MB Junior Journalists meet Sen. Angara in press confab

Participants in the two-week Manila Bulletin (MB) Junior Journalists Summer Camp 2015 had a taste of real world of journalism in an impromptu press conference with Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara at the MB Penthouse in Intramuros, Manila, last Friday.

The activity was part of the interviewing and sourcing workshop of University of Santo Tomas (UST) Professor Felipe Salvosa II. It highlighted Day 5 of the two-week camp.

In the first week, MB editors and guest professors from UST taught the children the basics of newswriting. In the second week, the MB Editorial Team taught them cartooning, photography, research, infographics, and layout.

“I was impressed not only with the content of the questions, but also the way they were delivered – very respectful and very articulate,” the senator said.

The workshop, which started on May 18, aims to promote the habit of reading among the younger ones.

The transcript of the press conference follows:

MB Jr. Journalist: As one of senators what are you going to do to stop corruption in our country?

Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara (SJEA): A very good question. Well, we have a lot of measures to fight corruption and encourage good governance in the government (the public sector). I think the foremost anti-corruption measure that’s pending in the Congress now is the freedom of information bill. I have been filing that since I was a congressman in 2004. And we passed it in the Senate, actually, so it’s pending in the House of Representatives. If you can talk to your congressman, hopefully, they can vote for that measure.

What does the freedom of information bill provide? It provides that all transactions entered into by the government, ’yung mga malalaking kontrata, involving up to billions of pesos will have to provide details to the public para malaman na walang “sweetheart deals,” there is legitimate public bidding and that tax payers’ money is being put to a good use.

I think we have also a lot of bills which seek to amend some of our anti-graft laws like the Anti-graft and Corruption Practices Act. We adjust the prescriptive period… after 15 years, under existing law you can no longer file cases against these public officials. We are extending that period to 20 years, so it will encourage people to be whistle-blowers against corrupt officials. So there are quite a few measures that are pending to encourage good government and to fight corruption.

MB Jr. Journalist: I am Diego Luis T. Bautista from Don Bosco Makati. Will the Bangsamoro Basic Law be approved?

SJEA: Well, the BBL is currently undergoing debate in both Houses of Congress… in the House of Representatives where I think it just passed the committee level – that’s the first reading. And then it goes to the plenary where they debate the measure. At the Senate, it’s still at the committee level. For me, I think it will pass but I think there will be substantial amendments by Congress.

MB Jr. Journalist: I am Benedict Bravo of University of Perpetual Help in Cavite. Do you agree with the K to 12 curriculum?

SJEA: Actually, hindi pa final ’yun K to 12 curriculum. The DepEd is still working on it. In fact, they presented it to Congress, to the Committee on Education about two months ago and we are giving our inputs into what should go into the K to 12, because the idea is to have additional two years and to prepare those who don’t intend to go to college. They must have substantial skills. They must be trained, so that in case they don’t go to college, they are still qualified to work in certain establishments. Right now, high school graduates, nahihirapan maghanap ng trabaho. Additionally, it should also not duplicate what students will take up in college.

MB Jr. Journalist: I am Roxann Erece from Manila High School. My follow-up question is, will the students who will undergo K to 12 have more opportunities in terms of finding a job in the future?

SJEA: Actually, iyon ang idea, because right now kapag grumaduate ang bata sa high school ang age niya is about 16 to 17. So hindi pa sila pwede mag trabaho actually if hindi sila nagcollege, and right now we want to look also at employers. We are encouraging them. Sa mga trabahong hindi naman masyadong demanding na baka pwedeng… kasi lahat ng employer ngayon or those who are hiring workers, they require nila na college graduate. Kahit na maging clerk ka, maging secretary ka sometimes you don’t need to be a college graduate to do work.

MB Jr. Journalist: I am Jenica Villanueva from Manila High School. I just want to know what would happen to the college teachers next year? Will they really lose their jobs because there are no first year college students?

SJEA: Hindi naman kasi hindi lahat ng teachers, hindi lahat ng schools mawawalan ng college students. Iyong iba meron pang college students. But there will be vacancies in the college level but the nice thing is that DepEd is also in need of teachers to teach the additional two years of K to 12. In fact, I think the demand for teachers will be greater than sa mga mababakante. I don’t have the figures with me right now since this is a surprise interview, but I think the vacancies are up to 39,000. So there will be a demand for 39,000 new teachers. Siguro matching lang and kaunting retooling. At the same time we are encouraging the government to give out scholarships to those teachers who want to upgrade their skills.

MB Jr. Journalist: I am Joanna Marie Librodo from Manila High School. My question is, what are the important bills you authored?

SJEA: May isang oras ba kayo? ‘Di, joke lang. Yung Kindergarten Law, isa ako sa mga authors noon. Basically, dati hindi required magkaroon ng kindergarten, so pwede dumiretso sa Grade 1 yung bata sa public schools. Ayon sa mga eksperto ‘yun ‘yung crucial, ‘yung ages between 3 and 7 na kapag hindi na stimulate ‘yung bata, sayang ‘yung oras na iyon. So we filed a bill when I was still in Congress na magkaroon ng compulsory or ibig sabihin required na magkaroon ng kindergarten. Hindi pwedeng diretso sa Grade 1 kasi nakita rin natin na maraming pumapasok na Grade 1 na bumabagsak din. Yun and K to 12, K plus 12. Ibig sabihin, ‘yung school curriculum natin is 12 years, but kailangan bago tayo mag 12 years, may K, and that stands for Kindergarten. I was one of the authors of that.

Mayroon din tayong batas na itinaas ‘yung sweldo ng mga public school teachers natin. Mayroon din tayong panukalang batas to lower the taxes on our workers so naipasa natin the one on the bonuses and pending naman ‘yung bill to restructure our taxes. Tanungin niyo ang magulang niyo, karamihan sa kanila nagrereklamo na masyadong mataas ang binubuwis sa kanilang mga sweldo.

MB Jr. Journalist: I am Ethan Chua. I study at Xavier School. What inspired you to be a senator?

SJEA: What inspired me to be a senator? I guess if you study Philippine history. I went to UP Law, there’s a strong political tradition there. I didn’t want to be a politician when I was at your age. How old are you guys? 13? 14? 7? Definitely at your age, I did not want to be a politician. I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a writer. I only wanted to become a politician some time, maybe, 16 onwards, maybe even later. When I studied a lot of history and I realized that leadership matters. If you want to change your country, politics is one of the ways you can do for the better. You can teach, you can be a politician, you can be a journalist. Those are the many ways you can influence society.

MB Jr. Jouranalist: I am Jake Bautista. Also from Don Bosco Makati. This is also about K to 12. Do you think that we should postpone the program for a year or two?

SJEA: That’s a good question. Kasi there are some senators who believe we should postpone. But I think postponing it is only postponing the inevitable. I prefer to sacrifice now, so we can reap the benefits later on because if we don’t do it now we will have to do it in the next few years. So maybe let us tackle the problems while there are resources to answer the problem. We have an administration that’s willing to tackle the problem and we have a good education secretary. So, I think now is the perfect time to really push through with the program. Admittedly, there are some problems, many problems which needs to be addressed.

MB Jr. Journalist: I am Nicole Tong. I study at Jubilee Christian Academy. I was just wondering how do you decide which laws to pass and which laws to reject?

SJEA: Well, I am part of the Senate and we have 24 senators. I was part of the Congress, of the House of Representatives, which when I was a member had 240 members, now it has close to 300 members, 287 members. All of these are what we call a collegial body. It’s determined by many decisions. It’s not just my decision that we pass these. We all have to vote on it.

According to constitution, for a bill to become a law it must go through three separate readings. So it’s not really my call. It’s kind of the call of the committee chairman, we have a committee system in Congress. They decide, for example, if the measure is about education, it will go to the education committee and then the education chairperson decides to have a hearing on that and then he or she decides whether that measure is good and needs to be passed. If he or she passes it, they do a committee report. They report out to the plenary and that includes the 24 senators and then we vote on these bills. We debate and then we vote.

MB Jr. Journalist: My name is Charles Chua. I’m from St. Jude Catholic School. As of now, have you ever thought about running for a higher position?

SJEA: Not really because running for senator was a very, very hard election. Imagine when I was running for Congress for three terms in Aurora province, my voting population or the number of voters I had to appeal to was a hundred thousand. And then for Senate you had to talk to 55 million voters. So from a hundred thousand to 55 million, it’s very difficult, very expensive, it’s very taxing. So sa akin, I am happy here where I am in the Senate. I think I have the chance to make real change in our society and make a positive impact and I’m happy to be there. (Transcript courtesy of the Manila Bulletin Video Department)