URGENT CALL TO JOIN THE NOVEMBER 13,
2015 PROTEST ACTION (2PM) AT THE SUPREME COURT, TO URGE OUR HONORABLE
SUPREME COURT JUSTICES TO STOP THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL K TO
12 LAW, THUS ALLOW OUR GRADE TEN STUDENTS (AND THOSE WHO WILL FOLLOW THEM) TO
ENTER COLLEGE BEGINNING NEXT SCHOOL YEAR.
We
have supposedly ended dictatorship and restored democracy with its principle of
separation of powers as a result of the February People Power Revolution. Most
sadly, an equally reprehensible virtual dictatorship exists today. Instead of
checks and balances, we witness the collusion between the executive and
legislative departments in the implementation of the unconstitutional K to 12
Basic Education Program.
It
was put into effect 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. The law itself 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 as
well as Senior High School, 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. We 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 the dictator of his mortality and the
inevitable historical damnation of despots and tyrants. Secretary Luistro
however, 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.
But even if DepEd eventually
complies with the consultation requirement of the law, its implementation
cannot apply to the current Grade Ten Students. This is for the reason that
their right to complete only four (4) years of high school, has already
been vested, since that was the law in place when they started their high
school in 2012. Thus, to impose on them the added burden of going through two
(2) additional years of senior high school is to divest them of said right and
in effect apply the law retroactively (which
is unconstitutional). Such in fact is contrary to the very intent of the
law which adopts for the very first time not only an entirely new education
program which begins with kindergarten and ends with six (6) years of high
school, in that sequence but also a
new teaching methodology (the spiral
progression approach) where knowledge and skills are mastered after each
level. That sequence and spiral, most evidently, cannot start at the end with
senior high school but must start with those who were in kindergarten in 2013
when the law came into effect.
In
fact, the assailed Law cannot be implemented at all as it is per se unconstitutional,
for being violative of substantive due process. The objective
of the law is
to decongest the
basic education curriculum and at
the same time lengthen the basic education cycle for the purpose of giving
students more time to master the desired learning competencies. Studies, like
that of the Senate Economic Planning
Office, however show that lengthening the learning time did not necessarily
lead to better performance. In fact, some countries with short cycles have high
scores in science and mathematics while other countries that have long
education cycles have low scores. The K to 12 Law thus fails to consider other
factors, like poverty, lack of teachers, classrooms and books. Given adequate
instruction, armed with sufficient books and a conducive learning environment,
the Filipino student does not need at all two (2) additional years of senior
high school. Hence, it is not reasonably necessary to add two (2) years of
senior high school to accomplish the objective of improving student performance
and thus is violative of the right of the Filipino student to substantive due
process.
There
is another alternative and a less
intrusive way of accomplishing the objective of improving student performance. Rather than funding private schools which
will offer Grade 11 (the ones who are
actually behind the drafting of the bill and lobbying for its passage, to
advance their self-serving private interests and which is an admission that
government is incapable of fulfilling its constitutional mandate of providing
free public secondary education), said funds should be poured to better
learning materials, better teachers (by increasing their salaries) and more
classrooms and thus a more conducive learning environment for the Filipino
student. After all, even with government funding, majority of the Filipino
students will just the same not be able to afford private education and thus the
mandate on the State to make education, particularly free public secondary
education accessible to all will not really be accomplished. This is another
reason why the law is unconstitutional as it violates the very purpose it seeks
to achieve.
In the face of this grave injustice, the Honorable Supreme
Court is their only hope, “as the last
bulwark of democracy being the administrator of justice and the legitimate
recourse of their grievances. They
have no one
to turn to
and seek aid from but from the
Honorable Supreme Court. They thus implore and beseech the Honorable Supreme Court
to come to their aid, pursuant to its solemn and sacred obligation under the
Constitution. They implore and beseech the Honorable Supreme Court to forthwith
and without further delay, immediately issue the Temporary Restraining Order
they are praying for, so that the implementation of the K to 12 law be stopped,
thus allowing the current Grade Ten students to take College Entrance Tests and
eventually enter College next school year.
CONCERNED PARENTS OF MANILA SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL
MANILA SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL FACULTY & EMPLOYEES CLUB
