The people’s voice for education

by Butch Hernandez
(from Philippine Daily Inquirer)

The Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc. sees itself as a catalyst for harnessing the people’s participation in policymaking. However, Ernesto “Jun” Almoceras Jr., the director of PLCPD’s Center for Advocacy and Policy Development, says that the lofty description notwithstanding, the committee does most of its work at the ground level. In that way, we can hear what our various constituencies have to say a whole lot better, Jun said. After all, the PLCPD is mandated to pursue and promote truly people-centered public policies, he said.

I got to meet Jun and Angelica Ramirez of the PLCPD when they invited the Eggie Apostol Foundation to join them in their Issue Orientation and Advocacy Skills Workshop on Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education. The workshop was held a few days ago at the Kimberly Hotel in Amadeo, Cavite, just a few kilometers away from windy Tagaytay City.

The PLCPD’s main speaker was staunch MTBMLE advocate Rep. Magtanggol “Magi” Gunigundo, who discussed the salient points of the Multilingual Education Bill (now known as House Bill 162, refiled from HB 3719) as well as his MLE implementation experience with his constituency in Valenzuela City.

The Department of Education’s Rose Villaneza discussed ongoing policy preparations for both K to 12 and MTBMLE beginning this school year, while Dr. Catherine Young of SIL International gave a detailed presentation on her institution’s South Central Mindanao case study on MTBMLE implementation.

Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, the Eggie Apostol Foundation’s adviser on MLE, gave the participants a clear idea on how MTBMLE significantly improves not just learning outcomes but more so the child’s ability to learn.

The PLCPD initially wanted us to talk about suggested programs and projects to implement MTBMLE, but I suggested that perhaps member-legislators might find our community-level advocacy experience interesting, because I really wanted the opportunity to talk to them about the concept of constituent engagement. I’ll discuss our very animated exchange of ideas in detail later. For now, suffice it to say that I believe I successfully recruited an entire platoon of education revolutionaries.

The PLCPD members (and their staff) who showed up for the three-day workshop came from constituencies in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, as well as nationally represented party-list groups. They were Catalina Leonen-Pizarro (ABS party-list), Tupay Loong (first district of Sulu), Antonio Kho (second district of Masbate), Maximo Dalog (lone district of Mountain Province), Leopoldo Bataoil (second district of Pangasinan), Antonio del Rosario (first district of Capiz), Antonio Tinio (ACT Teachers party-list), Eufranio Eriguel (second district of La Union), Manuel Agyao (lone district of Kalinga), Bolet Banal (third district of Quezon City) and Teddy Baguilat (lone district of Ifugao).

Baguilat, who also delivered the event’s keynote address, was particularly impressive. Together with the other members of the House of Representatives who joined the PLCPD workshop, Baguilat represents the new breed of legislators who actively seek out their constituents’ sentiments. For him, an education-focused advocacy is basic.

“Ever since I started in politics, clichéd as it may sound, [I have believed that] education is the key to development” said Baguilat, who chairs the House committee on national cultural communities and whose duties require him to continuously interact with indigenous peoples (IP) all over the country. “My constituents—the IP communities—tell me, Over and above your efforts to promote and safeguard our rights, education is important to us. They feel that even if they get all these ancestral titles, their struggle for indigenous peoples’ rights will be strengthened with quality education. These are their words,” he said.

This makes MTBMLE implementation especially attractive for the IP communities. Current education figures will show that IP communities are turning in lower literacy levels, according to Baguilat. However, the problem is that many of our national programs are understandably geared toward the mainstream, which tend to disenfranchise the IPs, he said.

“Take, for example, the standard for allocation of school buildings and teaching items. The [rule is] 1:45 (teacher-student ratio), but in IP areas like the Cordillera, you very rarely see schools with more than 25 schoolchildren. Usually it’s less, so in terms of national standards, they would not qualify [for the allocation],” Baguilat said.

Baguilat and the PLCPD are pushing for a paradigm shift in the way DepEd officials view and assess the needs of the Cordillera and Ifugao in particular and IPs in general. Baguilat strongly hopes that DepEd will soon realize that the policy on IP education must have an understanding of the IPs’ unique cultural features.

The campaign is understandably difficult. The teachers’ mindset that “we are here to educate you” when they get assigned to IP areas is still evident, despite Education Secretary Armin Luistro’s repeated discourses on IP education, where, he emphasizes, learning comes both ways. As Baguilat said, we are there not just to teach but to learn indigenous concepts from them, so we can incorporate these lessons in the curriculum.

At least the DepEd leadership at the Central Office has shown openness. Baguilat, Jun Almoceras and the rest of the PLCPD’s member-legislators find that particularly reassuring.