By Herman M. Lagon The jokes arrived faster than software updates. Within hours, social media had already turned the country’s latest “laptop issue” into a national comedy festival. There were memes of flying gadgets, edited movie posters and sarcastic comments asking whether the poor device needed witness protection. Pinoys can turn almost anything into comedy. …
Impulses
FOI and the public’s right to see
By Herman M. Lagon There are moments in policy-making when something long delayed finally feels within reach. The Senate’s 22-0 vote recently approving the proposed People’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Act on third and final reading is one of those. It is not loud or dramatic. No grand celebrations, no overwhelming noise online. But for …
The cost of weak learning foundations
By Herman M. Lagon Many teachers know this moment well. A senior high student stares at a distance-time word problem, not because the math is hard, but because the sentence itself will not open. The numbers are simple. The formula is on the board. Still, the student freezes, quietly hoping someone else answers, so the …
After the CHED hearing, what lingers?
By Herman M. Lagon There was something quietly uneasy about the May 5 CHED hearing on the reframing of General Education. Nothing dramatic, nothing confrontational — just a kind of feeling that stayed in the background. You could pick it up in how people spoke, a bit more measured than usual, in the slight pauses, …
CHED and the balance we might lose
By Herman M. Lagon The May 5 CHED online hearing comes with a quiet kind of unease. Not loud, not dramatic — just there, in faculty rooms and in passing thoughts. The idea of cutting or reshaping General Education may look like a simple fix, but it feels like shifting something foundational midstream. It is …
Ending what they never admitted
By Herman M. Lagon It is one thing to name a problem. It is another to remove it from a system that has quietly learned to live with it. When EDCOM II Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee spoke about ending “mass promotion,” he was not just pointing to a flaw. He was opening a …
Labor Day, and the work that does not rest
By Herman M. Lagon Labor Day in the Philippines has always carried two moods. On the surface, it looks like a pause — banners, speeches, maybe even a long weekend if one is lucky. It feels like a moment where work politely steps aside. But beneath that is something quieter, something most workers don’t really …
LUCs on unequal ground
By Herman M. Lagon There is a quiet truth in Philippine higher education that rarely finds its way into graduation speeches or glossy brochures: Where you study still shapes how far you can go. Not because of ability. Not because of effort. But because of something far less visible — who funds your school, and …
Staying grounded in the scrolling world
By Herman M. Lagon There are talks you politely sit through, and then there are those that quietly follow you home. UP Visayas Chancellor Dr. Clement Camposano’s message during the recent 93rd Charter Anniversary of the Rotary Club of Iloilo belonged to the second kind. No grandstanding, no overworked lines — just a steady question …
Intelligent stupidity in public office
By Herman M. Lagon There is a familiar feeling when you watch a public hearing long enough. At first, you listen closely. Then, somewhere along the way, you stop expecting answers. You just try to follow the flow, hoping something real comes out of it. The words sound right. The tone is steady. It all …