Cynthia Villar opposes DepEd's Kto12 program

ORMOC CITY, Philippines  – Former Representative Cynthia Villar, who was in this city over the weekend, bared her opposition to DepEd’s Kto12 program, saying she did not see any budget for its implementation.

“Dapat inuna nila ang budget bago nag-implement. Sino ang mag-spend for the classrooms, sa teachers … Pag walang pera, paano?” she told The Freeman.

Villar also wondered why the program needs to add kindergarten when the country has already existing day care centers.

“Sana i-upgrade na lang yung daycare centers; may classrooms na yun, may mga teachers pa. Kailangan na lang ang continuing education sa teachers, halimbawa mga Saturday classes,” said the former legislator.

Villar also said that “leaders, for a not-wealthy country like ours, should focus on enhancing what we already had, such as day care centers and not creating or building new ones that only entail additional expenses.”

On rumors that she will be running for senator in the 2013 elections, Villar neither affirmed nor denied this, and was not even concerned over the latest survey results of people who have good chances of winning the senatorial race, of which she was not among the list of the top 12.

“Manny (her husband) was number 13 in the survey when he ran for the Senate,” she said, adding that the Nacionalista Party, of which she is a part of, will field candidates, including in the national level, in the 2012 polls. —text and photo by Edgar Allan Vilbar