Balete Community College's Humble Beginnings
Balete Community College earns the title as the first and foremost tertiary institution in rural Balete. It stands as one of the only four community colleges in the Province of Aklan. Its becoming is a story worth telling.
Its Humble Beginning
While it is not mandated of a 4th class
municipality like Balete, Aklan to operate and afford tertiary education for
its people, the circumstances it finds itself in are indicative that it carries
the load towards its desired end despite its poverty and capacity gaps. These
circumstances were offshoots of an extension program introduced in 1998 by then
Roxas Memorial College of Arts and Trade (RMCAT) that paved the way for the
birth of the community college in 2004.
Late in 1998, officials of RMCAT in their attempt of
preserving the college’s independence from the impending integration with Aklan
State College of Agriculture parleyed with Mayor Teodoro V. Calizo, Jr. to
allow it to utilize makeshift huts (remnants of an agricultural fair during the
Civic Fiesta) located in a property owned by the local government as its classrooms
for its extension program offerings by SY 1999-2000. With the promulgation of Republic Act 9055 in
April of 2001, RMCAT was eventually absorbed by the newly converted Aklan State
University (ASU) (formerly Aklan State College of Agriculture) thus making its
extension program under the auspices of the latter. For reasons unknown to the
local government unit of Balete, ASU despite the increasing number of enrollees
in the extension program and its vast and richer resources sent feelers that it
is turning over to the LGU the operations of the program otherwise it will just
close it by SY 2004-2005. Hostage to take the bull by its horns and bite the
bullet, the LGU released ASU from its obligations by assuming full control of
the program with this Sanggunian enacting the Balete Community College Charter
in November of 2003, hence its humble beginnings.
Our Centerpiece Programs and Feathers in Our Cap
The time when the LGU assumed full control of the
community college, it was already committed to prioritizing education as one of
its centerpiece programs down from Daycare up to high school level that aside
from the mandatory Special Education Fund (SEF), it funded other development
projects to advance basic education in the municipality. It secured a sizeable
grant/loan (14.4 Million Pesos) from the World Bank through the LOGOFIND
project to modernize three ill-equipped National High Schools in Balete thus
affording them with several classrooms, laboratories complete with devices and
equipment, other state-of-art information communication technology equipment,
books and other school facilities. Such loan is still being paid for by the LGU
up to this time.
Through its pioneering utilization of its joint
Executive-Legislative Agenda in 2004 and later of its Comprehensive Development
Plan, it managed to make much of the little fund that it had for which it
prosecuted various sustainable programs and projects to approximate its
vision-mission statement. Its consistency and sustained programs coupled by
adhering to the principles of good governance, transparency and accountability
has won for itself the distinction of being primus
inter pares in the field of local governance for 4th to 6th
class municipalities throughout the entire country when it was conferred with
the Seal of Good Housekeeping Award in 2010 along with nine (9) other
municipalities by no less than the late Secretary Jesse Robredo of DILG. Such
feat was doubled in 2011 prior to the demise of the secretary. In 2012, it was
conferred again with the same seal, this time categorized as Silver Grade.
Gaps
It is sad to say however that time and again, the
LGU’s hands are tied to limit only to a certain percentage (2% at the most) in
its meager budget appropriations for BCC as pertinent laws set the utilization
of SEF only to elementary and secondary education while under the Local Poverty
Reduction Action Plan/Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB and now known as Grassroots
Participatory Budgeting Program) program, projects for the development of the
college is prohibited. The LGU was earlier inhibited at allocating certain
portion of the grant/loan from the LOGOFIND subprojects for BCC’s development
as World Bank was stringent at sticking to the original proposal for which the
LGU was screened through the eye of a needle prior to its approval.
The LGU has also to comply with the Personal
Services limitation (55% ceiling cap) prescribed by the Local Government Code.
As if adding insult to the injury, Local Budget Memorandum No. 67 released by
the Department of Budget and Management last June 28, 2013 mandated LGU’s that
by 2014, annual budget shall include among others counterpart funds for
projects considered in the budgets of implementing national government agencies
under the BUB while directing the reversion of losing local economic
enterprises departments back under the general fund appropriations.
The local officials are not blind to
the fact that even in this era of ‘Daang
Matuwid’ and before Yolanda wrought havoc in the area, most of the
educational institutions run by the government at all levels fall short of the
standards where teachers in far-off Guanko, in the mountainous Sitio of
Benitinan and Sitio Centro of Barangay Oquendo or even in the nearby Morales
Elementary School, to mention but a few, are forced to conduct classes inside
dilapidated classrooms or even makeshift ones constructed voluntarily by
parents and barangay officials as in the case of Cortes Integrated School;
where for lack of elementary and secondary teachers employed by the Department
of Education, the local government hires additional teachers on contractual
basis (at a rate of three thousand pesos per month) to augment the teaching
staff in all the four (4) national high schools and one (1) integrated school;
where for lack of reading materials, it has used its connections with private
individuals for them to donate modest books to some of the elementary schools.
The Threat of CHED
A couple of team of Higher Education Development
Specialists of the Commission on Higher Education from Central Office, Manila and from its
Regional Office based in Iloilo City were strongly recommending the immediate
phase out of three (3) out of the four (4) degree programs being offered by the
Balete Community College, Balete, Aklan. In their respective reports dated
December 12, 2012 and July 4, 2013 respectively, each team noted/reiterated
that ‘(w)ith
all the major noted deficiencies, the Bachelor of Science in Hotel and
Restaurant Management (BSHRM), Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEED) and
Bachelor of Science in Industrial Education (BSIE) programs of the Balete
Community College, Balete, Aklan are recommended to comply with the noted
deficiencies on or before the end of the Second Semester, Academic Year
2012-2013, otherwise, an IMMEDIATE CLOSURE ORDER shall be issued effective
First Semester, Academic Year 2013-2014.’ Both reports were endorsed to
the Presidential Action Center, Malacañang, Manila, a copy of the latest of
which was furnished the Local Government Unit of Balete, Aklan on July 29,
2013.
Balete’s Proactive Response
The concerned local officials interposed no
objection to the recommendation made by the CHED monitoring teams as they
understand that being Higher Education Development Specialists they are trained
and stipulated by the book to fit in pitiable tertiary institutions into the
molds of policies, standards and guidelines set by the Commission. They
understand fully well that BCC is no Ivy Leaguer and that with its cheap
tuition fees and subsidized income, no erudite doctors or master degree holders
in their right mind would seek employment thereto and rub elbows with the lowly
and the naïve, let alone lend their names for it to meet the minimum
requirement set by the commission. All
of the members of the Sangguniang Bayan as well as the Municipal Mayor are
however wondering why Balete Community College is being singled out when its
only bias is to provide its poor constituents their rightful piece of pie to
higher education in an affordable and contextual manner that they may not end
up being tuba gatherers. Thus, in a couple of resolutions, they
expressed their sentiments and their course of actions taken being responsible
officials. The same resolutions were furnished the Office of the President, the
CHED officials, the Committee on Higher Education at both the upper and lower
houses, and the Congressional District Office of the Lone District of Aklan for
the information and consideration of the concerned offices.
Given the opportunity, before the start of the 2nd
Semester of SY 2013-2014, good natured, qualified and well-intentioned
educators accepted key positions to satisfy the wishes of CHED. With the help
of the community, local officials, faculty and students, the gaps noted by the
commission were slowly being filled up.
A Spring of Hope
Presently, CHED has amended its reactive ways and
the BCC remains operative under the stewardship of a doctor of education as its
College Dean (Dr. Arturo I. Zonio, who is working almost on a voluntary basis as the College cannot
afford paying him even a modest amount for his kind), a program head and some
22 other contractual instructors. It has produced thirty-three graduates for
the SY 2013-2014 for its four program offerings, namely BSIE, BSIT, BSHRM and
BEED. Its tuition fee per semester is pegged at most at Php. 4,350 for BEED and
BSHRM and at least at Php. 1,350 and Php. 3,150 respectively while for BSIT and
BSIE the average tuition is at Php. 3,120 per semester. The college has a working budget of Php.
1,170,114.40 as against an annual expenditure of Php. 1,194,083.25 and an
income of Php. 1,319,466 for the FY 2013.
It remains bullish at providing affordable yet
quality education to barriofolks who otherwise cannot afford tertiary education
given the exigencies of life they have to contend with. The presence of BCC is
a blessing, a spring of hope to nourish the dream of the poor and
marginalized.
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