1) Is there a need to reintegrate GMRC as a subject into the K-12 curriculum?

2) Should we blame the school for the deteriorating morals of today's youth? What do you think are the
main factors that shape the character of a child?
3) If GMRC would not be reintegrated in the curriculum, how can the different sectors of society help in
building the character of our children?

House approves ‘GMRC’ bill on final reading

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on third and final reading the bill institutionalizing
the inclusion of Good Manners and Right Conduct as a separate subject in Kinder to Grade 3 levels.

The chamber in plenary session passed the substitute bill by 225 votes.

The substitute bill consolidates several proposals filed at the House, including Speaker Alan Peter
Cayetano’s HB 1.

Last November, the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture chaired by Rep. Roman Romulo of
Pasig City approved the proposed “Good Manners and Right Conduct [GMRC] Act of 2019,” which
provides for the inclusion of the GMRC subject, taking into account the Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao
Curriculum of the Department of Education’s K-12 program.

The bill defines GMRC as basic social values and etiquette.

It pursues the State policy to develop the character of the youth by making them recognize their
intrinsic human value, enabling them to cultivate their ability to make excellent choices for themselves
in relation to the greater community, thereby creating a culture of respect and love for oneself, for
others, and the country.

In the bill’s explanatory notes, Cayetano pointed out that there is a “pressing need” to strengthen the
common core values and inculcate universally acceptable moral standards “in light of the changing times
and the height of Internet use where the youth is exposed to all sorts of information and
disinformation.”

“In the advent of social media and how it has evolved to be indispensable in our daily lives, it is
important that Etiquette and Moral Uprightness is also introduced and taught for all of us to keep up
with the modern era and act accordingly to a customary set of behavior,” he said.

“As the Philippines develops and [our] economy grows, it is essential that we do not forget who we are
as a people, our divine purpose, and duties to our nation,” he added.

GMRC has always been present, says DepEd

There is a growing clamor for the “revival” of the good manners and right conduct (GMRC) subject, but
the Department of Education (DepEd) said it was never really left out in the new curriculum.

“Maybe there’s some misunderstanding or misrepresentation in the terminologies,” DepEd

The GMRC, she noted, was the “old subject or course” taught to students way back in the old
curriculum.

“But right now, we have the GMRC embedded in Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (EsP),” she explained.

Sevilla said that under the new K to 12 curriculum, “age appropriate values education and the lessons
that are relevant and appropriate for our learners” are being taught to students from kinder to grade 12.

“We teach our students not just about values education but being the ‘complete’ person,” she added.

Sevilla clarified that while concepts of GMRC are “already included and embedded” in the current
curriculum, the agency is “still open” to the suggestions of stakeholders from various sectors.
“Let’s hear all the sides and opinions and we, at DepEd, welcome this because this is also what we want
to do,” Sevilla said in reaction to the calls to revive GMRC at the basic education level.

“From the experts of the education system, we will hear the changes and developments in the system of
education that we should address,” she said.

Senator Joel Villanueva earlier filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 860 or the proposed Comprehensive Values
Education Act.

In filing the bill, Villanueva stressed the importance of “institutionalizing the teaching” of GMRC and
including character-building activities in the curriculum of the K to 12 program.

The proposed bill seeks to teach students the “practical and acceptable manners of conducting daily
affairs according to universal norms of ethics and morality.”

Villanueva said that character building activities are “necessary components” of SB 860, where “students
are given actual opportunities to practice, experience, test, and deepen whatever is taught and caught
in the other aspects of learning.”

DepEd, he noted, is expected to “play a big role” in the implementation of the bill once it passed into a
law since it oversees the basic education system.

Other factors to consider

Meanwhile, Sevilla noted that there are also other factors to consider in reviving the GMRC. One of
these is the need to “adjust” to ever-changing times.

“One of the factors that we need to consider is our culture,” Sevilla said.

For instance, the simple saying of “po” and “opo” – which is considered part of an old tradition – may
“now be viewed differently by younger people,” she said.

“We need to also, I think, engage the parents and the community that our times are evolving and
sometimes, ang mga bata – kahit hindi nagpo-’po’ and ‘opo’ – yung definition nila of being polite is on
another dimension,” Sevilla said.

“While we consider our culture, we have to have that understanding also,” she added.

Ombudsman cites role of schools in values formation

With the current battle cry of the Office of the Ombudsman “Building integrity through values
formation,” former Justice Samuel Martires underscored the role of the schools in the formation of
values of the Filipinos.

Martires delivered his message to multi-sectoral organizations’ meeting in Western Visayas last year.

The meeting gathered representatives from the academe, spiritual organizations, business sectors,
government sector, and the media.

Martires said a person, particularly a government official, who has fear and respect of God will not do
acts of the devil such as corruption.

Greed, envy, pride, and anger are some of the root causes of corruption. These can be avoided when
one has values and is God-fearing, he said.

“It starts with one corruption act, and you will get used to it,” he said in his speech.

He said that this can be addressed if Filipinos, during their kindergarten education, should already be
taught values.

“Aside from the church and the home, the most important in values formation is the school. The
education institution molds the character of a person,” he said.

He urged the older generation to show “goodness” to the younger generation.

Filamer Christian University in Roxas, Capiz, among others, committed to work hand-in-hand with the
Office of the Ombudsman in combating corruption through values formation.

The Filamer Christian University has continued its values education subjects and programs with
emphasis on religion.

“We do that because we do not want to produce intellectual giants but moral dwarfs,” Director Webster
Bedecir, Office of the Student Affairs Director of Filamer Christian University said in an interview.

Martires also told the rest of the academe to take pride and recognize “honest” graduates, and not just
the graduates who intellectually excel.

Values are better caught than taught

Teachers and academics deserve to be honored every year during Teachers’ Day for the kind of
commitment they have shown in educating the youth. They also deserve to be given more incentives to
continue being selfless while doing their jobs. This is why teaching is considered a “noble profession.”

Some teachers and academics are smarter than others. And some have become the epitome of
arrogance, avarice and other forms of unethical behavior in the academe.

I hold no rancor against my fellow academicians—they have toiled hard to reach where they are now.
However straightforward or crooked the paths they took— blood, sweat and tears, or money and
influence—they have exerted their utmost efforts to earn their three-letter titles.

But some of them have become condescending to the lesser mortals in their midst, browbeating their
colleagues who do not have the same three-letter titles they have.

Some have earned double three-letter titles in less than five years. Being crowned with multiple Ph.D.
titles, they have become doubly arrogant and self-righteous than before when they were single Ph.D.
title-holders.

On top of their calibrated arrogance, they have become avaricious in using data collected by their
students as materials for papers they submit to journals that are of dubious reputation, especially in
terms of rigorous vetting and peer review processes.

Some professors use their students’ theses as papers they present in national and international
conferences.

This is academic avarice: greed is not only seen in one’s endless acquisition of material wealth.
Professors are greedy when they grab intellectual credits that are supposed to go to the one who wrote
the paper, i.e., their student-advisee.

Academic bosses who command their subordinates to do research and write articles or make
PowerPoint presentations for them and getting sole credit for such tasks are equally guilty of academic
avarice, of conduct unbecoming of an academic.

Such behavior within academic circles might seem puny or trivial, and I agree. There are far more
abominable avaricious acts like plunder committed by people in the highest echelons of society, like the
Marcoses, for example.

But what makes the seemingly trivial acts of intellectual dishonesty and avarice in the academe equally
repugnant as plunder is that these acts are replicated a hundredfold, when former students of
avaricious academics become teachers in the future.

The academe is a highly influential multiplier institution—professors do not only teach 40 students in
one class every semester; they also teach the parents, siblings and the whole community that their
students interact with.

Inevitably, flawed values that students caught from how their professors behaved or interacted with
them will be embedded in students’ subconscious.
Legislators in the House and in the Senate are mulling to legislate the revival of teaching good manners
and right conduct (GMRC) starting in basic education.

They are worried about the rash of improper, undesirable behavior among the youth, and the latter’s
lack of good values that they carry throughout their mature lives.

But the youth are not the only ones who need a serious reteaching of GMRC. Legislators should start
reviewing their own behavior, and of those above them, like the President and the foreign secretary,
among others.

As long as academics and government officials continue to normalize avarice, arrogance, verbal abuse
and other forms of unethical behavior, legislation and punitive measures will not do the job.

More importantly, government officials and academics should realize that no amount of legislation can
teach moral values: they are better caught than taught.