PGMA's Remarks during the Opening Program of the Philippine Association of School Superintendents (PASS) National Conference or 2003 PASS Congress |
Coral Ballroom, Manila Pavilion, Manila (17 Nov 2003) |
| The idea was for me to sit in
and listen to what Secretary de Jesus is conveying to you regarding the road map and what
will be done next year. And it's a good opportunity for me to observe your reactions
because that way I can see what's the most important thing to you. And looking at your
faces, listening to what you applauded and also listening to the leaders of the
association, and I had found out that their most important problem right now is the MOOE. So, I could hardly wait to get to my car so I can call up Secretary Emi Boncodin to find out what we can do about it. I had to find out from her the state of our budget deficit and then we will see, considering those constraints, probably what we can do perhaps somehow you can have your light and your water from the rest of the year. For next year, you can see we have made efforts to make it less difficult for you to provide the good education to the children of the Philippines that they expect from us. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you because all of us in government are working under the severest budget constraints. And I would like to thank the education department, the teachers make up one-half of all our national government employees, therefore, the quality of our teachers reflects the quality of the entire government bureaucracy. Thank you for doing so well. And I hope as we improve our economy it will also be much better for the teachers and for the students that you are teaching. Congratulations and thank you very much. |