By Ben Rosario
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano has defended the swift passage of the proposal to revive Good Manners and Right Conduct into the basic education curriculum as a guarantee that the next generation of Filipinos will adopt both the prowess of intellect and good moral character.
House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano (Alan Peter Cayetano / Facebook page/ MANILA BULLETIN)
By the way Cayetano reacted when the House Committee on Basic Education swiftly passed the measure indicated that he was partly behind the panel’s decision.
“I’m very, very happy and excited na masama talaga sa curriculum bilang isang subject iyong good manners and right conduct,” Cayetano told reporters during an interview a day after the House panel approved the measure on Wednesday.
Chaired by Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, the House basic education panel unanimously passed the bill that consolidated separate legislative proposals of Reps. Romulo “Kid” Peña Jr. (LP, Makati City) and Bro. Eddie Villanueva (CIBAC Partylist).
“We want to re-emphasize that learning in basic education is not only intellectual, hindi lamang (not limited to) academic.” Cayetano explained.
The House leader recalled that before it was consolidated with other regular subjects in the basic education curriculum, GMRC was a vital subject that could pull down a brilliant student from getting a passing grade.
In his proposal, Peña said GMRC will be revived and treated as a separate subject in the K to 12 program in basic education.
“The necessity for such revival stems from the observation that the youth of today has a surplus of role models for their behavior owing to the information explosion in this age of the internet,” he said in filing House Bill 4613.
“In fact, there is a detrimental side of pop culture which challenges the inculcation of the basic tenets of the promotion and observance of respect for oneself, other and our elders, as well as the teaching of the values of patience, perseverance, industry, honesty and good faith in dealing with other human beings,’ explained the neophyte lawmaker.
Peña said these occurrences make it “prudent to reintroduce” GMRC, saying that this will better guide the Filipino youth “in facing contemporary society.”:
GMRC was abolished as a separate subject in the basic education curriculum in 2002. It was instead integrated in Social Studies and other subjects.
Cayetano said that by taking out GMRC in 2002 a generation of Filipino youths excelled in academics but may have failed to learn how to respect elders and have not adopted significant traditional Filipino values.