In his 2013 “State of theNation Address”, His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III highlighted theachievements of his Cabinet and other government officials. Br. Armin, thecurrent Secretary for Education, received the most praise from the President.The following is an excerpt from the President’s report to the Filipino people:

“Let us move on to education. Our goal is to raise the quality of learning thatour children undertake, so that once they finish their schooling, they can seizethe opportunities now opening up in society: accomplished. We have finallyerased the backlog we inherited in books and chairs, and if Secretary ArminLuistro continues to demonstrate true grit, even the backlog we inherited inclassrooms will also be erased this year. And there is even more good news:Now, we also have the ability to prepare for the additional needs that theimplementation of the K to 12 program will require.

“The problems that plagued Brother Armin in the DepEd are no laughing
matter. Just think: one textbook used to be priced at PhP58; since he
assumed office, the price of the exact same textbook has gone down to PhP30. What would have happened if we had been paying the proper price
from the beginning? If we had saved the difference of PhP28 for all the
books bought, at five textbooks for each of the estimated 20.7 million
students in our public school system, the equivalent would amount to almost PhP2.9 billion. These savingsalone could have funded our plans to repair and rehabilitate around 9,502 classrooms.

“If Brother Armin didn’t have strength of will, he could have just left this culture of negligence in his agency for hissuccessor to deal with. He could have also left the backlog, as well as the growing gap of needs because of therising number of enrollees each year. But instead of being content, instead of saying, “This will do. My job is done,”Brother Armin will build even more chairs and classrooms, and will buy even more books, to ensure that even theneeds in future years will also be met.” Congratulations to Br. Armin!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfNcSRV6l4U?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&enablejsapi=1&w=854&h=480]

Kuya Elmer, an alumnus of La Salle University, was a former Lasallian Volunteer and, recently, a teacher in the La Salle Academy (LSA) Night High School. He died [in the morning of 28 May 2013] at Mercy Hospital, Iligan. I met him when he joined the Lasallian Volunteer Program (LSVP) in 2002. He was assigned for two years in Mt. Agad-Agad, Langilanon, Iligan teaching nursery to the children of the farming communities. After two years he was transferred to the mountains of Canumay, San Jose, Antipolo teaching the Alternative Learning System. In his last year in LSVP in 2005, his kidneys were diagnosed both dysfunctional and needs to undergo dialysis three times a week in order to survive and prolong his life. He transferred to Iligan to be with his family. LSA invited him to teach in the Night High School. The De La Salle Brothers supported him since his condition was first diagnosed in 2005. I had an opportunity to visit him at the Mercy Hospital, Iligan during my LSA Lasallian CARES visit last March. In our conversation, he would always express how deeply grateful he was to the De La Salle Brothers for being a “real brother” to him, especially Brs. Edmundo Ferndandez, JJ Jimenez and Raffy Reyes FSC.

After all the physical suffering you had in life, Elmer, I am sure God will reward you with eternal life in heaven!

Text by Vangie de Peralta
Video by Br. Mikey Cua FSC