Over 100 current and former presidents and heads of the largest schools, colleges, and universities in the country, including six former education secretaries, have thrown their support behind the candidacy of Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Kiko Pangilinan.
In a joint Statement of Support released today, the country’s top education leaders, in their personal capacity, signified their unequivocal support to Robredo and Pangilinan in the upcoming 2022 elections. “We make this determination following scrutiny of the various candidates’ track record as servant leaders, their proposed plans for education, and, more importantly, their character as individuals.”
The Statement was signed by former CHED Chairpersons, Dr. Patricia Licuanan, Dr. Ester Garcia, and Dr. Angel Alcala, former DepEd Secretaries, Bro. Armin Luistro FSC and Dr. Fe Hidalgo, as well as former TESDA Director General Edicio dela Torre. They are joined by former University of the Philippines President Emmanuel Soriano, Ateneo de Manila University President Fr. Roberto Yap SJ, De La Salle University President Br. Bernard Oca FSC, Adamson University President Fr. Marcelo Manimtim, University of Cebu President Atty. Augusto Go, Ateneo de Zamboanga University President Fr. Karel San Juan SJ, Xavier University President Fr. Mars Tan SJ, Saint Louis University President Fr. Gilbert Sales, and University of the Immaculate Conception President Sr. Marissa Viri, who is concurrently President of the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP).
Citing the “learning crisis” in the country, the group lamented the country’s poor performance in the recent 2018 PISA and the 2019 TIMMS, wherein the Philippines ranked lowest among 79 and 58 countries, respectively. “These challenges need to be faced head-on by a hands-on government,” the Statement read.
“As Robredo has demonstrated in her tenure as Vice President and especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, her brand of leadership shines through best in times of crisis—one that can find solutions that are context-based, data-driven, and equity-oriented,” said the group. “We believe that Robredo is the ‘Education President’ our country needs to address this learning crisis and attain quality education for all.”
Explaining the reason for their support, Ateneo de Manila President Fr. Roberto Yap SJ says, “In our ongoing quest for a Philippines that is developed and progressive, Leni Robredo and Kiko Pangilinan know the importance of having quality education available to all and have demonstrated, time and again, that no Filipino will be left behind”.
“Besides school infrastructure built, scholarships raised, skills training and SPED promotion, the Leni-Kiko tandem personifies what is good, true and noble in the vocation of an educator,” said DLSU President Br. Bernard Oca FSC. “They have compassion for the poor and the programs and competence to transform their lives through education,” he continued.
The group also outlined their proposed priority interventions for the sector, citing the need for increasing the education budget to 6% of GDP, focusing on early childhood care and development, investing heavily in teacher quality, rationalizing the role of public and private educational institutions, and ensuring the coordination of DepEd, CHED, and TESDA, among others.
Chito B. Salazar, President of PHINMA Education reiterated that the country needs an Education President in order to arrest the most pressing issues in the sector. “We are in a learning crisis. Our choice of the next president and the education team and of all electoral officials are based on their prioritization of education. It’s significant that we make education an issue now and make education a continuing issue in this country even after the elections.”
The school leaders also expressed their grave concern regarding disinformation, underscoring the need to straighten the facts about the Marcos years: “We take this stand in defense of truth, as we share our resounding condemnation of historical revisionism, presenting the Marcos dictatorship as ‘golden years’ despite the human rights abuses, the censorship of mass media, and the underinvestment in education during those dark years,” read the Statement.
“We take this stand consistent with our responsibility to ensure that academic institutions serve as safe spaces for discussion and truth-telling while reminding our fellow educational leaders how our schools and universities served as bastions of truth during the years of the dictatorship,” they continued.
Above and beyond the problems faced by the sector and the needs of the education community, the leaders explained that apart from competence, the group placed equal importance on character, particularly the “values of honesty, integrity, accountability, grit, and hard work”. “Leni Robredo has consistently shown herself to be an effective and efficient leader whose decisions are based on the reality of situations and guided by her moral compass,” explained Fr. Yap.
In a rare show of force, the Statement brings together esteemed current and former leaders of basic and higher education institutions, public and private, among them Assumption College, Xavier School, St. Theresa’s College, St. Scholastica’s College Manila, St. Paul’s University-Manila, Don Bosco Educational Centers, Holy Angel University, Silliman University, Philippine Normal University, National Teachers College, Colegio de Santa Isabel, Bicol University, West Visayas State University, University of San Carlos-Cebu, Western Mindanao State University, and Ateneo de Davao.
Other notable signatories include Former Ateneo de Manila University President Fr. Bienvenido Nebres SJ, who also served as the Chair of the Presidential Task Force on Education under Former President Gloria Arroyo, as well as former UP Chancellor Dr. Dionisa Rola, who served as Executive Director of the Congressional Commission for Education (EDCOM).
To read the full statement and see all signatories, please go to https://tinyurl.com/StatementSupportLeniKiko.
For inquiries on how you can join the movement, please send an email to Katz Navarro at KNforLeniKiko@gmail.com.
