Binay on Angara’s DepEd appointment: Senate now short of lawyers

Binay on Angara’s DepEd appointment: Senate now short of lawyers

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Nancy Binay on Tuesday said that while she is “proud” of Senator Sonny Angara with his appointment as Education secretary, the Senate is losing another lawyer when there are committees that should be headed by legal experts.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Binay said she is proud that a member of their group Solid 7 — the senators who stuck with former Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri even after he resigned from his post — will head a “very important government agency.”

However, his appointment also means that the Senate Committee on Justice would need a new chairperson as Angara was supposed to take this role, she added.

Binay noted that since other lawyers in the Senate have taken several positions already — like Senate President Francis Escudero, Majority Leader Francis Tolentino, and Minority Leader Koko Pimentel — there may be few options available.

“Actually, I was thinking of that because it seems we have a shortage of lawyers in the Senate. There are committees that should be chaired by lawyers.  So I do not know who among the incumbent senators are the lawyers who can take the place of Senator Angara because Senator Tol (Tolentino) resigned from his post and he is now the Majority Floor Leader,” she said in Filipino.

“Senator Koko, meanwhile, is the Minority Floor Leader.  So I guess our options are either Sen. Alan [Cayetano] or Sen. Pia [Cayetano], or maybe the Minority Floor Leader can be a head of a committee like the Committee on Justice. Or it is possible to start having the Committee on Justice headed by a non-lawyer?” she added.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday named Angara as Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd), according to the Presidential Communications Office.  Angara fills in the spot left vacant by Vice President Sara Duterte, who resigned last June 19.

READ: Angara named as new DepEd chief

Several members of Congress have lauded Marcos’ decision to appoint Angara. In the House of Representatives, lawmakers from both the Majority and the Minority blocs, including Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, welcomed Angara’s appointment.

READ: ‘Hit the ground running,’ solon tells new DepEd chief Sonny Angara

Binay believes Angara would not have that much of a learning curve as he was a member of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2).

“We know that education is the great equalizer and we have a big problem in education right now, and Sen. Sonny Angara for me is the best person, he was really part of Edcom which we know has been tackling solutions to our education problem,” she said.

“So there will be no learning curve for Senator Sonny Angara as DepEd Secretary. But at the end of the day also, it’s sad because we went into the Senate together,” she added.

Binay also acknowledges that Angara would face problems at DepEd.

“I’ve actively participated at the hearings of Senator Sherwin Gatchalian at the committee on basic ed, and our resource persons have repeatedly said that there is a need to strengthen our curriculum, and I think that can be seen as a reflection of the Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) results that we lack creative thinking, especially in solving math and science problems,” she said.

“And then we still have problems with classroom shortage and issues with the complementarity of public at private schools.  Because at the moment, even private schools encounter problems because enrollees are decreasing,” she added.

In December 2023, Pisa said that Filipino students who took part in their assessment were five to six years behind in mathematics, science, and reading compared to their 15-year-old counterparts from most of the participating countries.

READ: PISA shows PH students ‘5 to 6 years’ behind

In June, before Duterte resigned, Pisa said Filipino students logged a mean score of 14 on the creative thinking performance of 15-year-old students — the second-lowest among 64 ranked countries.