Before
we left Bangui on the 24th, I had to remind my son several times to make sure
that all the documentary papers required for the test was ready and he said
"yes" each time I asked. We got up at 5:00 a.m., took our showers,
had breakfast at the nearby fast food and at 6:00 a.m. sharp, we were already
at the MMSU Laoag campus, where hundreds of aspiring college freshmen were
already gathering. Oblivious of the pre-examination nuances in the campus, we
walked straight towards the main building but a security guard, presumably
posted for crowd control purposes, restrained us from further proceeding because
my son was not wearing his ID. So I asked my son to show his ID, but in God's
mercy, despite his numerous previous assurances that all documents required for
the test were in place, he forgot his school ID, the only one he had for
purposes of "valid identification card (preferably current school ID)"
as prescribed by the school in the examinees' examination permit.
The
security guard was imperiously imposing that my son could not take the
examination for want of ID in his possession. I begged him (the guard) to let
me speak to higher authorities but he said that I had to wait until they'd be
in, which was at about 8:00 a.m. My blood pressure shoot up so high: frustrated
and angry at my son's sheer irresponsibility, angry at why no responsible
university official was around at that time to monitor crowd movement and
address questions and other issues relevant to that day's event despite Mrs.
Domingo's rejoinder that we be in the campus before 7:00 a.m.—for it would
certainly be the height of stupidity and failure of leadership at the school's
officials' end to let a security guard, with all due respect to him, to
undertake those enormous tasks required of them to undertake.
And
we are talking about a state university named after the father of Ilocos
Norte's only produced Philippine President to date, a President whose
brilliance and work ethics and management meticulousness were far from
reproach; a president whose leadership's moral nature was founded on the
principle of command responsibility.
I
set aside my frustration and anger for a while as I had to call my wife to look
for my son's school ID and have it sent through the first Pagudpud bus for
Laoag. I was panicking, for no one was taking my call. Everyone at home was
obviously sleeping yet. At around 6:30, my wife finally answered her phone,
henceforth, she had to rush to the highway and wait for the first available bus
for Laoag, which came at around7:20 a.m., which under normal circumstances
would reach Laoag at around 8:40 or 8:50 a.m. (normal travel time from Bangui
to Laoag on a public utility bus is about 1½ hours). I was hoping that the test
would not start until 9:00 a.m. for I planned that right after my son was
admitted to take the test, I would rush back to Bangui to catch up with the
tail end of my cousin's funeral and forthwith catch up too with the reunion
lunch with my other relatives.
My
plan did not materialize, however, for Dr. Cesario Y. Pacis, MMSU's Dean of the
College of Industrial Technology in whose hands the responsibility of heading
the school's CFAT panel, whose decisions are the final authority relevant to
this event, with folded hands ala-drill sergeant in a boot camp and seemingly
enjoying the moment of his imperious office for this event, readily dismissed
my plea with him to allow my son to participate in the examination
conditionally as his permit was on its way but it could be late for 10 to 15
minutes. His "no permit no examination" mantra was stern, final and
beyond compromise, unfortunately. For a while, I wanted to ask him what would
this government-owned school lose if he would just allow my son to take the
exams without his ID, which was to arrive in 10 to 15 minutes anyway? I wanted
to ask him what constitutes "valid ID" as what they had prescribed.
But he raised his voice on me when I asked him if they made sufficient
dissemination program relevant to this yearly CFAT. I was stunned and wondered
if this kind of public comportment—raising his voice and insulting people—was necessary
I am saying this because before me, he had raised his voice too and
insultingly castigated Mrs. Gemma Cassabacan, a parent from the province of
Apayao who had similar problem as mine about her daughter.
I
was left speechless, wondering if this kind of attitude of a dean at the Mariano
Marcos State University, or any university for that matter, is countenanced by
the school, the Department of Education or the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED). For a while, I was wondering if Dr. Pacis was a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
or a doctor of medicine (MD), because MD's are prone to yelling at their
patients sometimes, done by work pressure, I suppose. Unless it's his nature to
yell and insult people when pressured, an educator, especially a doctor of
philosophy, must always be philosophical in taking challenges and confronting
stress, lest people may subscribe to Jacques Barzun's words that "teaching
is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition."
Indeed,
my son's permit got to Laoag at around 8:45 a.m., 15 minutes after the
examination started, but he was only allowed to participate—with the ID—with the
second batch of examinees who were to take the test at 12:30 p.m. Many
examinees were not allowed to take the exams too on account of ID problems.
Some of them took the second batch's schedule, some did not, because unlike my
son they could not produce an ID on time.
We
got to the examination building floor at 12 noon. Mr. Pacis, was there,
monitoring the situation, giving orders and decisions. Like what transpired in
the morning, there were examinees who had no ID's too. I felt very sorry for
the kids, for I expected that they would suffer the same fate as the other
no-ID kids had in the morning. I was about to confront Pacis in behalf of the poor
kids, this time to verbally tangle with him on the issue of ID's. But I stepped
back when one by one, he asked the kids if they could produce any other
document, like diploma or transcript of record—“so that I can be sure that you
are a high school graduate," he said.
What
a NONSENSE, obtuse
reasoning! I was
dumb-founded, for my son had with him his diploma and transcript of record, but
this theatrical, unpredictable and imperiously actuating Dean of the College of
Industrial Technology, never asked or offered any semblance of flexibility when
Mrs. Cassabacan and the other parents and students with similar concern as mine
were pleading with him for some consideration early on. His afternoon stance
was far expected from a doctorate-holding dean of a university. For I always
thought that the need for the ID was to make sure that the person taking the
written exam was the real person who applied for it. The university prescribed
"a valid ID," which to an ordinary layman is a card wherein your picture
appears so that when people need to verify your identity instantly they could
refer to it instantly too. I am not a doctor of anything like Pacis, but I can
bet my life that in a normal rhythm of a public transaction, diplomas and
transcript of records are not "valid ID's." They are credentials that
you have to submit post-personal identification.
So
if Pacis was only accommodating or flexible enough in the morning of April 25,
like he was in the afternoon, my son, who had with him his diploma and
transcript of record, would have taken the morning exams, which means that I
could have rushed back to Bangui in time for my cousins funeral and my reunion
with my other relatives.
But
the funeral and the reunion are certainly not the issues here. The issues are:
1. The attitude and disposition of Dr. Cesario Pacis, the Dean of MMSU's
College of Industrial Technology, who heads the CFAT examination panel in this
school and, 2. The university's poor system of managing the conduct of the
CFAT.
We
question Pacis' attitude and poor disposition on account of what he did to me
and that poor parent from the province of Apayao. We question his attitude and
disposition for being so stern and inflexible toward the no-ID students. While
it is true that the ID was an important form to discourage cheating, it is also
true that to save time, effort and money and to preclude the likelihood of
depriving an aspiring youth to study at this vaunted university, Pacis could
have granted these kids conditional permit to take part in the examination,
conditioned on their producing a "valid ID" within a reasonable time;
which means that if the examinee fails to produce that ID within a reasonable
time, his examination paper would not be considered. After all, the examinee's
picture is attached to his permit that the school keeps a record of against
which the ID could be cross-referred with at a later time. We question Pacis'
disposition for not telling the no-ID students and their parents in the morning
that diplomas and transcript of records are acceptable as "valid
ID's," as what he told the no-ID students in the afternoon. We hate to say
that this is poor judgment at his end, but this appears to be the case.
We
call upon the powers that be of MMSU to take a look into our assertions. We
call as well upon the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of
Education to conduct periodic psychological tests on school officials to
determine their continued competence in school--because we all know that
education has now become the most potent tool against poverty.
Alfredo C. Garvida, Jr.
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