How To Understand the Olympic Figure Skating Scoring System

By Siesta-friendly

Caught up in the Olympic spirit once again; in particular, figure skating.  If you have wondered about the new figure skating scoring system then here's a short video to give you an idea -

Experts say this system takes out the artistry in the performance as every skill is point-based such that skaters would only think about points whenever they move on the ice.  Think they forgot to send a memo to Kim Yu Na who won gold hands down with technical skill and artistry to boot.

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Reality Check: Israel’s hold on the Gaza Strip

By Siesta-friendly

Don’t let mainstream media fool you.  True, Iran (a major focus of their attention) is an oppressive state but Israel’s actions against its neighbors (not to mention its hold on Western superpowers) deserve much more attention.  Take its actions on the Gaza Strip.  Against international law, Israel continues its blockade/embargo on the Gaza Strip limiting the Palestinians’ freedom of movement and the flow of basic, and especially emergency, goods and services – including electricity - to Palestinians.

The Palestinians’ plight has been compounded by Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip from December 27, 2008 – January 18, 2009 the effects of which linger today. 

The first video is but a brief summary of the assault and its effects.  A report by United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict contains more details and “finds strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza conflict ...”

 

The second video, an animated film, clearly summarizes what has prompted Palestinians to fight and continue fighting Israel.

As a brief history lesson, Israel wrested control over the Gaza Strip from Egypt upon winning the Six-Day War.  Following international agreements, Israel eventually disengaged from Gaza (settlers and all) in 2005.  But (and it’s a big one), Israel still controls Gaza Strip’s borders – including airspace and coastline - and so effectively controls who and what moves through those borders.  Hence, Israel is still regarded as an occupying power in the Gaza Strip. 

Israel’s continued control of the Gaza Strip and its disregard for human rights are against international law.

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TRUE CONFESSIONS: Confessions in Criminal Law

By Obiter 07

A senator flees the murder conspiracy charges against him.  A mother advances her own fantastic theory to place the blame on someone else in the face of mounting evidence against her road rage murderer suspect of a son.    We cannot judge who is innocent or guilty. But this is one thing we can all agree on, we cannot expect suspects or their loved ones to just throw in the towel and confess.  Telling the truth appears to be as rare as a Manny-Villar-Las-Piñas-subdivision-not-within-the-vicinity-of-the-C-5-extension.  And alibis are as plentiful as there are resources available to the accused.  

Confessing to a crime does mean facing the penalties.  But there reasons to do it apart from serving as a salve to one’s conscience.

Why confess

Article 13 of the Revised Penal Code provides that confession is a mitigating circumstance:

“ARTICLE 13. Mitigating circumstances. — The following are mitigating circumstances:

xxx

7. That the offender had voluntarily surrendered himself to a person in authority or his agents, or that he had voluntarily confessed his guilt before the court prior to the presentation of the evidence for the prosecution. xxx” [Underscoring supplied]

Mitigating circumstances can serve to lower the penalty to be imposed on the accused. For example, Article 63 provides:

 

“ARTICLE 63. xxx  In all cases in which the law prescribes a penalty composed of two indivisible penalties, the following rules shall be observed in the application thereof:

xxx

3. When the commission of the act is attended by some mitigating circumstance and there is no aggravating circumstance, the lesser penalty shall be applied.

4. When both mitigating and aggravating circumstances attended the commission of the act, the courts shall reasonably allow them to offset one another in consideration of their number and importance, for the purpose of applying the penalty in accordance with the preceding rules, according to the result of such compensation.”

When to confess

But one must confess at the earliest opportunity before the prosecution starts to present its evidence.

“Article 13 (7) of the Revised Penal Code provides that an accused is entitled to the mitigating circumstance of voluntary confession of guilty if "he had voluntarily confessed his guilt before the court prior to the presentation of evidence by the prosecution." The following requisites must concur: (1) the accused spontaneously confessed his guilt; (2) the confession of guilt was made in open court, that is, before a competent court trying the case; and (3) the confession of guilt was made prior to the presentation of evidence by the prosecution. [emphasis supplied]

“In this case, appellant made his confession of guilt before the presentation of evidence by the prosecution since he pleaded guilty during the arraignment. The appellant also confessed voluntarily and spontaneously despite knowing the serious nature of the charge against him. Lastly, appellant made his confession openly, that is, before the judge and the parties in a hearing. Clearly therefore, all the requisites of the mitigating circumstance of voluntary confession were present.”  PEOPLE vs. JUAN [G.R. No. 152289.  January 14, 2004.]

A change of plea from guilty to not guilty is unavailing if made too late.  One must tell the truth at the right time.

“[T]he trial court was correct in not crediting in favor of WILLIAM the mitigating circumstance of plea of guilty, since the change of his plea from "not guilty" to "guilty" was made only after the presentation of some evidence for the prosecution. PEOPLE vs. MONTINOLA  [G.R. Nos. 131856-57.  July 9, 2001.]”

Confessions are given credit since it is “an act of repentance and respect for the law; it indicates a moral disposition in the accused favorable to his reform, [Reyes, The Revised Penal Code, Book I (1981), p. 307 citing People v. De La Cruz, 63 Phil. 874.]”

Prior guilty plea

The law seeks to protect the accused even in cases where he is facing a capital offense. Even his prior guilty plea may be withdrawn.

“Sec. 3. Plea of guilty to capital offense; reception of evidence. – When the accused pleads guilty to a capital offense, the court shall conduct a searching inquiry into the voluntariness and full comprehension of the consequences of his plea and shall require the prosecution to prove his guilt and the precise degree of culpability. The accused may present evidence in his behalf.

Sec. 5. Withdrawal of improvident plea of guilty.– At any time before the judgment of conviction becomes final, the court may permit an improvident plea of guilty to be withdrawn and be substituted by a plea of not guilty. [Rule 115]” [emphasis supplied]

Since kindergarten, we’ve learned a lot of rules, not to hurt anybody, to give back what isn’t ours and to not tell a lie, to name a few.  We’re no longer in kindergarten but the same rules apply.  Of course now we can add: if you commit a crime then do your time and if you don’t like admitting then stop committing.  

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Education Nation: Not the Philippines

By Siesta-friendly

There’s a newly formed group very publicly calling for reforms in education. They call themselves the Education Nation coalition. On paper, it’s a powerful group comprising founders, senior executives and high level officers of top-tier organizations. Just how powerful a group will remain to be seen (on future government education policies) but the issue they’ve decided to take on is more significant. It is Philippine education, which is to say, Philippine public education. Private institutions - being relatively free from government control and funding - have largely remained globally competitive and hardly ailing. Although President Arroyo and the Commission on Higher Education have made initiatives to rock the otherwise smooth sailing boat of private institutions. But that’s a whole other bunch of issues (continuously taken up by Fr Joaquin Bernas).

Anyway, the coalition has come up with a 10-point agenda to uplift the current state of education. But the 10 points are mostly generalized so we’ll just tackle the least broad one which is: “[e]nhancing basic education by adding two more years to it.”

As already mentioned, the state of the Philippine education system is largely the state of our public school system. The UNESCO National Education Support Strategy (dated January 2009)reports that “[a]s of School Year (SY) 2007-200839, out of 44,471 elementary schools, around 85% were public while only 15% were private. On the other hand, 8,450 schools offer secondary education in SY 2007-2008, of which 60% were public and 40% were private.”

At present, our public school education only has 6 years of grade school and 4 years of high school, with not even a mandatory requirement for pre-school learning. So only 10 years of basic education.

K-12, K-10 and just 10

The international standard is K-12 education which is formal education from kindergarten to 12th grade (i.e., kindergarten plus 12 years of grade school and high school). A lower standard is K-10 which is kindergarten plus only 10 years of grade school and high school. But our public school system is short of even K-10 education (most of our students go straight to grade 1 and go through only 6 years of grade school plus 4 years of high school). Thus, most of our students start formal education only around the age of 6.

In a recent commentary (dated January 8, 2010), Former Secretary of Education, Edilberto C. de Jesus, referencing the resolution of the Education Committee of UNESCO’s Philippine National Commission notes that “among 155 Unesco member countries, only Djoubuti, Angola and the Philippines still fall below what has become the international norm” which is K-12 education. This is a triumvirate of shame. It is scary to inquire what other records we have that also puts us on the level of African countries. We’re not even on the same level as any Asian country, not even Bangladesh.

So we’re only 1 of 3 remaining in the world, and the only Asian country, to not follow international education standards. [Sigh] When one of our modern heroes is former street child Efren Peñaflorida, who was prompted to offer pushcart education to street children, it’s depressing and distressing.

Current State of Philippine Basic Education

The earlier mentioned UNESCO National Education Support Strategy (UNESS) reports that “[t]he quality of elementary education has deteriorated over the years as indicated by the low achievement rates of students in SY 2007 – 2008 which were around: 64.81% in Math, 63.89% in Science, 57.90% in English, 61.62% in HEKASI (Social Sciences) and 73.18% in Filipino. All scores were low compared to the desired 75% cut-off score. Meanwhile, the Philippines ranked 41st in Science and 42nd in Mathematics from among 45 countries in the Trends in International Math and Science Survey."

As for secondary education, the UNESS says that the quality “is not far from that of the elementary level as indicated by the poor performance of 4th year students in the National Achievement Test (NAT) in SY 2005 – 2006, with Mean Percentage Scores in Math (44%), English (38%), Science (48%), Filipino (41%) and “Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) (48).51 The achievement rate (MPS) of second year students in 2007-2008 was equally dismal: 49.26% in Math; 42.85% in Science; 46.71% in English; 47.64% in Filipino; and, 55.63% in Araling Panlipunan.”

The UNESS blames the deteriorating quality of basic education to under investment in education which caused shortages of key educational resources like teachers, textbooks and classrooms. “Textbook shortages in 2006 reached 41.32 million books ... DepEd records showed that 11 schools were observing four shifts, 133 schools offering three shifts and about 900 schools providing two shifts a day to accommodate the every-increasing student enrolment ... cutting down class time … may also affect adversely education quality [and] overcrowded classrooms, which are unfavorable learning environment, also adversely affect quality.”

And these problems are on top of the deficiency in the international standard of K-12 or 13 years of formal education.

Relevant Laws and Government Policies

Education Act of 1953

Republic Act No. 896 (“An Act To Declare The Policy On Elementary Education In The Philippines” or the "Elementary Education Act of 1953” mandates that “[t]he primary course shall be composed of four grades (Grades I to IV) and the intermediate course of three grades (Grade V to VII).” This law has yet to be amended yet its mandate of 7 years of grade school has already been “amended” by the executive branch of government by making public elementary education only 6 years.

Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan 2004-2010

It is further telling of the Arroyo government’s priorities that in its MTPDP for 2004-2010, although already noting that “[t]he Philippines has one of the shortest basic education systems in Asia-Pacific, with six years of elementary and four years of high school”, the government did not include in its 8 goals for elementary education the latter’s increase from 6 to 7 years, thus perpetuating government policy of short basic education contrary to the Elementary Education Act of 1953 and the international norm for basic education.

To add further injury, the Arroyo government included as one of its goals: requiring preschool as a prerequisite to grade one.

Philippine Constitution

Article XIV, Sec 2, paragraph 3 of the Constitution obligates the government to “[e]stablish and maintain, a system of free public education in the elementary and high school levels.” By not increasing elementary education from 6 to 7 years, Arroyo ingeniously saved government funds by taking these away from already poor students needing more basic education while potentially increasing the financial burden on their families by aiming to make preschool a prerequisite to entering grade school.

We definitely need an additional 2 years of basic education. The presidential elections are nearing. If you care about the state of our education, choose the candidate who prioritizes education (pursuant to the Constitution) and plans to implement K-12 education (pursuant to international standards).

Education inevitably affects the state of our country one way or another. Uneducated people make uneducated decisions (to put it mildly). And if they end up as leaders or even just the voting majority, we’ll always be doomed.

I know of an educator who wishes that the children of all government officials be mandated to go to public schools to ensure that our education system be given the rightful attention it needs. It seems like the sure-fire way of making us an Education Nation.

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