“There’s a need for that second look at the ‘Air Passenger Bill of Rights’”
There’s logic in the move of Makabayan lawmakers to revert to the pre-pandemic school calendar of June to March, following complaints about “intolerable heat” in classrooms during the summer days.
This shift to the old school year calendar has in fact, Santa Banana, gotten the support of teachers and students!
There is also logic in the move to reschedule the school calendar to enable students in far flung areas to help their farmer families in the agricultural sector to plant and to harvest in line with the planting and harvest season.
This bill had been proposed in House Bill 8550 which proposed that schools should start in the first Monday of June, but not after the last day of August, with a particular provision for a June opening for school year 2024 to 2025 which will ensure the urgent return to the pre- pandemic school calendar.
Along this proposal, the proponents for the “early” closing of the calendar year 2023-2024 and the granting of an appropriate number of service credits to teachers, which would reduce by a few days the last 180-day “non-negotiable contact time” set by the Department of Education.
Considering that this proposal has the backing and support of teachers and students, and hopefully, also the support of all legislators in both chambers of Congress, it would also do well for Vice President Sara Duterte as Department of Education secretary to fully support this move considering that both teachers and students are supporting it, my gulay!
And I would hope that this move would also have the full support of President Marcos Jr, in his capacity as agriculture secretary because students in far flung areas and engaged in agriculture would be able to help their families during planting and harvest time.
As I said, there is a lot of logic in this move to reschedule the school calendar year to pre-pandemic school year since it would be greatly beneficial and suitable to education given the detrimental impact of summer classes on the quality of education and even on the health welfare of both students and teachers.
Survey
Based on an online survey in March, 86.7 percent of public school teachers said their students were unable to focus on their lessons because of the “intolerable heat” in classrooms.
I can believe that since at home I hardly go out of my air conditioned bedroom because of the “intolerable heat.”
The online survey also showed 37 percent of the respondents said the heat had triggered existing medical conditions among teachers and students.
Four in 10 teachers had reported more students had been missing classes since the start of summer months.
The current calendar year has a detrimental effect on the country’s agricultural productivity because of the inability of the older students of families involved in agriculture to help their families during the planting season.
It was because of the COVID-19 health protocols that the school calendar was moved.
It is for all these reasons that I have cited that Vice President Duterte as education secretary should and must revert to the old calendar school year.
Similarly, President Marcos Jr. should consider all the factors to also revert to the pre- pandemic school calendar.
Crazy and stupid
A proposal to correct the shortage of nurses working in hospitals as a result of thousands of Filipino nurses going abroad to seek greener pastures, higher pay and better living conditions. has created a conundrum.
There are proposals for government hospitals to hire “flunkers” of the nursing board exams.
Santa Banana, I call this crazy and stupid.
In the first place, “flunkers” obviously do not qualify to do the things a nurse has to do in the hospitals.
In that case, if government hospitals start hiring “flunkers” who will get the blame when something goes wrong? And would people go to government hospitals if the nurses hired are “flunkers?”
If ever the government allows “flunkers” to become healthcare givers, the country will be known as a country where nurses in hospitals are “flunkers,” and clearly unqualified to work since nursing students need to pass board exams to qualify them, Santa Banana, for the strenuous work that nurses have to undergo,
If “flunkers” are hired in government hospitals, it will set a very bad precedent.
Soon, my gulay, even “flunkers” in bar exams, engineering, and medical exams will soon be hired. Santa Banana, the Philippines will be known as a country of “flunkers.”
The need for a DDR
The President may have gone to Albay to look into the evacuation of some 20,000 residents living within the six-kilometer danger zone of the Mayon Volcano, but he could not see that evacuees had occupied school buildings where the amenities are sub-standard.
My gulay, now the evacuees are complaining of lack of potable water and clamoring for food and other relief goods, which, more often than not, are not enough and often come in late.
Yes, Albay has its Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council (PRRMC), an ad hoc body which acts only when there’s a calamity or disaster, but obviously that’s inadequate.
And once again, for the nth time, I call on the Office of the President on the urgent and imperative need for the creation of a Department of Disaster Resilience which can focus and strategize needs of people affected by calamities and disasters which happen often in the Philippines, a country prone to calamities and disasters, like those evacuees affected by the Mayon Volcano’s unrest.
My gulay, to think that a volcanic unrest is just one disaster and calamity.
The country is often victim of super-typhoons, floods, landslides, typhoon surges, earthquakes and other calamities destroying infrastructure, livelihood, not to mention the loss of lives.
Despite all these calamities people have to rely on the NDRRMC, an ad hoc body under the Office of Civil Defense.
And more often than not, the country had to depend not only on local aid from the private sector and foreign aid, and still the administration cannot see the imperativeness of a DDR. There had been outcries for a department with its own budget that should handle all these, including suitable evacuation centers in places where there is need for them, instead of school buildings which are often destroyed.
The Albay evacuees are lucky that it is schoolbreak.
But, you can never predict the recurrence of calamities and disasters. Santa Banana, it looks like the government can never learn.
Delayed, canceled flights
Last week’s Senate investigation of some 3,000 complaints against the Gokongwei Cebu Pacific Air for delayed and canceled flights, mostly due to alleged lightning and bird strikes or maintenance problems brings to fore a second look at the “Air Passengers Bill of Rights.”
I have always maintained that when you buy an air ticket from the airlines, it is some kind of contract between the airline and the passenger to guarantee the proper time of departure and arrival.
Thus, when that contract is not observed, the airline must pay the penalty and when there are delays and cancellations, the airline must pay for not observing a contract of a carrier.
Unless, of course, the delays and cancellations of flights were due to some fortuitous event or some kind of force majeure like inclement weather or the inability to land or depart which could cause delays and cancellations.
The complaint against the Cebu Pacific is nothing new.
It also has happened with Philippine Airlines and also with another budget airline like Air Asia.
At most, delays and cancellations of flights are due to overbooking in which a ticketed passenger would be bumped off.
This happened to my wife and myself years ago when we had a confirmed flight from Hong Kong to Manila via Cathay Pacific.
We were bumped off because our flight was overbooked.
I was even told that Cathay Pacific bumped us off because they had to accommodate some Chinese bound for Manila.
I sued and won, getting a free flight from Cathay Pacific.
But, going back to delayed and canceled flights, there is an urgent need to take a second look at the “Air Passengers Bill of Rights” to make airlines pay for the meals and hotel expenses for delays and flight cancellations.
Air flight can be risky.
Flight delays and cancellations could mean loss of business or even life and death. Thus, there’s a need for that second look at the “Air Passenger Bill of Rights.”