‘SC decision removing Filipino, Panitikan in college unconstitutional’

MANILA, Philippines — A group advocating the use of the Filipino language assailed a previous decision of the Supreme Court (SC) affirming a policy to remove Filipino and Panitikan as core subjects in college, maintaining that it is unconstitutional.

The Alyansa ng mga Tagapagtanggol ng Wikang Filipino (Tanggol Wika) filed a 22-page letter of protest before the SC yesterday, noting that it chose to do so instead of filing another motion for reconsideration as they were “cautioned against it by our lawyers.”

The group believes that the decision affirming the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)’s Memorandom Order 20, Series of 2013 (CMO 20) “is patently unjust as it involves the violation of the (1987) Constitution’s language provisions.”

The order, according to the group, “is an illegal and unconstitutional act of stopping, rescinding, minimizing or reversing what has been initiated, contrary to the Constitution’s clear mandate for the official use of Filipino in the whole education system to be sustained, continued, expanded, advanced progressively.”

“Relegating” or downgrading “Filipino and Panitikan to elementary and secondary education only defeats the purpose laid down by the Constitution,” it added.

Tanggol Wika said the SC should be informed that the Filipino subjects in the elementary and secondary levels dwell on basic grammar and low-level to mid-level discourse/communication. The Filipino subjects in college are way superior than the content and coverage of Filipino subjects in elementary and high school.

The group cited Article 14, Sections 6 and 7 of the 1987 Constitution mandating the government “to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system,” and stating that “for purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English.”

Last month, the SC decided with finality that the CMO 20, which reduces the college general education curriculum to 36 and removing Filipino and Panitikan as core subjects, was valid.

Tanggol Wika, however, maintained that the decision has caused “the actual job displacements of hundreds of faculty members in dozens of universities, with the full impact potentially affecting at least 10,000 faculty members in the coming months.”

“It would also deprive millions of students of their chance and opportunity to expand and deepen their ability to use the national language in a more intellectual way, in all disciplines and at higher levels of discourse,” the group said.