By Harvey S. Keh

IT’S June again and classes just opened last week for millions of Filipino students, more than 90.0 percent of which study at public elementary and high schools. To understand the plight of basic education in our country, one need not look further than to check the state of public schools and the performance of its students. Here are some startling facts:

* Out of 10 students who enter Grade 1, only six will be able to finish elementary and only four will eventually finish high school.
* Class sizes still remain a problem with some public schools in highly populated areas having an average class size of 80 to 90 students.
* More than 20.0 percent of our public high school students cannot understand what they are reading and worse, majority of our public schools do not have functional and adequate libraries.

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THERE comes a time in any organization when change needs to happen fast for the company to progress. A good effective leader can bring about change well.

“One man’s or woman’s idea can bring about change,” said Maria Ressa, head of news and current affairs of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, and managing director of ANC. For instance, Lee Kuan Yew, she said, took a backwater nation and turned it into the first world country we now know as Singapore.

At the Women to Women Mentoring Conference at the Philippine Trade Training Center held last April, Ressa revealed that she had to catalyze change in ABS-CBN upon joining the broadcast company in 2005. Their news programs were overtaken by those of GMA in the ratings game. And she felt the company had to emphasize its core values of transparency, accountability and consistency for it to come out on top.

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NINE point six percent. That’s the inflation rate for the month of May, as announced by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). It’s the highest since January 1999 when the inflation rate then was 10.5 percent.

Already, we have been feeling the effects of this: the prices of gas, food, and other basic items have gone up steeply. Blame it on supply problems: With lesser rice supply available, its price has increased. With the price of oil running away at more than $130 per barrel, the prices of gasoline and other oil products have likewise hiked up. And as we know from experience, when gas goes up, everything else follows.

Consumers are expected to lower their spending to cope with the high prices of basic commodities. That may mean bad news to businessmen especially those whose products are considered nonessential.
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THE BIG buzz in business circles remains the Meralco crisis. Everyone wants to know what will happen — will the Lopezes keep the power company or will Winston Garcia and the GSIS succeed in heading it? What’s with all the sweetheart deals, system losses, highway robbery charges, power struggle and squabble about proxies? Every day brings with it a new development to this boardroom battle.

Stockbroker Monique Lecaros of SB Equities Inc. says, “On a long-term standpoint, the possibility of the Lopezes losing control of Meralco really is disturbing for shareholders as it raises doubts over whether any group out there would be competent enough to run the company. The public, on the other hand, seems to welcome government’s purported move and claims of ‘protecting public interest.’”

Indeed, from the looks of it, the man on the street just wants electricity charges to be lowered given the skyrocketing prices of everything else, from rice to gasoline. That’s why, given the opportunity, Winston Garcia will be perceived a hero if he gets to fulfill his vow of bringing down electricity charges within two months of assuming the helm of Meralco.

But there’s something about the government making moves to take over private business that makes me uneasy. Winston Garcia said on TV that Manolo Lopez will give up Meralco “whether he likes it or not.” Amando Doronila calls it a “seizure of assets without guns and soldiers.” A chilling thought.

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DRIVING BY EDSA, you can’t help but be distracted by the gigantic billboards on both sides of the road. A while back, there was Heart and Jericho (when they were still together) for Penshoppe, John Lloyd Cruz for Bench, Gretchen Barretto for Plains and Prints, and now, Toni and Alex Gonzaga for Faces & Curves.

Can product endorsers really help in marketing a business? Or are there instances when they can give the opposite desired effect (turn away customers)?

“Product endorsers can have a tremendous impact on one’s business. Awell-known and respected celebrity can add instant credibility to an otherwise unknown or untried product,” says Art Ilano, a marketing professor at the College of Business of the University of the Philippines.

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