MANILA, Philippines — Grantees from the Rizal College Scholarship Program, past and present, are preparing for a major reunion in April this year.

The reunion is going to be the first for some 7,500 Rizaleños who have been helped by the scholarship program since 1996. The scholarship program was established by former Governor Casimiro Ynares Jr. and has expanded through the years.

The scholars’ reunion promises to be an exciting meeting between the early beneficiaries of the program and the later generations of Rizal province scholars. Organizers are planning a concert to honor scholars who have lived out the cause and tradition behind the scholarship program.

The scholarship was established as a way of helping young Rizaleños with potentials but who need financial help in order to go through higher education. The scholars, in turn, are encouraged to make it good in their subsequent professions and to later on give back to the community.

Many of them have been faithful to the Rizal scholars’ tradition of “giving back.”

Among the first batch of scholarship recipients, for example, is a teacher at the University of Rizal System (URS) who chose the education profession as a way of “giving back.”

Reunion organizers also told me that they are planning to put up a job fair for scholars who have yet to find employment or an enterprise that suits their talents and inclination.

Organizers are also updating their data bank of present and past scholars. This is why it is important for scholars to attend the affair or get in touch with the scholarship secretariat. Organizers said they are putting up a center within the job fair where scholars can verify or update the entries in the data bank concerning them.

Through this column, I am conveying the invitation of the reunion organizers to all our scholars to attend the affair and to touch base with the scholarship secretariat soonest.

May I also request our readers who may have a family member or friend who are part of the 7,500 or so scholars of Rizal province to inform them about the forthcoming grand reunion.

We will keep our scholars informed through this column and through Social Media channels.

Manila Bulletin Anniversary

Last Thursday, February 2, the Manila Bulletin marked its 112th anniversary.

My fellow Rizaleños and I join the rest of the nation in extending our warmest greetings to the Bulletin, its publishers, editorial and reportorial staff on this important occasion.

I am also honored to be part of the publication by way of our Sunday column.

Judging by the feedback I have received so far from our two-year-old stint in the opinion section, the Bulletin remains one of the best-read publications in the country. Its online version also has fantastic following. This must be the reason why I get a lot of e-mailed responses from friends and readers we are yet to meet in person.

Many of them tell me that they love the Bulletin’s editorial policy of balancing media’s apparent preference for controversy with good news. I understand the sentiment. When one is in a far-away land and longing for home, one would want to know that all is well. Bulletin brings them the pieces of good news that allow them to feel exactly that.

Bringing the good news is, indeed, a great service to many Filipinos.

Here’s a toast to Manila Bulletin.

Of course, we are toasting with a mug of coffee, not champagne.

Killer Trucks: Update

The Rizal provincial government continues to meet with the organization of businesses and industries which own or at least deal with the big cargo trucks that ply the national highways which cut through the province.

This is part of the province’s unrelenting follow up on these industries in the aftermath of accidents involving trucks that service their members.

During the meeting with the group the other week, they expressed their commitments to make sure that the trucks they use are roadworthy, that their drivers are fit to hold their steering wheels, and that their drivers receive constant warning and training to make sure they  stick to the rules and practices of safe driving.

We will make sure they live up to their commitments.

Meanwhile, we have asked the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to look into suggestions that a pedestrian walkway be built across Manila East Road near the place where the accident happened. The view is an elevated walkway would make it safer for people crossing the area.

We believe the suggestion is sound. But since the area is part of the national highway, we have to let the DPWH make the decision and oversee the putting up of the walkway if that is possible at all.

Where would the fund for the walkway come from?

Here’s one possibility. The organization which owns the trucks have a corporate social responsibility program which aims to help communities. There may be no better expression of social responsibility than that walkway. We will bring up this idea as soon as the DPWH confirms that the walkway is feasible.

Feedback: provinceofrizal@yahooc.om