When it comes to fame, education goes out the window

This week's hottest issue is the Philippines Department of Education's (DepEd) alleged banning of the National Broadband Network star witness Mr. Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada.

For the most part of the week teachers organizations, religious groups, and private organizations complained about DepEd banning Mr. Lozada from visiting schools. This weekend, it's the turn of the students to air their side.

Let us make a few things clear:

1. In an order published by DepEd, no word that means ban (forbid, outlaw, prohibit, veto, bar, proscribe, disallow, interdict - courtesy of Microsoft Word Thesaurus) is written.

2. There is absolutely no Rodolfo, Jun, or Lozada in that order.

3. The order was published even before Lozada organized his school tours.

4. DepEd is mandated to provide basic (elementary and high school) education.

5. The order covers graduation ceremonies of elementary and secondary schools only.

You wait for six or four years to finish school and look forward to a good advice on how to survice high school or what course to take in college. Then come graduation day, all you hear is the political scene of the country.

The bone of contention, I believe, is paragraph 3 of the order that reads "The graduation rites should be conducted in an appropriate solemn ceremony befitting the graduating students and their parents and shall not in any way be used as a venue for political forum." But still, there is no mention of Mr. Lozada there.

Yet they keep on saying that DepEd is banning Mr. Lozada. Now, they even say that DepEd backtracked it's "ban" when no ban was ever made.

These people are educated.

These people are in or has finished college.

And yet they forgot that they used to do research first before they went to class and delivered their report.

And this bothers me.

Is it because they just want their faces shown on television? Or their voices heard on the radio? Or their names printed on paper or posted on the web?

Why don't we celebrate the fulfillment of our years of work first, and talk politics later?

What do you think?

Customer service hotline

A popular client assistance operation of companies today is the customer assistance hotline. As the name implies, the line and the company phone ear piece is always hot due to constant flow of electricity for the former and constant contact with the ear for the latter.

Our broadband service provider has one. We can call them up if we encounter problems with our internet connection. Being a bundle of phone line and broadband DSL, we can also call them up if we have phone problems. But only during their regular working hours.

So, when you loose broadband or phone service during the night and it unfortunately happens during the time when you needed those service the most, tough luck. Their answering machine will tell you to call them up during their regular operating hours from 7:00am to 8:30pm Mondays through Fridays and up to 6:00pm only during weekends and holidays. To remedy this, well, sulk and hope that 7:00am comes earlier than usual.