Editorials
Thursday, June 4, 1998

Estrada shouldn’t
kowtow to Marcoses

THE election of Joseph Estrada as president of the Philippines seems to have affected the government's policy on the Marcos regime even before Estrada is sworn into office. Estrada was a supporter of the late dictator; one of his first announcements after his election last month was a decision to move Ferdinand Marcos' remains from an air-conditioned crypt in his hometown to Manila's Heroes Cemetery, rs. Marcos and are still pending.

Former Solicitor General Frank Chavez, who prosecuted the case in question, said he was appalled by the government's recommendation and hoped the Supreme Court would stick to its ruling upholding the conviction.

Mrs. Marcos was a candidate in the presidential election but threw her support to Estrada in the closing days of the campaign, when it was clear she had no chance of winning. Her son and daughter were elected to lesser posts.

"It seems to me that they (the Marcos family) are inching their way back (to power)," Chavez said. "The only problem in this country is you are presumed guilty until you are proven influential." That is a damning comment about a government that has striven to regain respectability after the corruption and repression of the Marcos regime.

It's been 12 years since the Marcos dictatorship was overthrown, and Estrada's election may be a sign that anti-Marcos feeling has waned. But Estrada may lose credibility as a leader if he abandons the effort to hold Mrs. Marcos accountable.

Bilingual education

BY a sizable 62 percent to 38 percent, California voters have rejected the state's bilingual education program. Proposition 227 was opposed by President Clinton, the teachers' unions, the educational bureaucracy, all four of California's gubernatorial candidates and assorted ethnic interest groups and liberal activists. And the opponents haven't given up. A court challenge has been filed and there might be an attempt to nullify it in the state legislature.

However, the rejection of bilingual education through the ballot was emphatic and unmistakable. After a 22-year "experiment" with the program, the voters appeared concerned that instruction in a foreign language has been an obstacle to learning English and a source of cultural divisiveness.

The theory of bilingual education is that non-English speaking children are taught in their native language until they are proficient enough to be taught in English. Its critics contend that the children never do learn English and are left behind academically. Many Hispanic parents, perhaps a majority, voted in favor of Prop. 227, although their children were supposed to be the main beneficiaries.

The campaign for the initiative, in fact, was presented as an effort to help Hispanic immigrant children escape from a failed bilingual system, although it won support from non-Hispanic English-only advocates as well. Mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante, whose achievements with Hispanic public high school students in East Los Angeles were depicted in the film "Stand and Deliver," was honorary initiative campaign chairman.

Does bilingual education work? It isn't clear. A California watchdog group conducted a two-year study and concluded that "native-language instruction has been divisive, wasteful and unproductive." But other studies have found beneficial results.

The vote on Prop. 227 should not be interpreted as the last word on bilingual education. We aren't suggesting that Hawaii follow California's example. But the results should be taken into consideration in making decisions about bilingual programs here.

Staying in the WAC

HAVING been turned down by the eight schools defecting from the Western Athletic Conference, the University of Hawaii is casting its lot with the seven other remaining institutions. UH President Kenneth Mortimer made that decision shortly after he was informed that the defectors would not issue an invitation to the university to join them.

Mortimer also declared that UH would stop scheduling games against the eight -- including Brigham Young, Hawaii's favorite opponent in football. That only seems fair, considering how shabbily the defectors have treated the Rainbows.

The question is whether the university can come up with a schedule that will hold its fans' interest without the eight. There is also the expense of travel in a conference with five of its eight members located in Texas and Oklahoma.

Although a decision had to be made on remaining in the WAC, it may not be final. There is a possibility of additions or subtractions to the remaining WAC schools, or arrangements with another conference. But for now at least the UH has to play the hand it's been dealt. Making a go of this truncated conference won't be easy.

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John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

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Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor