Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Facebook)

Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers has criticized Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) officials who "act like Gods" even as he questioned their competence, or lack thereof. 

Barbers, in a scathing statement Sunday, Jan. 7 went as far to say that the composition of the CHEd should be reviewed. 

“It is not enough that we appoint Masteral or Doctorate degree holders as CHEd commissioners. We should make sure that they possess outstanding managerial experience, expert and experienced educators, tested by time, and with proven track record and character," the veteran solon from Mindanao said. 

"Some commissioners act like Gods and lord it over the institutions of higher learning. These are questions of character which do not have a place in our educational system,” Barbers reckoned. 

The obviously irate legislator was reacting to what he described as CHEd's "belated promouncement" on the stoppage of the program of the state universities and colleges' (SUCs) taking in senior high school (SHS) enrollees. 

The CHEd, in a Dec. 18, 2023 memorandum, insisted that SUCs that are still offering the SHS program no longer have the legal authority and the funding to do so. 

Barbers called on President Marcos to review the composition and competence of the appointed CHEd commissioners following this development.

He said that instead of extending assistance to the Department of Education (DepEd) in continuing the program with the objective of improving the quality of the country’s basic education, CHEd instead focused on certain minor technicalities, betraying their competence in the education system as a whole. 

“Instead of being part of the solution, CHEd created another problem. It is as if our educational system is not beset with enough problems," said the Mindanaoan. 

Barbers said the "callous pronouncement only shows the priorities and incompetence of the sitting set of commissioners, whose qualifications and outputs should now be reviewed by a body created by the President". 

“It is about time that we review the performance of each individual commissioner so that we may appoint the rightful people who can check our slide in education standards and improve our global standing, not just on paper but in actual performace of our graduates,” he said. 

Barbers chairs the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs in the current 19th Congress.