Category: OPINION

Another quarter has already come to an end, students moving forward as they survived a month flooded with deadlines. Students celebrate their achievement, receiving praises from their teachers. But, the atmosphere seems different in the world of campus journalists. I should be proud to be a student journalist representing my school—General Santos City National Secondary School of Arts and Trades (GSCNSSAT), yet I feel very shameful to be one. I was confused and shocked, holding my report card struck with a straight line of seven. Do my rights to quality education still exist?

Despite representing the school’s name, it is heart-breaking to hear that some teachers aren’t considering such extracurricular activities. As a student journalist who spent nights weaving stories that would later bring the school pride at the Division Schools Press Conference. Imagine, I learned to interview different people, verify facts, and seize community issues with clarity far beyond what any classroom activity can teach me. Yet still, all I received was the report card with the irrevocable line of 7. 

Normal students researched for hours and did investigations, wrote under pressure, and represented the school the same as what student journalists like me do, but none of this will count on the system. The very basis of the problem lies in the fact that a child’s right to quality education promotes growth beyond the walls of the classroom.
Read More:Beyond the Classroom Wall: Community Engagement Instruction | Wang | World Journal of Education

Earlier, Mr. James B. Lomocho, while at the press conference, reminded campus journalists that quality education means that no student would suffer fear in exposing his or her talents. Education should empower and not intimidate, he maintained. But how can I be empowered while even representing the school’s name becomes threatening to our grades? 

According to the research, quality education is not just about quizzes and reports, it is creating thinkers and leaders, shaping young minds who are willing to ask questions, investigate, and be the voice of the voiceless. Student journalists learn things most people struggle with, such as dealing with fake news, time management, and having courage. CJs learn beyond what is taught inside the classroom, but the system refuses to see it.
Read more:Right to Education | Education Above All Foundation

This is why something must change. Schools cannot keep demanding excellence on the competition stage while refusing to reward it in the classroom. Grades should reflect holistic learning. Effort should not be invisible. And students should never be forced to choose between academic standing and the passion that makes them better individuals.

The experience of mine is really upsetting, student journalists like me do not just write to skip classes, rather, we write out of passion. We write to inform the public, to give service to the community, and to be the voice of the voiceless. And for that, we should earn support, acknowledgment, and a proper understanding of what education is. Campus journalists deserve more.

Quality education is not a favor, it is a constitutional right and a global commitment under Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Yet is questionable, for millions of Filipino learners, this right exists only on paper. While the government promises free and accessible education, many still lack access to it. In a country overflowing with political speech and reports that billions of peso budgets are allocated with different priorities, where are the funds that were supposed to ensure every student can learn?

In the recent school-based press conference, James B. Lomocho—a law student, tackles students having the right to quality education. Yet, as I observed a crowd of students wearing their uniforms, it made me wonder if all Filipino children had the same opportunity as them. Do these rights apply to all? 

It is very disappointing to hear that in a community where poverty is highest, classrooms are at their worst. Schools in rural areas have no choice but to operate with collapsing ceilings and public schools were lacking classroom. According to the news, 165,000 pesos was funded to Department of Education (DepEd), and it would take 55 years to solve the problem in classroom shortage. This heart-breaking scene made me realize that the poorer the community, the lower the government’s urgency.
Read More: DepEd: 165K classroom shortage could take 55 years to solve | GMA News Online

Data reinforces the tragedy. According to multiple investigative reports, over ₱1 trillion in education funds have either been delayed, mismanaged, or lost to corruption—money that could have built thousands of classrooms, supplied millions of textbooks, and provided digital tools to remote learners. Instead, poor students are told to “be patient” while their future is taken away by projects that never reach completion. Corruption is not an oversight. It is an operation. And its casualties are children whose only crime is being born poor.
Read More:PIDS – Philippine Institute for Development Studies

I was dismayed knowing that not even urban communities are exempted from this kind of tragedy. Minimum-wage families, already worrying about the rising prices, are forced to pay for hidden costs of education, material needed for projects, since public school budgets are woefully insufficient or inadequately reported. Problems in overcrowded classrooms are still existing, yet budget requests for the construction of more classrooms are frequently belatedly approved after so much effort. This is not so much inefficiency as a system that punishes the poor who dare to seek that education the government promised.
Read More:article_210691_9e6154cf85b3295f5900e309becc6597.pdf

It demands public, transparent budget tracking and immediate punishment to all who commits crime. I am calling out those officials robbing the nation’s future, no more reassignments. no more quiet resignations. no more reports hidden behind administration. 

If our leaders continue to starve the education system that truly belonged to all Filipino learners, then they must suffer consequences that are according to the damage they inflict. 

It is already the time that our government should act. Quality Education will always remain a privilege and not a right until integrity in government is elected above self-preservation. And the Philippines will continue raising generations whose dreams are built on breadcrumbs stolen from budgets that would have filled their future.

Law must Lead, not Linger!

Published by DSPC Inquirer on November 26, 2025

In a society where rights are written yet rarely felt, the gap between law and implementation continues to widen. Justice was ignored when officials were at fault, education that was supposed to be the key for our better future wasn’t accessible by many. This issue was brought up during the school-based press conference at General Santos City National Secondary School of Arts and Trades (GSCNSSAT), where Lakas Bisig Publication adviser James B. Lomocho emphasized that we have rights protected by law. 

During the school-based press conference at GSCNSSAT, Lomocho reminded campus journalists of their various rights as an individual such as quality education and safety. The government already passed laws to protect these rights but despite the powerful constitution, rights remain denied not by lack of legislation, but by the government’s failure to enforce what it already promised. 

The Constitution ensures quality education and accountability laws command responsibility. But still, millions of Filipinos are considered functionally illiterate, public institutions continue to escape responsibility. Policies are announced publicly but they’re not executed effectively. This proves that the problem is not the absence of law, but our government’s failure to act with urgency.

FUNDamental Educational Rights
Every freedom and national advancement is supposed to find its foundation in education, yet one of the most delayed obligations of the government has been in providing education. We cannot classify quality education as a privilege, rather, it is a constitutional right upon which the government does not act.

Public schools worry about school facilities, overcrowded classrooms, or old textbooks that public schools have to provide. Meanwhile, according to inquirer.net 1.055 trillion pesos meant for the education sector have either been mismanaged or lost to corruption, with students lacking knowledge their age must have. A right delayed here is not an inconvenience, it is a stolen future.
Read more: DepEd, DPWH get highest 2025 budget allocation

Officials often claim that delays are due to limited budgets. But excuses cannot replace action. To solve this issue, the government must set a priority on putting funds to proper use, fight corruption in educational programs, enforce transparency, and enable independent monitoring to ensure that legal provisions supporting education receive full implementation.

Accountability is a responsibility
This is the grim reality reflected in unresolved complaints and stalled investigations, accountability laws are done only depending on the person who’s at fault. Laws restricting the abuse of power and public funds are meant to compel accountability. Failure to ensure accountability results in the collapse of all other rights.

Violations usually go unpunished because we lack political support. Complaints aren’t heard, reports are neglected, and investigations run indefinitely or end quietly without notice. So, citizens are left defenseless and watch their right erode while the system protects the powerful. Rights do not exist in isolation but become dead when not enforced. 

For there to be real solutions, there must be transparency in budgets and investigations, and guaranteed timelines for the resolution of violations without exception. Accountability must be non-negotiable because rights are useless without enforcement.

Justice is a Must
Many said Filipinos suffer because of not enough legislation to follow. But, we are not suffering from a lack of laws, they are suffering from the government’s inability, or unwillingness, to enforce them. A delayed right is already a denied right, and citizens deserve actions. The hopes of our nation must have the same opportunity others’ have. Crimes will continue to threaten our safety unless accountability is pursued.

The government must act with urgency, transparency, and integrity. Policies must not remain promises. Rights must not remain in theory. Implementation must not remain an option. Because in a nation where rights are delayed, the people are denied, and Filipinos deserve better than delay disguised as progress.