WHILE CONGRATULATING PENAFLORIDA FOR HIS KARITON CLASSROOM

CHILD RIGHTS ADVOCATES SCOFF AT ARROYO GOVERNMENT'S HYPOCRITICAL AWARDING OF STREET EDUCATOR MR. PEÑAFLORIDA

Quezon City, Philippines - Militant child rights advocates led by SALINLAHI Alliance for Children's Concerns, derided the idea of the Arroyo government giving Mr. Peñaflorida, the street educator who recently won international acclaim for his kariton classroom. 

According to Sophia Garduce, SALINLAHI Spokesperson, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo clearly wants to steal the limelight from an achiever like Mr. Peñaflorida.  “We are appalled that for the past eight (8) years of her term in office, Arroyo did not care less about the worsening condition of our educational system, but now that the world acknowledged Mr. Peñaflorida’s accomplishments, she and her minions are scampering to grab credits from him. This is such a hypocritical act.”

Garduce challenged the government to address the root cause of high school drop out rates in the elementary and secondary level on account of worsening economic conditions of our poor families which further push out-of-school children and youth to become street children, laborers, prostituted and abused in many different ways.  “Arroyo should address issues that confront children and not by merely pretending that her administration supports individual initiatives like that of Peñaflorida’s.”

She also cited the case of ALCADEV, an alternative agricultural learning school for Manobo children in Surigao del Sur that was invaded by the military from mid-July 2009 to date. The military even branded the ALCADEV schoolchildren and teachers as insurgents. “Instead of protecting and defending the rights and welfare of children, the government has more often than not turned a blind eye to their plight.”  

The Salinlahi Spokesperson also said that the accomplishment of the “kariton classroom” is not sufficient to cover up the Arroyo government’s inadequacies as what Mrs. Arroyo’s apologist Ms. Lorelie Fajardo would want us to believe, because the sorry state of our educational system cannot just be described as inadequate.  A more accurate description is one of failure..” “The Arroyo government and all politicians vying for any position in the coming election should delve deep into the message of  this achievement,” Garduce quipped.