MANILA, Philippines — Citing the House of Representatives’ readiness to pass the K-to-12 bill during the present Congress, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. is asking the House committee on Basic Education and Culture to pass the final version of the measure.
Belmonte, one of the principal authors of the K-to-12 bill, said he is counting on the House panel to approve the bill and endorse it for plenary discussions.
“I will urge the House committee on basic education and culture to approve it so that it will be endorsed for plenary discussions,” he said in an interview.
The committee is drafting the final version, while a committee report has been prepared by the Senate. There are three pending K-to-12 measures in the House, authored separately by Belmonte, Alliance of Volunteer Educators (AVE) party-list Rep. Eulogio Magsaysay and the late Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero III.
Belmonte vowed that he would push for the passage of the bill in the House.
“I am still optimistic that the measure will be passed this 15th Congress. I will push for it,” he said.
He earlier said Congress is ready to provide additional funding for the continued implementation of basic education program, which was opposed by some party-list groups.
In a separate interview, Agham party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones, a staunch supporter of the measure, said the passage of the K to 12 bill in the House has been stalled following the death of Escudero, the chairman of the committee tackling the measure and the “contentious” provision on the use of mother tongue which fired up a number of consultations among concerned sectors.
“Despite the delays, the House is determined to push for it before the end of Congress. We really need a law to implement the program. It is already in the 2013 budget, that is why we are allocating funds for additional teachers,” he said.
“We hope we can vote on it when we come back on October,” he added.
Of the Department of Education’s proposed P293.2 billion budget for 2013, P13.4 billion is earmarked for the creation of 61,510 teaching positions, which include the regularization of 7,967 kindergarten volunteer teachers following the implementation of the 12-year basic education cycle last June.
DepEd has been calling on Congress to pass the measure, while its opponents say the government is not ready to implement such education cycle and that the program is an additional burden to Filipino families.
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Source: Charissa M. Luci, Manila Bulletin. (22 September 2012)
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