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By James Konstantin Galvez Reporter
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus
on Wednesday said he will not allow further “campus tours” by
personalities involved in the national broadband scandal to spare
schools from politics.
In his speech before the
Newmakers forum, Lapus asked Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr. and
resigned Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. to
stop “politicking” inside schools.
Lozada had said he is a witness
to alleged brokering for bribes from the aborted $330-million
broadband project. He had accused Abalos as one of the brokers and
another one as Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, President Gloria
Arroyo’s husband.
Lozada and Abalos have spoken on
the botched broadband project in many campuses.
Lapus said education must proceed
uninterrupted and protected. “There is a lot of catching up to do
in public education. We will no longer allow political exercises in
public schools to protect the young minds of our children.”
He added that students from these
“toured” schools are not even voters, and said they should be
protected from politics.
“These are youngsters with ages
ranging from 15 to 16 [and] they are not even voting [yet]. Lapus
added that their minds are still young, and officials always want to
“insulate basic education from politics.”
He added that they “approve of
discussions about politics inside the classroom. But to disrupt
classes or to influence the minds of these young people is a
different story.”
Lapus said faculty and school
officials should follow existing guidelines on allegedly political
tours, but clarified that the procedure does not specifically
outlined any specific allowed or disallowed acts.
Not for it
His move to disallow school tours
was countered by Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangi-linan, who
cited the “worsening suppression of our freedoms.”
“The Education department’s
use of its influence over school executives to not politicize the
education sector is an irony because this move suggests a political
motive. Our educational institutions have academic freedom that we
must uphold, and [the department] should know when it is stepping on
this line,” Pangilinan said in a statement.
Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati
City also on Wednesday said youth and students play an important
role in the movement for accountability and transparency in the
government.
Addressing guests and awardees of
the Ten Outstanding Students of Makati for 2008, Binay added that he
is proud to be their mayor, and extolled their presence at an
interfaith protest last Friday as having disproved the supposed
apathy of the Filipino youth.
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