2 lawyers back Times’ Dr. Ang’s CHEd stand
LAWYERS Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon and Erwin Erfe, who both had called for the abolition of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), have agreed with a recent statement of The Manila Times Chairman Emeritus Dr. Dante A. Ang saying the commission has been the stumbling block to quality education in the country.
Gadon and Erfe, in separate interviews on Friday, renewed their call for concerned higher authorities to consider scrapping the CHEd and return it to its mother unit, formerly the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), now the Department of Education (DepEd), as a division.
“Mr. Ang was absolutely correct and I honor him for voicing the grave concerns of schools and universities under the outdated and tyrannical CHEd policies,” said Erfe, Public Attorney’s Office-Forensics Division director.
The doctor added that President Ferdinand “Bongbong”Marcos Jr. should appoint his own CHEd chairman, “not a recycled bureaucrat (in an apparent reference to CHEd chairman J. Prospero‘Popoy’de Vera 3rd).”
“One who will carry out his vision of progress for the country. We need a CHEd chairman who will spearhead the transformation of our schools into world-class universities,” Erfe said.
Gadon, counsel for high-profile personalities including former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said he totally supports Ang’s statement that the CHEd obstructs the progress of Philippine education.
“I espouse the position that CHEd powers should be clipped and that it should be placed under the DepEd as a curriculum review body whose main job is to upgrade curriculum and courses that are attuned to or aimed at global employment of our graduates,”he added.
Gadon ran for senator under the President’s Kilusang Bagong Lipunan but lost in the May 2022 elections.
He said he believes that it was not right that CHEd should continue wielding its control and supervision over private schools but apply uniform rules on autonomous and non-autonomous colleges.
“The way I look at the situation of the country, we are besieged with enormous problems in the economy. While industrialization admittedly is a good solution to solve unemployment, it is still far-fetched as we have to solve first the high cost of energy to encourage investments in factories. Telecommunication is still in a sorry state [but if it is not] would encourage investments and thus create jobs and help propel the economy,” Gadon added.
“Our agriculture sector is still in a backward situation, which compels us to rely on agricultural imports to fill in the demands on rice, corn and even spices,” he said.
According to him, the fastest route to economic advancement is through the export of professional, skilled and talented Filipino workers.
Gadon and Erfe called for the CHEd’s abolition as early as September last year after de Vera disallowed unvaccinated and partly vaccinated students to enter college and university premises to enroll.
The embattled CHEd chief has since then withdrawn his “unconstitutional” memorandum, which contradicted that of Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte’s policy that only required the wearing of masks and practice of other health protocols when inside campuses.
Ang, in an economic forum conducted by The Manila Times in partnership with the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, said the CHEd, among other failures, has not provided quality education in all state colleges and universities.