Sec. Leonor Briones

Bam: ‘Historical revisionism’ of Martial Law slap in face of victims

Sen. Bam Aquino expressed alarm over the “historical revisionism” efforts to make it appear that the Martial Law era was the golden years in our country’s history saying, “it’s a slap in the face of the thousands who were unjustly tortured and killed during that period”.
 
“Hindi lang siya nakakalimutan, binabago na ang ating kasaysayan. Iyon iyong mas nakakabahala, na tila sinasabi na sa panahon ng Martial Law, walang namatay, walang kinulong, walang tinorture,” said Sen. Bam.
 
“It’s a disservice and a slap in the face for those victims na parang kinakalimutan natin ang masamang nangyari noong panahon na iyon,” added Sen. Bam, chairman of the Committee on Education in the 17th Congress.
 
According to historical records, 3,257 were killed, around 35,000 were tortured while 70,000 were incarcerated during the Martial Law rule, which ran from 1972 to 1981.
 
In addition to the rampant human rights violation, an estimated $10 billion in government money was stolen, according to Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) records.
 
As part of his advocacy to educate today’s youth about the horrors of Martial Law, Sen. Bam recently conducted an investigation to determine how it is being taught in public elementary, high schools and colleges.
 
During the hearing, the Department of Education, through Sec. Leonor Briones, revealed that the agency would introduce a new curriculum and new textbooks in the next few months that will provide accurate details about the dark side of the Martial Law era.
 
“We’re happy that DepEd is undergoing the change in curriculum at sabi nga nila, ipapakita nila ang mas kumpletong larawan ng Martial Law. Palagay ko kasi, ang lumang textbook natin, ayaw ipakita iyong mga masamang nangyari sa ating bansa,” Sen. Bam said.
 
“Secretary Briones herself said na itong curriculum change, makikita ng mga kabataan natin iyong kasamaan ng Martial Law, which is, of course, the corruption and human rights abuses,” he added.
 
Sen. Bam is confident that if the youth are properly informed about what really occurred during the Martial Law era, they can scrutinize what they see online.
 
“Kung mayroon silang pundasyon kung ano ang tama at ano ang mali, ano iyong nangyari at ano iyong hindi nangyari, pag online na sila ay mas may kakayahan silang suriin kung ano talaga ang katotohanan,” Sen. Bam said.

Bam: K to 12 exceeds expectations with 1.5M enrollees in Senior High School

The K to 12 program exceeded expectations with the number of enrollees in Senior High Schools (SHS) surpassing the 1.5-million mark for school year 2016-17.

 This was reported by the Department of Education (DepEd), led by Sec. Leonor Briones, during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture on the status of the K to 12 education program.

 “This figure debunks news reports on inaccessible senior high schools,” said Sen. Bam Aquino, chairman of the Committee on Education, Arts and Culture.

 Of the 1,517,610 SHS enrollees, 1,460,970 were Grade 10 completers, 54,262 were Balik-Aral students and 2,378 were Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) passers.

 According to Sec. Briones, the number of Grade 10 completers who continued to SHS was equivalent to 98 percent of the students who finished Grade 10.

 “The fact that so many continued on to senior high school shows that if the state provides free schooling, Filipinos will seize the opportunity to get an education,” Sen. Bam said.

 However, Sen. Bam stressed that this high turn out brings added challenges like backlogs in classrooms and trained teachers.

 “We need to work quickly to meet these challenges head on and make free access to quality education a reality for every Filipino family,” Sen. Bam asserted.

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