Garin blasts DepEd for opposing foreign ownership of PH schools

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Garin has called out the Department of Education (DepEd) for its criticism of proposals allowing foreign ownership of basic education institutions, asking if the agency does not believe in providing students better education.

Garin, during her interpellation at the House committee of the whole’s deliberation of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 7 on Monday, asked DepEd representatives if how many of their officials have received education from foreign schools.

When DepEd failed to give the data, Garin turned to Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Prospero de Vera III, who said that taking tertiary education overseas is being encouraged to sharpen officials’ minds.

With this, the Iloilo lawmaker asked why DepEd and other stakeholders still oppose amendments to the 1987 Constitution’s provisions on basic education ownership.  According to Garin, it would not look good if officials are allowed to go abroad for foreign education, but ordinary Filipinos are not allowed to seek such opportunities.

“Do you mean to say […] (since) many of our cabinet officials, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, our senators, our congressmen study from Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Boston College, Boston University, and all the other Ivy League schools abroad, does this mean that if you are in position, if you have the means or if you had somebody fund your schooling, you can study in foreign schools?” she asked.

“But if you are an ordinary child of a teacher, or an ordinary child of farmers, you do not have the right to a good education?” she asked.

Garin also asked DepEd if it would make Filipinos children less of a Filipino if they get exposed to other methods of teaching, particularly those from foreign companies.

“Mr. Chairman, distinguished resource persons, I do respect all of your views, we’re talking about you’re being a pure Filipino, we’re talking about patriotism, but does it make you less of a Filipino if you wish for a high-quality education?  Does it make you less of a Filipino if you aspire to be competitive?” she asked again.

Garin’s emotional interpellation came hours after DepEd, through Education Undersecretary Omar Alexander Romero, told lawmakers that amending Article XIV, Section 4 of the Constitution can affect DepEd’s mandate, because it may result in the expansion of foreign entities’ control.

READ: PH curriculum must be exclusively implemented by Filipinos, says DepEd 

Romero also noted that basic education cannot be left at the hands of foreigners because it is a critical foundational period for children.

During Garin’s interpellation, Romero clarified that they are not against foreign teachers entering the country since it is already a practice — provided that what the foreigners are teaching adheres with DepEd’s curriculum.

“The opposition of DepEd essentially boils down to the limit, the removal of the limits set in the Constitution, if these were to be enacted in subsequent legislation.  We are not particularly objecting to the entry of foreign teachers because this is already present under our current system,” Romero said.

“With the indulgence of the chair, we would like to qualify that we are not opposing foreign influence provided that it is consistent with the command of the Constitution that we teach our students patriotism and nationalism, and other similar values, Madam Chair,” he added.

Under RBH No. 7 which the House committee of the whole deliberates, the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” would be inserted in the different portions of the 1987 Constitution which will allow Congress to determine the rate of foreign ownership.

For basic education, Section 4 of Article XIV (Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture, and Sports) will feature the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law in the provision that bars foreign ownership of basic educational institutions except in a case where 60 percent of the total capital belongs to Filipino citizens.

READ: House leaders file RBH 7, mirrors Senate version of economic amendments

With this simple phrase ceding control of foreign ownership rates to Congress, several personalities and groups have raised concerns that such a move centralizes too much power in the legislature.

Retired chief justice Reynato Puno has urged the House to refrain from using the phrase in amending the 1987 Constitution’s economic provisions, saying that the items in question should be repealed instead.