The Philippine Online Chronicles

Nacionalista Party senatorial candidate Adel Tamano vowed to pursue a legislative agenda that will focus on education and poverty reduction in Mindanao.

In a Blog Watch interview in Pasig last Tuesday, the former president of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (University of the City of Manila, or PLM) and former spokesperson for the Genuine Opposition said that he will legislate a law that will repeal the Automatic Appropriations Law in order to re-channel the budget on debt servicing towards education.

“The problem of the state of education is primarily the budget. We have to ensure that education will be given the highest budget as what is enshrined in the Constitution,” Tamano explained.

The Automatic Appropriations Law, or Section 31 of Presidential Decree 1177, mandates the national government to allocate a third of its budget to foreign debt servicing.

He also said that the state-subsidized education must be free of corruption, recalling his experience as PLM president.

“The previous PLM administration was really corrupt and the school's quality went down. When I became PLM president, I made sure that the P300 million annual budget it receives were not corrupted and that the budget goes down to the needs of the school,” Tamano said.

He added that his administration was “student-friendly and transparent.”

“I make it a point to go around the campus and talk with the students. I even encouraged the AP (Ang Pamantasan Student Publication) to write critical articles on the administration so that we will ensure that we are doing our job effectively,” Tamano explained. “If we have done such improvements for PLM, we can do it for the education sector in the national level.”

Unfinished business

When asked if he will legislate a law amending the constitution of PLM in order to put a student regent in its Board of Regents, Tamano said that he is “willing” to do so.

“[PLM] students have been clamoring for it, so we can work on that,” Tamano said. He even promised that he will “open his office” for PLM students once elected as senator.

“However, now that there is still no student regent, the current [PLM] administration must show transparency and must be easily accessed by the students just like how I showed in my administration,” Tamano said.

He will also “consider” amending the Campus Journalism Act in order to put a penalty clause for offenders. He then explained the case of AP, which was shut down by the previous administration of Benjamin Tayabas, but was revived under Tamano's term.

“We have to monitor campus repression. We have to encourage student journalists and student leaders to assert their rights if a school administration is corrupt and repressive,” Tamano said.

Progress in Mindanao

A Moro, Tamano said that genuine peace in Mindanao will be achieved by combating poverty and illiteracy.

“Beyond the armed conflict, the real enemy of Mindanao and the Moro people is poverty and illiteracy. We have to give Mindanao a fair chunk of our national budget,” Tamano said.

Tamano did not categorically say whether he is for the establishment of an autonomous Bangsamoro state, but he encouraged the review of treaties and laws affecting the Moro homeland for as long as it will “solve the problem of poverty” in Mindanao.