THE FIRST KamalAEAn series tackled Philippine economics during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s regime. In its sequel, KamalAEAn II, members of the Ateneo Economics Association (AEA), critically reviewed the policies of Economics alumnus (’81), President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
In contrast to the previous KamalAEAn forum, the sequel was geared towards involving students by allowing them a say in the topics. The audience was given cue cards which they could raise to express their opinion on the topic.
Among Aquino’s policies which were highlighted during the forum include the Hacienda Luisita issue, K-12 and the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.
In line with the forum’s theme “Your Choice, Your Voice,” an informal debate, where representatives of the affirmative and negative sides of each topic were chosen to defend their stands.
Economics Chair Noel de Guzman was the adjudicator, who clarified the points presented and gave his own views on the matter.
In her opening remarks, AEA Vice President for Externals Paola Pauline Purugganan said that the event provides an avenue for students to engage in discourse and to “[air] out their grievances, concerns and even suggestions for the government.”
The event was held at the Social Science Conference Rooms 1 and 2 on November 26.
To be or not to be involved
To kick-off the discussion on the Hacienda Luisita issue, a video was shown. It stated that “the lives of [Hacienda Luisita farmers] were forever changed by as what is to be seen as the bloodiest and most controversial strike in the Philippines.”
Purugganan asked the audience if Aquino should involve or distance himself from the issue, to which senior Pauline Marie Gairanod said that he should.
“He needs to interfere if he has the political will to correct something wrong in society,” she said.
Meanwhile, Senior Clarissa Buenaventura rebutted and said that Aquino must distance himself from the topic especially since Hacienda Luisita is a private matter.
“It’s his family land. We have no right to interfere with his private matters.”
Gairanod added that Aquino represents the whole Philippines as the president. She added that given Aquino’s role as a shareholder, he should say something about the issue.
Morality vs economic development
With regard to the Reproductive Health Bill, junior Mikolo Ilas said that the bill is pro-information, and with its passage, the youth will have further knowledge that sex also has consequences.
“We need to give the public choices so that they would not be one track-minded, “he added.
Senior Raziele Rañeses disagreed, saying that we are a predominantly Roman Catholic. “It’s the self-control that matters. What about morality? People are taking it for granted because it’s always about economics.”
De Guzman took a neutral stance, saying that what matters is the social utility function or what we want between maximizing morality and economic development.
The right now
The K-12 issue also generated mixed opinions. Freshman Juerjen Anne Domingo said that adding two more years is not the solution to our problems in education because quality is more important.
Meanwhile, sophomore Michael Christopher Cruz who was pro-K12 said that we are looking at things from a short-term perspective if we don’t allow the addition of two more years of education.
“[Our children] will be in a world where they only had 10 years of basic education while competing with graduates with 12 years of education.”
De Guzman said that these two conflicting viewpoints come from whether education is seen as a public or private good.
“If it’s a private good, the individual reaps the benefits and if it’s public, society as a whole benefits,” Guzman clarified. “It’s our culture that’s the problem. We’re not so gung-ho taking care of our educational systems like our Asian neighbors.”
He added that there is a need for education campaigns to stress the importance of education because it has to be understood that education comes with a cost and there’s no good education without cost.
The other topics discussed in the forum include private-public partnerships and Malacañang’s modifications of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee regarding the role of the media in the Manila hostage-taking incident.
