UST urged to keep offering Filipino subjects despite SC ruling

The Filipino department of  University of Santo Tomas (UST) has urged the school's administration to continue offering Filipino subjects in spite of the Supreme Court (SC) ruling that directed their exclusion from core college courses.

"Dapat panatilihin ang Filipino sa antas tersyarya dahil may matataas na kasanayang pangwika na dito lang malilinang gaya ng pagsasaling-wika," Alvin Ringgo Reyes, who chairs UST's Filipino department, told GMA News Online on Friday.

"Sa kolehiyo kasi ay hindi naman konseptuwal ang talakay gaya ng ano ang pangngalan, pandiwa, etc. Mas ispesipiko sa isang larang o disiplina ang dulog," he added.

The SC decision promulgated last week upheld the constitutionality of the controversial K to 12 program and, among others, lifted the temporary restraining on the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) memorandum order on the exclusion of Filipino language and Panitikan subjects from the tertiary level.

Reyes said that the department has submitted a letter on their request  to retain Filipino subjects in the curriculum and is awaiting the official decision of UST's Academic Senate.

"...Umaasa akong pabor ang kanilang magiging desisyon dahil kita naman nila iyong praktikal na kapakinabangan ng Filipino sa kanilang larang at sentimental na ambag sa pag-iingat ng pagka-Pilipino," Reyes said.

The Filipino department of the Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU), students and teachers at the University of the Philippines (UP), as well as the chairperson of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCAA) and National Artist for Literature, Virgilio Almario, have also voiced their protest earlier in the week. —LDF, GMA News