The Honorable Senate President Koko Pimentel, Honorable Ronaldo Zamora, Chairman, Senator Bam Aquino, Honorable Members of the Commission on Appointments, CA Secretariat, Members of the Press, Guests, Friends, magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat. maayong buntag kaninyong tanan.
I am deeply honored this morning to appear before the distinguished Members of the Commission on Appointments and humbly subject myself to the process of confirmation on my ad interim appointment as Secretary of Education. Cognizant of the fact that the power of appointment is vested upon the President of the Philippines, I fully recognize your Constitutional mandate to scrutinize appointments in line with mechanism of checks and balances.
The Department is the biggest bureaucracy in the Philippine government. Presently, it has 763, 538 authorized plantilla positions, of which 674, 613 are teaching positions, 61, 343 are technical positions, 25, 692 are for administrative support, 1, 359 are management and supervisory, and 531 are third level or career executive service positions. Of the total authorized plantilla items, 711, 785 positions or 93 percent are filled.
By 2022, we will have nation-loving and competent lifelong learners able to respond challenges and opportunities through the delivery of quality, accessible, relevant and liberating K to 12 Program by a modern, professional, pro-active, nimble, trusted and nurturing DepEd.
1. The constitutional mandate of DepEd is not only to provide education; it has to raise the quality of education. One way by which quality is measured is through the National Achievement Tests for Elementary and Secondary levels. The average score for elementary level from 2014-15 is 69.10% compared to the PDP Target of 77.00% for 2016. On the other hand secondary level scores averaged 49.48% compared to the 2016 PDP target of 65%.
2. The second goal is to make education accessible to every Filipino child, wherever he or she is-- in the Philippines or abroad. It is estimated that in the Philippines alone, there are 5.4 million out-of-school children and youth. In other countries, we have thousands of undocumented children of Filipino parents.
They cannot go to local schools lest their parents be deported. They cannot read or write. They do not even know they are Filipinos.
3. The third goal is to make education relevant to the ever-changing needs of development in our country. Oftentimes, employers and even parents complain that what our learners learn from us are irrelevant to the everyday struggle for survival. During the APEC Ministerial Conference on Education, the President of Peru stressed the importance of relevance in education when he said, "by the time our learners graduate and go into the world of work, everything that we have taught them will already be irrelevant."
4. The fourth goal is to make education truly liberating. Education should finally liberate our learners from the bonds of poverty. I must liberate our minds and our capacities for creative thinking, for appreciation of our history, culture and arts.
1. Full implementation of K-12;
2. Enrichment of curricula in three areas:
a. strengthening of drug education component;
b. strengthening of gender and development component, especially in relation to teenaged pregnancy and HIV-AIDS.
c. special emphasis on environmental awareness, disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
3. Expansion of Alternative Learning Systems
4. More school feeding programs
5. Enriched Curricular and Non-curricular Programs
6. Fostering Critical Thinking. Enriching Appreciation of Culture and Arts
7. Financial Management Reforms
8. Expand the scope of Employee Welfare
9. Active, Transparent, Consultative, Collaborative, and Corruption-free Leadership
10. Expanded Cooperation with the Private sector and communities
1. Creation of two Undersecretaries for Finance--One for budget utilization and Monitoring; and the other for Disbursements, Accounting and Financial Reporting
2. Creation of Five Bids and Awards Committees
4. Creation of Assistant Secretary for Procurement; utilization of case conferences to make decisions on sensitive transactions
5. Creation of Fulltime Delivery Monitoring Unit which monitors budget utilization from the Central Office down to the level of the school.
6. Regular Monthly Reports
It is true that I use a wheelchair whenever I travel by plane; there is no correlation between the state of my knees and the state of my brains, as well as the capacity to analyze challenges, whether these be related to education, finance, politics and the economy.
Long before the Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated by the United Nations in 1948, the Philippine Revolutionary Government appointed Apolinario Mabini, who was wheelchair bound for most of his life, as our first Secretary of Foreign Affairs. If there was already a Commission on Appointments at that time, I believe he would have been confirmed without much ado.
Stephen Hawking, perhaps the greatest physicist and mathematician of this generation, had been wheelchair-bound since he was 21 years old. He has to speak through a hole in his neck. He activates his computer by moving his cheek. Yet, he is leading a team, which will search for life beyond our known universe.
1. From July -December 2016 made 13 regional visits; visited disaster-stricken areas, e.g. Isabela, Catanduanes, Camarines Sur, and Surigao;
2. Attended out of town national events like Brigada Eskwela, and Regional Palaro.
3. Attended a UNESCO meeting in Jakarta and the APEC meeting of Education Ministers in Peru.
1. Considered as a pioneer in the study of graft and corruption as a field of specialization; wrote a book on corruption, how and why it occurs and how to prevent it.
2. Study on corruption in the BIR is considered a classic and is used in universities abroad as well as in the Philippines.
3. As Secretary to the Commission on Audit, participated in the most spectacular case of systemic corruption. This is the case of the Department of Public Works and Highways where an entire region down to the district offices in each province were affected.
Professor Emeritus, National College of Public Administration, University of the Philippines
1. Bachelor of Business Administration, major in Accounting, magna cum laude Silliman University
2. Master of Public Administration, major in Fiscal Administration, University of the Philippines
3. Certificate in the Management of Government Enterprises, Harvard Institute of International Development, Harvard University
4. Diploma in Development Administration (with distinction), University of Leeds, United Kingdom
5. Certificate in Innovations in Governance, Harvard Institute of International Development, Harvard University
6. Doctor of Public Administration (honoris causa), Central Philippine University
7. Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa), Foundation University
I acknowledge the importance of the Congress of the Philippines for all the legislative measures that would enhance the education sector.
Mister Chairman, Your Honors, rest assured that the Department of Education under my watch, will be an Agency that practices full transparency and proficiency.
Again, I respectfully submit myself and my desire to be confirmed by this Honorable body.
Thank you very much and God bless po. .
