Educating our children is the greatest challenge to the bicameral conference committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

  Unless we are able to educate our children according to global standards, we shall lag behind our neighbors in the areas of social, cultural, scientific, political, economic and other fields of human endeavor. 

 Such a lag would have serious implications on the quality of life of the greater majority of the 114 million Filipinos in the metropolises and in the underdeveloped countryside, where the poorest 20 million of our population are subsisting below the poverty line. 

 Recent results of Philippine learners’ performance in various international large-scale assessments and National Achievement Tests showed shocking results, a by-product of the neglect and oppression of the Filipino people, since 1986. 

 In the recent results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Philippines ranked last among 79 participating countries in reading and second to last in both math and science.

 According to Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) by a Netherland-based research institute, the Philippines ranked last among 58 countries in an assessment on math and science for Grade 4 students in 2020. 

 In the National Achievement Test (NAT) for Grade 6 (SY 2020-2021) the results were: Filipino, 54 percent (nearly proficient); mathematics, 41 percent (low proficiency); English, 44 percent (low proficiency); Araling Panlipunan, 44 percent (low proficiency); Science, 44 percent (low proficiency). 

 According to political scientists at the University of the Philippines, the most devastating consequence of the illegal and ruthless practices of the bicameral conference committee of Congress is the neglect of Filipino families, which results in malnutrition in children. 

 If inferior childhood care and nutrition continue, the suffering of the Filipino families will continue, depriving children of the proper learning process. 

 Judging from the quality of our national budget, the Philippines is still a feudal state.

 Our present Congress provided huge amounts of the people’s money for the pork barrel of every senator and congressman, in addition to their monthly salary, representation and transportation allowances, additional compensation for being a member/head of a committee and other perks that they receive every month. 

 The large amount of money for a few, a practice prevalent during the feudal Hispanic period, has continued to be most disliked by the Filipino people. 

 The annexation of the Philippine islands by the United States of America following the Spanish-American war of 1898 and its pacification from 1898 to 1941 when it became a Commonwealth constitute the period when the Philippines was more of a neo-colony.  

The Philippines gained its independence, but recent bilateral agreements such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) have reinstated the status of our country as a neo-colony of the United States of America. 

 If the present uncertainty lingers and prolongs the agony of the people under the abusive practices of the bicameral conference committee, the Filipino people may eventually join the movement in certain parts of the Philippine Islands to be annexed as the 51st state of the United States of America, as envisioned by our forebears following the Treaty of Paris in 1898 that officially ended the Spanish-American War and ceded the Philippines to the United States for only $20 million. 

 The seeds of annexation were sown and are showing abundant growth springing in both the Visayas and Mindanao.