DAVAO CITY – The Alyansa ng Mga Tagapagtanggol ng Wikang Filipino (Tanggol Wika) would want politicians to include the use of the Filipino language and K to 12 as among the election issues in their political campaign.
Dr. David Michael San Juan, convenor of Tanggol Wika, said, to date, no lawmaker is taking up the issue on the removal of Filipino subject in college, aside from the members of the Makabayan bloc.
As part of the K to 12 program, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued Memorandum No. 20 Series of 2013 also known as the “Revised General Education Curriculum” removing Filipino as a mandatory subject in tertiary education.
On April 22 this year, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order to stop the implementation of the CMO, a week after Tanggol Wika filed a petition for a certiorari and prohibition with TRO.
Tanggol Wika was founded last year by college professors from different colleges and universities who oppose the “attack against the national language”.
“Unfortunately, nobody is yet taking advantage of the issue, except for the representatives of the Makabayan bloc and some local congressmen,” San Juan told Davao Today in an interview at the Davao City National High School.
He said they are visiting schools all over the country for the campaign to suspend K to 12 and oppose CMO 20.
San Juan, who is also a convenor of the Suspend K to 12 Alliance, said they are calling on all candidates to publicize their stand on the issues of K to 12 program and the use of the Filipino language.
“At kapag sila ay pro K to 12, at ayaw nilang masuspend ang K to 12, magka-campaign kami against them (And if they are pro K to 12 and they do not want K to 12 to be suspended, we will campaign against them),” he said.
“Ipo-post namin na si ganito ay pro K to 12, si ganito ay anti-Filipino (We will post them (in social media) that this person is pro K to 12 , this person is anti-Filipino),” he said.
He said they are planning to formally write letters to the campaign managers of politicians.
However, San Juan said if the people “will realize how important the campaign is they will be the one to ask the politicians on their stand regarding the issue, then this will really be taken up as a campaign issue.” (davaotoday.com)
