Heavy Schoolbag Woes

Parents’ heavy schoolbag woes could have been addressed by Lapid’s Senate Bill 2179. How could then DepEd Sec LaSalle Brother Armin Luistro looked down on it as trivial!

Lapid introduced a bill in 2010 about school bags similar to a bill filed by Pampanga 1st district Rep. Carmelo Lazatin. Lazatin’s House Bill 6644 and Lapid’s Senate Bill 2179 sought to limit the load of school bags to 15 percent of the student’s weight.

BUT
Philippine Inquirer editorial in Oct. 2011 partly stated: “The measures Lapid has filed can sometimes verge on the bizarre. Among the most unusual he has sponsored are: a bill that seeks to give left-handed Filipinos the same opportunities as right-handed Filipinos; another sets a limit on the weight of the school bags borne by Filipino schoolchildren ….”

Education Secretary Armin Luistro (PDI report in 2010): “Luistro told reporters earlier that he found Lapid’s Senate Bill No. 2179 too trivial to require enactment into law. Luistro said the problem of overloading schoolbags could easily be addressed by the school principal and the parents themselves. ‘If we pass too many laws, nobody will believe in our laws anymore. I think a simple news item on this topic is enough,’ Luistro said with a mocking laughter.”

addendum: Lapid also filed a Senate bill that would provide desks designed for the left-handed… of course, this was also ridiculed. Sad.

Realization: I should have voted for Lapid in the last election. Hayz. Good, he won.

#ANNmusings
#societyMatters