(UPDATE) EDUAKSYON, a party-list that is pushing for educational reform in the country, filed its certificate of candidacy (CoC) on Sunday.
EduAKSyon Secretary General Domingo Brum Jr. was accompanied by the party-list’s first nominee Michael Alexander Ang, second nominee Kristjan Vincent Gargantiel and third nominee Dr. Aldrin Darilag to the CoC filing center at the Manila Hotel.
The party-list is advocating the reduction of the standard four-year college curriculum to three years in a bid to streamline education and make it more accessible and efficient for Filipino students, according to Gargantiel.
He said the three years will be broken down into two years of classroom learning and one year of on-the-job training (OJT).
Gargantiel said this is achievable by not covering general education subjects already taken up during secondary education, such as Filipino and Natural Science.
“We should be focusing on core subjects specifically made for the specific course,” he said.
Gargantiel said this initiative is part of the party-list’s broader push for education reform, which they believe will address challenges within the country’s higher education system.
He said the country’s current four-year system is outdated and no longer reflects the realities of a rapidly changing job market.
“By condensing the curriculum, the party-list hopes to align education more closely with the needs of modern industries, where specialized skills are increasingly valued over general knowledge,” Gargantiel said.
Under the proposed reforms, core subjects and general education courses would be minimized, allowing students to focus more on their major fields of study.
Ang said EduAKSyon believes that a change will produce graduates who are just as prepared as their four-year counterparts but are able to enter the workforce more quickly, reducing both financial strains on families and student debt.
“Education should not be a burden but a pathway to opportunity,” said Ang. “We need to make sure that our students are equipped with the necessary skills to compete in the global job market, and we believe that shortening the curriculum is one way to achieve this.”
The party-list group pointed to other countries where three-year degree programs are common, particularly in Europe, as evidence that shorter programs can be just as effective.
The United Kingdom and Australia have adopted similar models, and their universities continue to rank high in global education rankings.
“These countries have shown that it is possible to deliver a high-quality education in a shorter timeframe,” Ang said. “The Philippines can adopt these best practices while adapting them to our local context.”
The proposal is expected to spark lively debate among policymakers, educators, and students.
EduAKSyon plans to submit its recommendations to the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), urging both agencies to conduct feasibility studies on the impact of the curriculum change.
While the initiative is still in its early stages, it has already caught the attention of various sectors, including student organizations, who are eager to see how it could affect tuition fees and job prospects.
With the 2025 national elections approaching, EduAKSyon is hoping that its focus on education reform will resonate with voters, positioning itself as an advocate for accessible and modernized learning.
Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rowena Guanzon also filed on Sunday her certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA) as first nominee of the Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD).
P3PWD won a seat during the 2022 elections, but Guanzon failed to take her seat as top nominee after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against a Comelec resolution allowing the substitution of Guanzon as the P3PWD nominee.
The TRO also stopped the House of Representatives from allowing Guanzon to assume her seat. The decision stemmed from a petition filed by the Duterte Youth Party-List questioning the Comelec decision allowing the substitution of Guanzon as P3PWD nominee.
The Guanzon case is one of the reasons why the Comelec has stopped the practice of substituting the entire five-man list of nominees after the election to accommodate a new set of candidates.
For the 2025 polls, the Comelec will allow the submission of 10 party-list nominees, but changes or substitutions can only be done until the end of the filing of CoC on October 8.
The commission en banc granted the request of P3PWD’s five original nominees to withdraw their CONA and gave due course to a new list of nominees led by Guanzon, who had just retired then from the Comelec.
Prior to the 2022 elections, the poll body issued Resolution 10717, setting Nov. 15, 2021 as the deadline for withdrawing party-list nominees. Guanzon was among the signatories to the resolution, issued in August 2021, being a commissioner at that time.
According to Comelec Chairman Erwin Garcia, it was not the first time that all nominees of a party-list group withdrew the acceptance of their nominations after the elections.
“We are waiting for the decision of the SC (Supreme Court) in that case. Hopefully, the SC can decide on the issue of substitution in the party-list,” Garcia said.
But he pointed out that even if a decision on the issue of substitution is still pending, the Comelec can exercise its so-called rule-making power to address the problem of substitution.
“We can invoke our rule-making power, meaning that substitution will not be prohibited, but we will require [every party-list group] to submit 10 instead of 5 nominees,” he said, adding that the practice of all five nominees resigning has a semblance of being unrealistic.
“To avoid that, there should be 10 nominees so that if ever the five would withdraw, there’s still another five or seven would withdraw there are still three remaining,” Garcia said.
The Comelec, he pointed out, has already imposed a no-substitution rule for local and national candidates after the last day of the filing of CoCs; thus, the same should be done in the party-list to be fair.
A substitution would only be allowed if the reason is either the death or disqualification of the candidate, provided that the substitute candidate and the one to be substituted have the same family name and belong to the same political party.
