One municipality at a time

Every year, the American government invites a number of the best and the brightest Filipinos to study, teach, work, or travel in the USA. Most of these Filipinos go on one or more of American government programs set up on a win-win proposition: non-Americans get to experience for free the best that the American way of life has to offer and Americans get to learn from the most influential and accomplished non-Americans around the world.

Upon their return to the Philippines, Filipinos that have benefited from the generosity of American taxpayers join various associations of grantees. The five biggest among these associations recently came together to share their expertise with less fortunate Filipinos in a project called “Alay sa Bayan 2009-2015 Program.”

These associations are (in alphabetical order) the East-West Center Alumni Association-Philippines, the Fulbright Philippine Agriculture Alumni Association, the Hubert H. Humphrey Alumni Association-Philippines, the International Visitor Program-Philippines Alumni Foundation, and the Philippine Fulbright Scholars Association.

Alay sa Bayan is the fruit of more than three years of talks among the officers of these associations. There were joint activities before (such as the Marilaw Project of Fulbright, East-West, and Humphrey in 1990), but nothing on the scale of Alay sa Bayan.

According to the associations, Alay sa Bayan aims to “conduct various socio-economic development projects in at least one selected 5th class municipality in each of the 14 administrative regions of the Philippines, for the elevation of each into a higher income class level, if not for each to attain all Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations by 2015, thus making the 14 selected municipalities as major regional centers of commerce and business.”

Such an objective is not overly ambitious for the five associations, which together count among its 4,000 or so past and present members a president, Supreme Court justices, senators, representatives, cabinet secretaries, CEOs, university heads, NGO heads, and other key individuals in the country. Members of the associations will donate their time and energies to the project, while actual expenses will be shouldered or sourced by the municipality.

The first beneficiary of Alay sa Bayan is Magdalena in Laguna, whose energetic mayor, David O. Aventurado Jr., was the first to welcome the help of the associations. After consulting with various sectors of the Magdalena community, the associations decided to limit “Alay sa Magdalena” (the pilot phase of the program) to three development areas – basic education, livelihood, and governance.

Examples of the activities lined up for the next six years in Magdalena are: training of students and teachers in Reading, Mathematics, Values Education, and other education areas; mother-tongue-based multilingual education; agricultural production and trading (rice, vegetable, high value crops, and livestock) enhancement training; barangay governance enhancement training of officials and employees; core youth leadership and entrepreneurship training; librarianship training; and establishment of a public library serving also as a library hub for schools.

The Memorandum of Understanding between Magdalena and the various associations was signed last Friday, Sept. 4, at the office of the Philippine-American Educational Foundation in Makati. Those who signed the MOU (in alphabetical order) were: Crisostomo F. Abanes, Elena L. Aben, Luna Miraflor N. Aguirre, Mario Andrada, Edelita L. Artillero, David O. Aventurado Jr., Senen Bacani, Ma. Lourdes T. Baua, Pauline S. Bautista, Alex B. Brillantes Jr., Liborio S. Cabanilla, Ramon Clarete, Damcelle Torres-Cortes, Esmeralda S. Cunanan, Emerito Enginco, Isabelle Ereneta, Lex Flores, Paraluman R. Giron, Milwida Guevarra, Teresita G. Hernandez, Mila J. Magadia, Nelia B. Montecastro, Marilen Ramiro, Elsa M. Ranes, Marivel Sacendoncillo, Edgar San Luis, John Philipp Sevilla, Cecilia R. Sy, Ariel M. Ungco Jr., Ethel Agnes P. Valenzuela, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and myself. Several other officers of the associations were also present.

BAYANI NG WIKA: Filipinos that contributed last year in an extraordinary way to the development of the Filipino language were given awards as Bayani ng Wika last Aug. 20 at UP Diliman by Wika ng Kultura at Agham, Inc. (WIKA). They were Gerry Baja, Jose C. De La Rama, Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo, Eden G. Paduga, Zeus A. Salazar, Anthony Taberna, Tereso S. Tullao Jr., and Mindanao State University Iligan Institute of Technology. Congratulations to the winners!

“WORDS OF THE DAY” (English/Filipino) for next week’s elementary school classes: Sept. 14 Monday: 1. put/kalabaw, 2. green/kaliskis, 3. stitch/kamote, 4. building/kapal, 5. linen/kapalaran, 6. stocking/kaluban; Sept. 15 Tuesday: 1. name/laba, 2. bright/laban, 3. stage/labi (excess), 4. plaza/ lakatan, 5. ethnic/ laklak, 6. structure/labnot; Sept. 16 Wednesday: 1. book/lakad, 2. rail/laman, 3. stamp/lagari, 4. among/ladlad, 5. support/lamon, 6. substance/lalang (creation); Sept. 17 Thursday: 1. door/lamang (only), 2. rest/lambat, 3. spring/lagpak, 4. across/lanaw, 5. machine/lapit, 6. fiction/lalang (deception); Sept. 18 Friday: 1. good/lalaki, 2. rice/langit, 3. stone/lansangan, 4. against/lapat, 5. market/lagitik, 6. complex/lamay. The numbers after the dates indicate grade level. The dates refer to the official calendar for public elementary schools. For definitions of the words in Filipino, consult UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino.