Rep. Edcel Lagman to Supreme Court: Making Filipino an elective ‘unconstitutional’

MANILA, Philippines — Treating Filipino and Philippine literature as “optional subjects” in college is in direct contradiction to the 1987 Constitution, which makes the latest decision of the Supreme Court (SC) “unconstitutional,” an independent opposition lawmaker said yesterday.

“There is no alternative to fostering and inculcating nationalism and patriotism other than teaching Filipino and Philippine literature. Section 6 of Article XIV categorically mandates that the national language of the Philippines is Filipino,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman insisted.  

In a statement, the lawyer-legislator pointed out that the SC’s “downgrading” of Panitikan as “merely elective or optional subjects in college is unconstitutional and anti-youth.” 

“It is an aberration that the teaching of Filipino, which is the national language, is only elective while teaching of a foreign language like English is compulsory,” the veteran Bicolano lawmaker asserted. 

“Language involves muscle memory. You lose it if you don’t use it,” Lagman argued further, invoking that contrary to the SC ruling, the constitutional “provision does not need an implementing statute for its enforcement.” 

This is not the first time he has assailed collegial decisions of the tribunal, where he lost in a number of cases, among them the removal of chief justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno through a quo warranto petition and not through impeachment and the extension of martial law in Mindanao. 

“Since the SC is the final arbiter of legal issues, it could be supreme even in its errors,” Lagman said in August 2017 when he, along with the rest of civil society, lost in their attempt to block the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.