BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A bill sponsored by Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez in the 18th Congress that seeks to establish the Congressional Commission on Education, a body that will undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the country’s education sector, has lapsed into law.
Now known as Republic Act No. 11899, known as the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), it became law after then President Rodrigo Duterte failed to sign it before he stepped down on June 30.
Aside from the conduct of education system review, EDCOM II will also recommend innovative and targeted policy reforms in education.
The Commission will be composed of five members of the House of Representatives and five members from the Senate.
The EDCOM II will have three years to review how education agencies are observing their mandates, and recommend specific solutions for how they can improve their performance.
The Philippine Institute for Development Studies was reported to have been the commission’s research arm.
“Through the EDCOM II, we will be able to focus on the crisis facing the education sector, which was made worse by the pandemic. If we want to improve the quality of education and ensure a good future, we must not stop the needed reforms required for it,” Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who sponsored it also in the 18th Congress, said.
On the other hand, Benitez filed more bills in the House of Representatives, including HB 2332 that seeks to establish Professional Regulation Commission satellite office in Victorias City, HB 2333 that establishing TESDA training center in Murcia, HB 2334 which also calls for establishing of a regional trial court branch in Victorias City, as well as HB 2335, or agriculture information system.*
