Your feature story on "Batibot" (MT, Feb, 14) celebrates the project under which Mrs. Gemma Nemenzo Almendral organizes seminars for "Batibot" viewers in three poor communities. On the average, 50 people attend.

Even if we consider only the P45,000 grant Mrs. Almendral is so proud of, she must spend P900 to get just one person to respond. Now, "Batibot" claims it reaches 230,000 households. Is "Batibot" ready to spend an additional P900 per household for Mrs. Almendral’s follow-up activities?

That’s P207 million right there!

This kind of screwball economics permeates the "Batibot" boondoogle.

Production costs ALONE come up to a whooping P6 BILLION a year. Disregarding the costs of TV time, that’s P26,083.96 PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR!

With this amount, Education Minister Jaime Laya could hire 230,000 MASTER’S DEGREE holders as FULL-TIME tutors, ONE FOR EACH HOUSEHOLD! Surely, a child will learn far more from such a daily personal tutoring than from watching "Batibot."

If the producers are so concerned about the viewers’ well-being, they should ask them, "Would you rather have P26,000 a year or watch ‘Batibot’?" and abide by the results of their survey.

Karla V. Castillo