-economic and cultural concerns, and adept in critical thinking. They are issued an equivalent elementary or high school diploma if they pass the national A&E test to be conducted by DepEd in April this year.

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The program was introduced to the governor by Dr. Eden R. Divinagracia and Marilou Jalandoni, executive director and board secretary respectively, of the Philippine NGO Council on Population, Health & Welfare, Inc. (PNGOC), and Dr. Rosario de Guzman, former director of the Bureau of Non Formal Education, Department of Education. PNGOC is a national umbrella organization with 83 member NGOs.

The provincial government provided a P2.5 million grant to PNGOC with counterpart funs from the local government units. PNGOC has, for the past five years, reached out to more than 220,000 out-of-school youth and adults all over the country and has helped sustain the NFE A&E in San Fernando City, Valenzuela City, and Bacoor and Maragondon in Cavite.

Dr. Divinagracia also attributes the success of the project in Negros Occidental to the provincial board members and mayors and barangay councils.

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Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness that can strike anyone. It affects 1.5 million per cent of the general population. This means that out of 80 million Filipinos, at least 800,000 have schizophrenia. It's themost serious mental illness that greatly impacts on the lives of the person himself, his/her family, and the society at large. Added to the personal and family trauma is the social stigma and the ehavy financial burden of caring for a person with this illness.

In December last year, a group of families and friends of persons with the illness met to share their stories. Since then, they have been meeting regularly every month, sharing their stories, asking questions, understanding the illness, and finding strength from one another.

Last June, the group formally called themselves "Open Minds." It is now a foundatin duly registered with the SEC, with the main objective of providing support for the families and friends of persons with the mental illness.

On March 14, Open Minds will hold a concert entitled, "I will Be Here," with Gary Valenciano as featured artist. The concert's objective is two-fold: to increase the public's awareness of mental illness, and to raise much-needed funds for the medication of the patients. The group is still in the process of finding sponsors for the concert.

If you feel you will benefit from Open Minds, you can join the group which meets every last Staurday o the month from 2-5 p.m. at the 3rd floor of Diamond Motors Bld., Ortigas Avenue. If you want to help sponsor the concert, call Mon, 0918 940, Mina, 0917 367 6112, or Ellis, 0918 923 6709.

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January 10 was a sad day for Marilou Ruiz Llamas, a former Philippine Airlines flight attendant. On that day, her son, Jay, was shot to death at the corner of Buendia Avenue and Taft Avenue, Manila, at 4:30 p.m.

Jay was only 26. His older brother, Raffy, 31, works in Vancouver, Canada, and his younger brother, Mon, 20, like Jay, finished his college degree at De La Salle University on Taft Avenue. Their father, Ramon Roco Llamas, works in San Francisco, California.

Marilou remembers Jay as a voracious reader. In prep, after taking a written exam, he went around the classroom to teach his classmates the right answers.

He finished his four-year course in three years, and had a double degree – one in Applied Economics, and another in Management of Financial Institutions at La Salle. He was consistently on the dean‚s list. At the Ateneo de Manila University where he completed his law studies, he was on the top 25 in their batch of 175 students. Last September, he took the bar, and by March, he would have known the results. He was planning to work for his dad's cousin, presidential aspirant Raul Roco.

It was hard getting angry at Jay because, says Marilou, he was always smiling, his deep dimples adding to his boyish charm. Because he and his brothers were naughty kids, she saw that they were made altar boys at the St. Alphonsus di Ligouri in Magallanes, Makati City, where Jay’s wake was later held for eight days.

Throughout the wake, the love of Jay's life was present – his girlfriend and classmate Sid Castro, a classmate, and No. 3 in their class. She is a daughter of Belen (Puyat-Reyes) Castro, who heads Premier Bank. They were sweethearts for four years. His ashes were placed in two urns – one for Sid, and the other for the family – but both are depo-sited at the columbarium of Santuario de San Antonio Parish Church in Forbes Park.

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Jay was loved by people who worked for the family. Yaya Gina, who served the family for 15 years and had gone home to the province, rushed to Makati when she heard of Jay's death. Another girl who was saddened by Jay's death was Net-Net, a barber, who made most of the boys in the village sport the same hairstyle. Scooping up their savings, the family's fishpond caretakers flew to Manila from Kabangkalan City in Negros just to see their beloved Jay's remains. Members of the Aquila Legis Fraternity, 300 of them, rendered a touching necrological service.

Staying by Marilou's side in her hour of grief were Former Flight Attendants of PAL (AFFAP). Close friends in the past, they bonded even closer at a friend's son's death.

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