by Rod Hughes
On an average this year, 15 children per day are treated in public hospitals and clinics for the effects of abuse, a recent study shows. Abuse is numbered among five reasons for seeking treatment that are required to be reported by hospitals and clinics to the Ministry of Health.
This figure, topping 6,000 so far this year, is astounding in a culture that deeply cares for its children. These cases account for 35% of the 15,000 cases of medical treatment of intrafamilial abuse. “The most chilling part of this number is that it includes babies who have yet to reach their first birthday,” said Roy Wong, who compiled the study.
The only reasons for seeking medical treatment for children more frequently are traffic accidents, hypertension, (surprisingly) workplace accidents and dengue fever. The majority of the little girls are treated for sexual abuse, the boys for blows.

by Rod Hughes
Some 211 school bus routes providing free transport to public school students may be eliminated by the Ministry of Education. But the free ride is not over for the students affected, said Minister of Education Leonardo Garnier. The routes are served by public buses and the ministry would pay the fares. No date was announced for the decision about the routes.
Contracted private school buses have been the subject of criticism for lack of supervision on board and for their often delapidated state. Students have been killed in collisions and, most recently, a student thrust his head out of the bus and was decapitated before the horrified eyes of his schoolmates.
Currently, the ministry has contracted 727 routes hauling some 85,000 students, mostly in rural areas.
A study by the Ministry of Transport revealed that 61 routes coincide with public transportation but that they should be retained for night students because public buses reduce their frequency of service drastically as the evening progresses.