THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES (please help us enlighten the public on the unconstitutionality of the K to 12 Law)
Indeed “Never Again” as the PDI editorial says. But should we not add, “The Struggle Continues”? Life under the Marcoses was not better but neither was life before his Martial Law. That is why some gave Marcos the benefit of the doubt that he will indeed reform that old corrupt society which was ruled by elitist politics and which did not truly serve the genuine interests of the people. Most sadly, it turned out that Marcos simply wanted to establish dictatorial rule in order to perpetuate himself in power. The hated Marcos dictatorship was toppled by the Filipino people at EDSA. Equally sad however is that it did not turn out to be the revolution that it was described to be but a mere restoration of the corrupt elitist politics of pre-martial law days.
We have supposedly restored democracy and its principle of separation of powers. But instead of checks and balances, we witness collusion between the executive and legislative branches of government. A case in point is the K to 12 Law. It was implemented in 2012 by Secretary Luistro when there was no enabling legislation yet for the implementation of its new curriculum and the corresponding two (2) additional years of senior high school. This was a clear usurpation of legislative power, in utter disregard of the will of the people, which has vested said power in the Congress of the Philippines only.
The law was eventually passed in 2013. It however required DepEd to formulate the enhanced basic education curriculum, in consultation with national students organizations, national teachers organizations and parents-teachers associations. DepEd however, in utter disregard of the law, which it was supposed to enforce and administer only, continued to encroach on the power of the legislature, in violation of the principle of separation of powers, by persisting to implement the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum and will implement Senior High School next year, which by its own admission, was formulated in consultation only with what it calls a pool of experts.
These actions of Secretary Luistro, which are clearly violative of the Constitution and thus are void are all over the papers. Yet, neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives, ever registered any protest, over the encroachment of their constitutional prerogatives by the executive department. I have never imagined that such tyranny of the executive and legislative departments, which evidently are in collusion with each other, in perpetrating the grave injustice which the Filipino youth are being subjected to, would still befall us, many years after this country, in the words of a Chief Justice, has experienced “the wrenching pain of dictatorship” and has supposedly returned already to democracy.
The dictatorship at least exerted efforts to function under a cloak of legitimacy, no thanks to a Supreme Court then which in the words of a Chief Justice , did not have “the moral courage to remind him steadfastly of his mortality and the inevitable historical damnation of despots and tyrants” . Respondent Luistro, perhaps certain that he can get away with it without any protest from the Legislature, in a most brazen and arrogant manifestation of abuse of power, proceeded to blatantly violate the Constitution, by implementing his K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum, without waiting for the law to be passed and persisted in implementing it in contravention of the very law he was supposed to merely enforce.
Yet, most sadly, we who are opposed to the K to 12 Basic Education Program are like voices shouting in the wilderness, which not even the PDI, my favorite newspaper gives attention to. As we should enlighten our youth of the evils of Martial Law and the Marcos dictatorship, we should likewise make them realize that the struggle continues against the unjust and exploitative social order which existed before Martial Law and which was simply restored after the dictator Marcos has been ousted from power.
Indeed “Never Again” as the PDI editorial says. But should we not add, “The Struggle Continues”? Life under the Marcoses was not better but neither was life before his Martial Law. That is why some gave Marcos the benefit of the doubt that he will indeed reform that old corrupt society which was ruled by elitist politics and which did not truly serve the genuine interests of the people. Most sadly, it turned out that Marcos simply wanted to establish dictatorial rule in order to perpetuate himself in power. The hated Marcos dictatorship was toppled by the Filipino people at EDSA. Equally sad however is that it did not turn out to be the revolution that it was described to be but a mere restoration of the corrupt elitist politics of pre-martial law days.
We have supposedly restored democracy and its principle of separation of powers. But instead of checks and balances, we witness collusion between the executive and legislative branches of government. A case in point is the K to 12 Law. It was implemented in 2012 by Secretary Luistro when there was no enabling legislation yet for the implementation of its new curriculum and the corresponding two (2) additional years of senior high school. This was a clear usurpation of legislative power, in utter disregard of the will of the people, which has vested said power in the Congress of the Philippines only.
The law was eventually passed in 2013. It however required DepEd to formulate the enhanced basic education curriculum, in consultation with national students organizations, national teachers organizations and parents-teachers associations. DepEd however, in utter disregard of the law, which it was supposed to enforce and administer only, continued to encroach on the power of the legislature, in violation of the principle of separation of powers, by persisting to implement the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum and will implement Senior High School next year, which by its own admission, was formulated in consultation only with what it calls a pool of experts.
These actions of Secretary Luistro, which are clearly violative of the Constitution and thus are void are all over the papers. Yet, neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives, ever registered any protest, over the encroachment of their constitutional prerogatives by the executive department. I have never imagined that such tyranny of the executive and legislative departments, which evidently are in collusion with each other, in perpetrating the grave injustice which the Filipino youth are being subjected to, would still befall us, many years after this country, in the words of a Chief Justice, has experienced “the wrenching pain of dictatorship” and has supposedly returned already to democracy.
The dictatorship at least exerted efforts to function under a cloak of legitimacy, no thanks to a Supreme Court then which in the words of a Chief Justice , did not have “the moral courage to remind him steadfastly of his mortality and the inevitable historical damnation of despots and tyrants” . Respondent Luistro, perhaps certain that he can get away with it without any protest from the Legislature, in a most brazen and arrogant manifestation of abuse of power, proceeded to blatantly violate the Constitution, by implementing his K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum, without waiting for the law to be passed and persisted in implementing it in contravention of the very law he was supposed to merely enforce.
Yet, most sadly, we who are opposed to the K to 12 Basic Education Program are like voices shouting in the wilderness, which not even the PDI, my favorite newspaper gives attention to. As we should enlighten our youth of the evils of Martial Law and the Marcos dictatorship, we should likewise make them realize that the struggle continues against the unjust and exploitative social order which existed before Martial Law and which was simply restored after the dictator Marcos has been ousted from power.
