The temporary freeze of “No Permit No exam policy” of Universities, Colleges and Vocational Schools in the Philippines

For how many years, it has been the policy of majority of Universities and Colleges in the Philippines mostly private schools not to allow their students to take examinations if their school obligations especially the financial one that includes tuition and miscellaneous fees are not yet settled. This policy of schools were also called the “no permit no exam policy” because students will not be issued any examination permit unless all his or her obligations are already settled. With tuition and other school fees increases every year, more and more students in the Philippines mostly at the college level are forced to stop because they cannot take the examinations due to this unfair school policy. As a result, less number of college graduates is produced in the Philippines every year.

Finally, the government has done something right to somehow alleviate this problem in the education system in the country. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has issued a memorandum to all universities, colleges and vocational schools in the Philippines to allow students to take their examinations in spite their unpaid dues and unsettled school obligations. CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) 02 series of 2010 was issued last January 22, 2010. This memorandum is at the right time since majority of schools are having their midterm examinations at the moment. But the schools have the right to withhold the clearance of students until all their balance is paid.

This memorandum is in response to the House Bill 6799 or the “Anti No-Permit No-Exam Policy” passed by Kabataan Partylist Rep. Palatino. CHED, upon attending hearing with regards to the bill has made its action in issuance of a memo instead of passing a bill that takes a long process. But there are no sanctions to schools that will not comply on the said memorandum. However, Rep. Palatino is urging students to report to CHED office if their schools are not abiding on the said memorandum.

Synthesis:

For me, the HB6799 must be passed and made as a law to fully abolish the No Permit No Exam policy of schools in the Philippines especially the private schools. There are already a lot of schools in the Philippines and some schools are into commercialization with this policy. What is important to them is to gain large profits on school fees while the quality of education they provide is still very low. The government specially the Education department must be vigilant to these schools and be strict with the curriculum that the school offers. Students must not be deprived from their right for a quality education because of their financial incapability. If the school is really sincere with their vision and mission to offer quality education, for sure they will abide with this law. I understand the public schools needed fees from students as the source of salary for their teachers, for facilities etc. but they should make a new policy that would be equal for both the students and the school. For example, students are allowed to pay half upon enrollment and allowed to take the exams. But their clearance will not be signed unless all their debts are paid. There are a lot of alternatives with this No-Permit No-Exam policy if these schools are really sincere in providing quality education and not only for commercialization.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/localnews

The Possibility of Cheating in May 2010 Elections

This coming May 2010 elections is said to be a historical event in Philippine elections because this is the first time that the whole election process will be done in an automated way. Automated in a sense that machine will be used both from reading and counting the votes. The Comelec and the legislative body of our government had created the law to fully automate this coming May 2010 elections and allocated a budget of 11.6 billion pesos for the 82,000 “Precinct Count Optical Scanner” (PCOS) machines that will be used to count the ballots. The COMELEC is really eager to push thru this automated election to solve the aged old problems of the current election system in the Philippines and also to embrace and utilize the full benefits of what modern technology could give to people.

According to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), with poll automation, they can proclaim the winners in a span of 36 hours unlike the manual counting where it takes weeks or even months to proclaim winners. Also, automated election could eliminate any forms of cheating that are rampant in the manual elections like “dag-dag bawas”, vote buying and the like. The COMELEC keeps on insisting every television and newspaper interviews that automated election guarantees no cheating of any kind. But there are those who do not believe that there will be no cheating in automated elections and in fact, worse cheating might happen or we will just transfer from manual to automated cheating.

Now the big questions running for those who are concerned about the new electoral system in the Philippines, will there be no cheating in this coming May 2010 election? Is “automated cheating” really possible? What are the forms of cheating this critics identified?

Being in the field of computing as a student, with a background in system automation and programming, yes there is a possibility that automated elections can be cheated.

NO AUTOMATED SYSTEM IS PERFECT

As what we learned in systems analysis, design and development, there is no such thing as a perfect system and poll automation is of no excuse to that fact. All systems have flaws that cannot be identified during the early stages of implementation and can only be detected thru time. Since this is the first time that we are going to implement this system, most likely unexpected failures will occur during the day of elections. Hardware failure, system crash, no network connections etc. will most likely happen so COMELEC should be aware of that. Contingency plans should be made. If these constraints will be exploited by those who want to cheat, then cheating will be successful.

AUTOMATED “DAG-DAG BAWAS”

Computers will not do its functions until it is being programmed. A program is a set of instructions that a computer or a machine follows. PCOS machines will be programmed first before it is used to read and count votes. Now this piece of software might be the key for what I called the automated “dag-dag bawas”. Why? Simply because this PCOS machines would simply evaluate the input coming from the scanner, then it will check the instruction to follow given the input and the condition. Take a look at this simple program which the machine will follow in a normal operation. This program has not been cheated yet.

Read input from the scanner

Value = input from the scanner

If (value == candidate A)

CandidateA_votes +1

If (value == candidate B)

CandidateB_votes +1

Etc…

The above instruction is the normal process of counting the vote of a candidate. Now if the source code of the machines is programmed for the benefit of a particular candidate and to manipulate votes of other candidates, then it’s cheating. That’s why I called it automated “dag-dag bawas”. There are a lot of ways to do it. Below are some of the possibilities of this form of cheating.

Read input from the scanner

Value = input from the scanner

If (value == candidate A)

CandidateA_votes +1

CandidateB_votes-1

OR

If (value == candidate B)

CandidateB_votes +1

CandidateA_votes +1

Etc…

Since it is the Smartmatic –TIM who will program all the PCOS machines, the COMELEC must be very vigilant during the programming process. They must hire computer experts or programmers that can understand and read the source codes of the program made by Smartmatic-TIM to prevent this form of cheating. The programs’ source code must also be viewed publicly and it must be ensured that the right program is installed to the machines. Though this cheating could easily be detected by COMELEC, yet they must be very careful because this form of cheating is 100% possible.

BEWARE OF HACKERS

There are a lot of hackers in the internet. There are hackers that have the ability to infiltrate a system in just a minute. One of the features of this automated election is that votes from a polling precinct will be transmitted to a remote site before the votes will be transferred from this remote site to the main server through the Internet. Yet the internet is the fastest way to transfer data from far places, but it not the safest medium either. Desperate candidates could hire the best hacker available to hack the server or to intercept data to be transferred and manipulate it to their advantage. According to the COMELEC, this form of cheating is impossible to happen because it is impossible to hack a system in a span of 3 days. But with the knowledge of new generation hackers and the capabilities of modern technology, everything now is possible. Extra effort in network security is crucial in the implementation of the system. Also a good encryption algorithm must be used to maintain data reliability and secrecy. This form of cheating can be prevented trough preparation and early interception of the possible attacks from the outside.

Aside from these new identified forms of cheating, the COMELEC must also prepare the traditional cheating tactics that are present during the election like power interruption (though PCOS can have a back –up power supply (UPS)), flying voters, and harassment on voting places during the elections. For sure these problems will still be present.

For the COMELEC, preparations for these problems play a major role in the success of this new electoral system in the Philippines. They still have 4 months to prepare not only the problems of cheating but also to educate voters with regards to this new system. Voter’s education will also play a critical role whether this automated system will be accepted by the Filipino voters. How will the voters use the system if they don’t know how to use it?

Let’s hope for the best for the COMELEC for a clean, honest, fast and most importantly historical elections come 2010.

Top 3 Strongest Earthquakes ever recorded in History

3. Prince William Sound, Alaska U.S.A (March 27, 1964) – also known as the Great Alaska Earthquake or The Good Friday Earthquake as it occurs on Good Friday. The said earthquake recorded a magnitude 9.2 on a Richter scale. The quake began at 5:36 PM AST and lasted for 5 minutes. Estimated deaths of the quake were 131 including those who died in subsequent tsunamis in other parts of America. Estimated damage to properties was $300 million ($2.06 billion in current dollar). This earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in United States and in North American History.



2. 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake (December 26, 2004) – also known in the scientific community as the Sumatra – Andaman earthquake. This destructive earthquake has a magnitude 9.3 on a Richter scale with the epicenter located at the west coast of Sumatra Indonesia. The earthquake lasted for 10 minutes, but enough to cause the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1cm and even triggered other earthquakes in other parts of the world. This undersea quake created tsunami with waves of 30 meters high and affected 14 countries. The tsunami this earthquake created reached as far as South Africa and Somalia. Estimated deaths on this killer earthquake were 230,000 and recorded as one of the most destructive earthquake in the history.



1. Valdivia, Chile (May 22, 1960) – the strongest earthquake ever recorded in world history has a magnitude of 9.5 on a Richter scale and it shook Chile on May 22, 1960. Estimated deaths on that earthquake were only 2000 and some 3,000 injuries and 2 million people left homeless. Damage to properties was $550 million. The said earthquake triggered tsunami that killed people in Japan, Hawaii and the Philippines.



Please to take note that the strongest recorded earthquakes does not mean that it is also the most destructive earthquake in history.

Visit this link to have more information of these earthquakes.

http://www.wikipedia.org/earthquake