THE Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday, July 25, opposed the suggestion to revert to the department the authority to declare the suspension of classes in case of bad weather.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the local government units should retain the authority to announce class suspension since they know their localities best.
"It is usually the local officials who love their people, who immediately go out when there is a storm or a disaster. To find out what is happening, they go there very much faster and earlier than we could ever do so," Briones said in a weekly economic press briefing.
"And the reason behind the policy of asking local government [to suspend classes] is in terms of timeliness. They would be much faster, because they're right there where the storm is, where the flood is, where the earthquake is before the DepEd officials will ever have an opportunity to go," she added.
Quezon City administrator Aldrin Cuña had suggested to return to the DepED the power to declare cancellation of classes during typhoons and other weather disturbances.
Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III, however, had maintained that it was the job of the local officials, not the Education department, to decide on the suspension of classes within their respective territorial jurisdictions.
On January 9,2016, former president Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order (EO) 66, delegating to local chief executives the authority to suspend classes in their jurisdiction, in case heavy rains and massive flooding occur even without a storm signal.
Local officials are tasked to declare class suspension before 4:30 a.m. for morning sessions and before 11 a.m. for afternoon sessions.
Some students and parents, however, keep on complaining about the failure of their local executives to declare the suspension of classes in a timely manner.
Briones said that while some local officials do not want to be blamed over delayed announcements of class suspension, they know more when to call off classes when the weather warrants.
"I think the issue here is who is [blamed or] who gets the blame. Who gets the blame? Some local government units are not happy about being blamed as to the timeliness of the decision," she said.
"[But] local government units are so much more on the ground and they know what is really happening... As I said, local officials, especially at this time, I'm very sure, they're very concerned and they love their constituents, especially the children and the parents of the children," Briones added. (SunStar Philippines)