On June 30, outgoing officials will be relinquishing their posts while the newly elected ones will be assuming office. Because of this we decided to start a series where we pretend that we are, errm, professors giving grades to students, i.e., our officials.
We hope to make this a regular feature of this blog and we invite you to join us by also giving out your grades. The grades will be based on the actions of our officials as reported in the media (or as sent to us by reliable tipsters). We will be using the grading scale which you will find at the bottom of this post. The default grade will be “B” and it will go up or down depending on the reported actions of the official being graded.
Here’s our initial grading effort, listed from the person who obtained the lowest grade to the top scorer.
Mt. Province Congressman Victor Dominguez: D
His withdrawal of “scholarship” support to students from towns and barangays where he lost is the act of a vengeful vengeful man. Next time, he might direct hospital personnel to ask a patient whether s/he voted for Vindictive Dominguez before they will treat him/her. More here.
Baguio Congressman Mauricio Domogan: C-
He lands in the news but for the wrong reason. Really Morris, when will you stop being such a GMA cheerleader?
Outgoing Kalinga Rep. Lawrence Wacnang: C
What was he thinking when he agreed to have his son in law James Bejarin run for Congress while he, at the same time, ran for the gubernatorial post? Thank God Kalinga voters are more discerning than their neighbors to the south (Yes we meant you Mt. Province voters!). Otherwise, if the iKalingas voted for the Wacnang-Bejarin tandem, we will have a family dynasty in Kalinga.
Apayao Governor Elias K. Bulut: B-
We don’t like the fact that he runs a political dynasty in Apayao but people are voting for him and his family so who are we to complain.
Apayao Congressman Elias Bulut Jt.: B-
See above.
Baguio Mayor Peter Rey Bautista: B
All is quiet in his front for the moment.
Mt. Province Governor Maximo Dalog: B
All is quiet in his front too.
Benguet Congressman Samuel Dangwa: B
All is quiet in his front din 🙂
Incoming Abra Governor Takit Bersamin: B
Good luck and may Abra shed its image as the killing fields of the north during your term.
Ifugao Congressman Solomon Chungalao: B
Not much has been heard of him after the elections. We hope he retains his chairmanship of the indigenous peoples committee in Congress.
Incoming Benguet Governor Nestor Fongwan: A
We kind of like his advocacy in behalf of vegetable farmers. More of that please.
Incoming Kalinga Governor Floydelia Diasen: A
We especially like the fact that she posted a “Thank you” note at Kalinga Tambayan. Ganyan dapat ang official, they should adopt new technology.
Incoming Ifugao Governor Teddy Baguilat: A+
Because of his willingness to invite civil society groups or non-government organizations to be a partner in his administration. See here.
Additional grades:
Abra COMELEC: F
Ano ba iyan? When will you determine and proclaim the winner of Abra’s congressional race?
Note: Here’s the percentage equivalent for the above grades.
A+= 90–100
A = 85–89
A−= 80–84
B+= 76–79
B = 72–75
B−= 68–71
C+= 64–67
C = 60–63
C−= 55–59
D = 50–54
F = 0–49
IMAGE CREDIT: school.discovery.com
I give Mayor Braulio Yaranon an F- for being one of the most incompetent Baguio Mayors in my lifetime. He is not corrupt but he was just not cut out for the job. Thank heavens he was impeached. He should have run for parking lot superintendent instead….
And the Baguio City council an F+ for running the city like a bunch of ultra-conservative religious zealots.
B- for Congressman Dangwa=he is always quiet at the back, niether infront nor by the side 😆
Can you imagine if bad politicians capitalize on your good ratings of them? They will quote your blog and perpetuate a myth that they are good? Scary thought!
i have to drink in order to make a brave comments hehehe…No comment sa Kalinga outgoing Congressman and governor but a lot of comments to head of offices in Kalinga..
Hi Nashman,
Thanks. Next time you go home to Baguio, they might be already doing the angelus kasi napropose yata ito sa SP. I’m not sure if it passed though.
Hi Lovelyn,
Thanks. As Nashman once mentioned, member yata siya sa committee on silence. Pero silence could also be a good thing especially if compared to the crazy talkativeness of Miriam Santiago 🙂
Hi Anonymous,
Hehe, didn’t realize na mataas pala grades na naibigay ko. Maybe next time we start with C as the default grade and we’ll continue to refine the grading system.
Hopefully we will not be giving good grades to politicians who do bad things coz that would be enabling their badness. Thanks for the reminder 🙂
Hi Nats,
Napatawa ako dun ah. Don’t worry we will drink next time. Meron nga akong nabasa about heads of offices sa inyong forum. Thanks.
Apayao leaders grade is What?
Of course, kahit sa school eh may mga naka-ka “1.0” dahil hindi alam ng mga tister kung ano ang ginagawa nila. Walang takot sa Diyos kahit paulitulit ang gawang hindi nararapat dahil laging nakakalusot.
Hi Anonymous,
Hehe, mataas yata talaga ang default grade na “B” for those who have neither good nor bad reports about them. Next time we will make “C” as the default grade. And, as you pointed out, sometimes the teacher does not know hehe. Kaya if you have some info, you might want to email it to us 🙂 Thanks.
Jaz like Lovelyn, I give Congressman Dangwa a B-. Yeah he is silent, silent to the point that other congressmen took away his allotment which he is suppose to use for the constituents of Benguet.
If you could only come to his supposedly birthplace, you would have a very warm bath with free powder from the road and a very nice massage due to the wonderful roads with so manay humps (of stone). I may have exaggerated quite much but it is true. He’d been in congress for so long but he has not done so much for his kakailiyans.
But I salute our kankanaey (A)neighbors who still supported him solidly and give a C to those fellow Ibalois who suppurted him despite his performance;-).
But Mrs. Dangwa is another issue, I salute her for many things aside from being once my teacher in college;-). Kudos ma’am!
All for now. Dami ko na nasabi eh. Baka malintikan pa ako d2..lolz
FBI
Hi FBI,
Interesting info on that allotment taken by other Congressmen. Nakakatuwa naman description mo sa kalsada, pero tama ka, maraming kalsada sa atin na ganyan. Thanks 🙂
Yes, according to the person who told me this. It’s the congressman from up north Benguet daw. Kaya meron siyang scholarship funds na supeerr dami;-). This info is trulili kaso I can’t find that person who told me about this.
FBI
Failure for dominguez what a childish way to pull the pin on the scholarrs cmon you’ve been up there for toooooo long uyou should be grateful this people voted for you for as long as they didn’t want to or are u short of budget for your wife’s BOTOX as this is only exclusive for top celebrities have a good look at yourselves, instead of spending the people’s money on yourselves do something about the dusty or muddy road to bontoc ……
You’ll need a master’s degree thesis or doctoral degree dissertation to come up with a proper grade for Cordillera politicians. :-] Baka ala Trillanes thesis ang magiging resulta.
QUESTIONS to be answered by a thesis/dissertation paper.
Assuming an election is clean and people have spoken, will it really matter if gerrymandering has been committed and power has been consolidated prior to that anyway?
Let’s take the Apayao example.
According to online resources,
*Elder Bulut is considered the father of Apayao because he authored the bill that separated Apayao from Kalinga in 1995. *
*When the elder Bulut reached his 3rd and last term as Congressman in 2002, he ran as governor and placed Elias Jr. as Congressman.
Assuming an election is clean and people have spoken, won’t one raise eyebrows when a politician appears to be in a loftier economic position than peers who come from the same humble beginning?
Let’s take the Apayao example.
According to online sources,
*Elder Bulut’s beginnings was in education, teacher…
-*Elder Bulut is sickly and has many wives. ..In fact, Bulut justified that in the Isneg tribal practice, polygamy is allowed.
? Let’s assume that polygamy is accepted practice, many will choose not to have many wives dahil sa hirap ng buhay. One needs a lot of money to support many wives and children. A polygamous system expects a man to support all wives and children.
*Elias Bulut Jr.’s recorded career shows that he is a career politician since graduation from Baguio Colleges Foundation sans ownership of two businesses-cable, construction. As one of the richest congressman of Cordilleras, the meteoric rise to such level of riches is a secret that many struggling honest businessmen would like to learn.
-Aside from politicians, a budget officer and an auditor are listed as relatives of the Bulut politicians. Did I miss something here?
Online resources also list millions of dollars pouring into Apayao for all sorts of projects.
Can anyone conveniently look at all funded projects in such a remote place called Apayao?
Hi FBI,
Tama nga ang hinala ko about who the other Congressman is hehe. Thanks.
Hi Anonymous (2:34),
Yup, he’s being childish. However, let’s not talk about botox because that is a personal thing and we’d like to focus on our official’s misconduct in office and not their personal looks/lives. Thanks 🙂
Hi Anonymous (5:21),
Tama ka. That’s why this grading system is more based on our personal impressions rather than on rigorous academic research. We do try to be fair but we are not entirely free of bias.
We hope though that this exercise would give some ideas to those in graduate school to come up with, as you mentioned, a proper grading system for our politicians. I think there’s practically no literature about this matter so there’s really a need for it.
Yup, the Buluts apear to have built a dynasty in Apayao. We, of course, believe that the prevalence of family dynasties in Philippine politics is a major reason why our country is in a mess, so we are hoping that someday the Bulut dynasty will be dismantled by the Apayao voters. It’s not healthy for a province to be ruled by one family.
Finally, yes we will take into account the information you shared (and which we will be googling to verify) in the next grading period. Thanks.
that’s funny…come to apayao. the provincial government is too proud of all the “falls” but can’t make a good water system for the people ha ha ha ha…who are they kidding..nice blog