Editorial

Safety in all schools

Parents of some Ateneo students are urging the grade school administration to review and implement drastic changes to its traffic management system.

The parents grieve the loss of fourth-grader Amiel Alcantara who was killed last week in the school parking area; they resolve not to let anything similar happen again.

?Let us not waste precious lives,? the parents say.

The petition also contains a background on the traffic situation in the upscale campus. According to the parents, there are limited parking slots for the thousands of vehicles going in and out of the school every day.

The result is chaos, especially during drop-off and pick-up hours.

That nobody wanted the incident to happen does not make it any more acceptable or tolerable. Schools are places for nurturing the young. The assumption is that schools are safe places.

Apparently, the assumption is too generous.

Traffic management and safety standards are not just the concern of the Ateneo. Safety guidelines are a must for all private schools with a fair amount of vehicular traffic. Administrators should not hesitate to invest resources and planning time to protect their students.

Likewise, public school students who most likely walk or commute to and from campus must be protected. Sidewalks and pedestrian lanes should be visible both to students and vehicles on the road.

All these children?s lives are precious. School operators and education/ local government officials must remember that their responsibility is not confined to the walls of the classroom.

Breakthrough
Nine years have passed since publicist Salvador ?Bubby? Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito were kidnapped, killed and burned. Now the alleged main plotters of the sensational double murder case may soon be brought back to face the music that they have avoided for so long by hiding in the United States.

A scheme exposed
Metro Manila residents may not be aware of this but of late, there has been an increase in the involvement of youth groups and gangs in criminality, like mauling, holdups, and even in killings and rapes.

Talking points on the right to reply
I wish I could end my ambivalence over the controversial right-to-reply bill but I can?t. The truth is, I often can?t stand the self-righteousness of media people and their screwed way of blurring the lines between legitimate news reporting on the one hand and agenda pushing and sensationalism for profit on the other. And I just feel that it is high time for a not-so-subtle reminder that journalism ought to get back to what it is supposed to do?inform without bias, report without personal slant, disseminate without resorting to tacky gimmickry to make news more sellable.

Edsa and stability
Antonion C. Abaya
In my article No More Edsas (Feb. 26), I commented on President Arroyo?s assertion that our political stability has insulated this country from the worldwide financial meltdown. ?She noted that the financial crisis had driven two thirds of the world into recession, while the Philippines remained relatively unscathed.