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Iloilo grenade blast kills one, wounds 5 others - report

A grenade exploded outside a hospital in Mandurriao, Iloilo City killing one and wounding five others.
An initial report said the explosion took place outside the Western Visayas Medical Center past 7 p.m.
Police are now investigating the incident. From a report of John Mark Guda, ABS-CBN Iloilo

Fire burns down Laguna firecracker factory

A fire of unknown origin hit a firecracker factory in Cabuyao, Laguna Sunday afternoon.

Radio dzMM reported that the blaze at the pyrotechnics factory in Purok 2, Barangay Bigaa, Cabuyan in Laguna began around 3:30 p.m.

Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., provincial police director, said firefighters managed to put out the fire shortly before 4 p.m.

He said there were several explosions heard as firefighters battled the blaze.

Arson investigators have yet to determine the extent of the damage and cause of the fire.

No one was reported injured during the incident.

World Bank finds Korean firm guilty of rigging RP road contracts

The World Bank on Friday imposed sanctions on Korean contractor Dongsung Construction Co. Ltd. for rigging several contracts under a national road project in the Philippines.

In a statement, the bank said it found Dongsung guilty of fraudulent and corrupt practices in relation to the National Roads Improvement and Management Project, which was supported by a $150-million loan from the World Bank. The first phase of the project closed in March 2007.

Through an in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis of the procurement process that the firm participated in as well as numerous interviews, investigators uncovered evidence of Dongsung's involvement in widespread bid-rigging, the World Bank said.

While the bank did not identify the rigged contracts, its completion report on the project said only 90 percent of the planned 528 kilometers of national roads has been upgraded or rehabilitated under the national roads improvement project.

This was because three contract packages were cancelled after three failed biddings. These included the upgrading of Marihatag-Barobo and Hinatuan Bislig Section of the Surigao-Davao Coastal Road, the 39-kilometer Kabankalan-Basay Road in Negros and the 26-kilometer San Enrique-Vallehermoso Roadin from La Castellana to Negros Occidental.

Controversy over the contracts nearly aborted a $232-million World Bank loan for the second phase of the national road project.

It also forced the Department of Public Works and Highways to remove the three contracts from the first phase of the project and use local funds instead in completing the three road packages, including P1.17 billion for Marihatag-Barobo and Hinatuan Bislig Section, P641 million for the Kabankalan-Basay Road, and P682 million for the San Enrique-Vallehermoso Road.

The bank said the Korean firm is barred from being awarded any World Bank-financed contract in any country in the next four years. It said Dongsung did not contest the accusations.

The World Bank did not identify other companies involved in the bid rigging. Its investigation unit, Integrity Vice Presidency , earlier found that a cartel of contractors had engaged in corrupt and collusive practices in all three rounds of bidding, undermining competition in road construction and inflating prices by up to 30 percent.

Rapid action against colluding companies demonstrates that efforts to combat corruption are working and sends a strong signal across the private sector. Building more and better roads to remote areas is critical for development in the Philippines. But it is also critical to take action against corruption, said World Bank country director for the Philippines, Bert Hofman.

Despite the irregularities, the bank decided to push through with a $232-million loan for the second phase of the national roads improvement project, after including stringent anti-corruption mechanisms, such as the use of an independent procurement evaluator and independent oversight by civil society.

French activist Tillion dies

Al Jazeera

Germaine Tillion, the renowned French activist and writer, has died at the age of 100.

Tillion, who played a crucial role in brokering peace between France and Algeria during the second world war, died on Saturday at her home in Saint-Mande in Paris, Tzvetan Todorov, the head of the Germaine Tillion Association, said.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had written to Tillion in May 2007, wishing to bestow on her "the affection of the entire nation".

"Anthropology, feminism, of course, the resistance, deportation, the fight for social justice, the war in Algeria, but also so many books, so many research works ... It is not possible for me to evoke here every aspect of such a beautiful and important life," said Sarkozy.

Prestigious awards

Tillion was one of France's most-decorated people, being one of just five women to have been awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion d'honneur, one of France's highest distinctions.

Germany awarded her the title of "Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic" in 2004.

It was Tillion's wartime activities that first brought her wider public attention.

She was the founding member of the "Museum of Mankind" intellectual resistance network during the second world war.

She returned to Algeria after the war on behalf of the French government and played a key role in brokering truce between the two states.

Tillion was a celebrated author and her book "The Republic of Cousins: Women's Oppression in Mediterranean Society" in which she examined the social position of women across North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean shore, is regarded as one of her most prolific works.

Filipinos join Worlds Biggest Lesson

by ANGELO GUTIERREZ
Education advocates fear that the government may sacrifice its obligation to provide education to poor children while it tries to save the country from a looming global food crisis.
“Due to the rising food prices and alarming global food crisis trend, hunger and poverty incidence may increase dramatically,” Cecilia Soriano, national coordinator of Education Network Philippines said in a statement.
Soriano said while the government may be able to respond and survive the food crisis, it might further neglect its primary duty of providing free and quality education to 11.6 million out-of-school youths.
“Filipinos have a knack for surviving crisis. Unfortunately, the first thing they sacrifice is education,” she said.
President Arroyo has ordered government agencies to help mitigate the effects of the looming global food crisis. She has also committed over P43 billion to increase food production.
It took only the specter of riots for the government to act on the emerging food crisis, but the decades-long problem in education remains neglected.
Quality education to end exclusion
Meanwhile, E-Net Philippines on Wednesday joined over a hundred education advocacy groups in the attempt to break the Guinness World Record of most students studying a single lesson in only 30 minutes.
The subject: Quality Education for All, End Exclusion now.
In 2004, the same event was joined by less than a million people worldwide.
The Philippines is among more than 180 country participants of the event organized by the Global Campaign for Education to break its old world record.
The country hopes to mobilize 8,000 Filipinos this year. The activity was simultaneously done in the some cities including Quezon, Caloocan, Davao, Baguio, and Cotabato.
The symbolic event aims to remind government officials and politicians that free and quality education is a basic human right which should be accessible to all.
After the “Worlds Biggest Lesson,” E-Net Philippines member organizations drafted a seven-point Education Agenda, which include:
· Progressively increase the budget for basic education; · Effectively reach the more than 11.6 million out-of-school youth through an expanded and comprehensive program on alternative learning system; · Expand coverage of Early Child Care and Development by increasing allocation for programs beyond the one day care per barangay target; · Put in place accessible and multi-cultural education; · Invest in quality education by improving teachers welfare, providing sustained and accessible teachers training nationwide; · Address high dropout, low survival and high illiteracy in poor areas; · Arrest the decreasing functional literacy rates among adults 15-years old and provide appropriate adult education programs.
Part of Wednesdays event was to directly present the agenda to invited government officials including Marikina City Rep. Del de Guzman, chairman of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture, and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture.
De Guzman came late while Cayetano failed to attend the event because he had other engagements.
Quezon City Councilor Jorge Banal, the citys head of education committee, was able to directly hear the complaints of the children present at the event held at the Quezon City Hall.
E-Net president Edicio De la Torre said the education agenda will be presented to the government, through the Department of Education on April 29.
He said Wednesdays lesson is part of the governments commitment to the United Nations World Education Forum participated by 164 countries. He said a “collective commitment” to bring quality and free education around the globe was reached during the forum held in 1999 in Dakar, Senegal.
Increase education budget
De la Torre said the standard global fund level for education dictates that each government should allot six percent of a countrys gross national product and 20 percent of its national budget to education.
In the Philippines, he said the governments allocation for education represents only four percent of the GNP and 12 percent of the national budget.
He said the supposed additional budget for education is being diverted to pay for the countrys external debt. The results: lack of classroom, lack of well-trained teachers, and basic school needs of children.
With a slim hope of encouraging poor children go to school, particularly child workers, de la Torre said the government should at least increase its allocation for alternative learning.
De la Torre explained that an elementary dropout, aged up to 15, may be given a chance to receive a diploma by participating in a 10-month alternative learning system.
After the 10-month program, a participating student may be given a graduation certificate if he passes a specially-crafted examination.
De la Torre said because of lack of budget, the alternative learning program has failed to service all of the out-of-school children who are willing to go to school but have no means.
“We should walk on two legs. While improving the formal system, we should also build an alternative learning system,” he said.
Child laborers shooed away from school
Meanwhile, about four million or 16.2 percent of the 25 million Filipino youth aged five to 17, are victims of child labor and have been deprived of their right to free and quality education.
Daphne Culanag, project director of the ABK Initiative, said 2.4 million of the total number of child laborers are exposed to life hazards instead of spending time inside classrooms learning lessons.
Culanag said the Pag-Aaral ng Bata para sa Kinabukasan or ABK Initiative, a group of non-government organizations, is now working with the government to bring children back to school.
"Hindi naiintindihan ng mga teacher ang mga batang pumapasok ng late, inaantok sa klase, mga bata na nangangamoy... Pati mga bata sa paaralan may diskriminasyon sa mga batang nagtatrabaho. Hindi natin maaalis ang amoy ng kahirapan," Culanag said.

She said child laborers are forced to leave school and continue working for money because of the discrimination, topped with their parents' inability to finance their education.
Culanag, however, said that with her group's campaign, teachers and schoolchildren are slowly becoming more considerate of child laborers.
"Their eyes are slowly opening up. Teachers are becoming sensitive of the child laborers," she said.
Scavenger, drug addict
Dave Bajado, a former scavenger at Pier 18 at the Manila seaport, was one of the child laborers saved by the Educational Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc.
Bajado said he was a “stowaway” when he left school at 11 years old. With nowhere to go, he said he learned to sniff “rugby” and “shabu”, which eventually landed him in a drug rehabilitation center.
After spending two years in rehabilitation, Bajado said he decided that he wanted to go back to school.
“Nagkaroon ako ng sariling desisyon na kailangang makapag-aral ako ulit,” he said.
Bajado just completed his secondary education and is planning to take a vocational course in hotel and restaurant at the Don Bosco Technical College.
The ABK Initiative program has been in operation for the past four years. The program has already helped 31, 320 children, many of them graduated at the top of their class.
After high school, Culanag said local government units sponsor the childrens college education.
The project is actively servicing out-of-school child laborers in Bulacan, Cebu, Camarines Norte, Davao City, Davao del Sur, Compostela Valley, Negros provinces, and Iloilo.
Culanag said that with the continuing program, more out-of-school children can go to their mothers and say “Inay gusto kong mag-aral. Inay karapatan kong mag-aral .”