THE headline of one of the major dailies which has a penchant for finding faults in the government screamed about a supposed rice scam.

According to this newspaper, the irregularities were discovered in last year’s P218.7-million rice-related expenditures incurred by the Department of Agriculture (DA) on hybrid rice, certified seeds, farm inputs and fertilizers for farmers as quoted from the Commission on Audit (COA). If this story is true, I think Secretary Arthur Yap must investigate posthaste since no less than the COA is being quoted as the source of the information. But I must hasten to add that assuming, for the sake of argument, that there were fake signatures of farmers on the list of beneficiaries, the reckoning must directly fall on the shoulders of the DA and the people implementing the program; the alleged anomalies should not be blamed on the President herself. In this particular case, I think the buck should stop at the desk of Secretary Art Yap. I am confident, however, that Secretary Yap has no involvement in this alleged anomaly and the investigation should center on the lower-level staff that was tasked to implement the program.

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The Court of Appeals (CA) has dismissed Mr. Jun Lozada’s petition regarding his claim that he was kidnapped. Now that no less than the second-highest court in the land has struck down Lozada’s wild imagination, I hope his benefactors, including the brothers in La Salle and the sisters who were singing all praises for him, will now realize they were trying to protect a person who does not deserve any protection at all. The CA decision completely repudiated all of Lozada’s claims of being harassed.

“With noonday clarity, this court [CA] finds that the reason why Rodolfo [Lozada Jr.] was fetched at the airport was to help him avoid the Senate contingent who would arrest and detain him at the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-arms. . . .” the CA decision said in part.

Kawawa naman si Lozada. He has obviously been demoted from hero to heel. By the way, what happened to all those funds collected by the madre for Mr. Lozada?

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I am glad that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has also decided to investigate the reported recruitment by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front of child soldiers. It is about time Chairman Leila de Lima and her commissioners investigate the enemies of the state because, in the past, the CHR has always shown keen partiality in investigating the government—policemen and soldiers. Now, it appears that the CHR is awakening to the fact that while it must be vigilant in denouncing perceived rights violations by policemen and soldiers, the abuses of the enemies of the state must not go unpunished.

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There is a bill pending in Congress that requires English as the only medium of instruction from Grades three up to college. On the other hand, the Department of Education (DepEd) takes the position that the medium of instructions in Grades one and two should be the local dialect. I agree with the DepEd’s position. I understand that during the time of then-Education Secretary Andrew Gonzales, surveys were made about the perceptiveness of Grades one and two pupils and of the advisability of the outright use of English for these levels. The survey results showed that the use of English made it difficult for pupils in these levels to assimilate the lessons. As such, many dropped out because they found it difficult to understand their English lessons.

The same surveys conducted also showed that pupils found it easier to understand their subjects when the local dialect was used as the medium of instructions from Grades one to three. Perhaps both the House and the Senate should have further hearings on this bill.

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