The Alliance of Concerned Teachers on Tuesday welcomed the recent memorandum order of the Department of Education anent the national language, saying the use of the word “Pilipinas” instead of “Filipinas” is right.
ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro told Daily Tribune that the word “Pilipinas” is widely used by people nowadays.
“It is only right to use the word “Pilipinas” because it is widely used today,” Castro said.
This comes after the DepEd on 26 August issued Department Memorandum 74, s. 2022 or the implementation of the decision of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino to stop the implementation of the Commissioner 13-19, s. 2013 thru the implementation of Commissioner No. 21-18, s. 2021.
KWF chairperson Arthur Casanova on Tuesday told Daily Tribune that the 1987 Constitution was their basis where “Pilipinas” and not “Filipinas” is the official Filipino name of the Philippines. He pointed out that changing “Filipinas” from “Pilipinas” will only cause confusion for the students and conflict for many Filipinos.
Meanwhile, Castro said that there are other issues that the body must resolve such as the banning of five fiction books published by the KWF for allegedly being subversive.
“There are more important issues that the KWF should resolve such as the violation of freedom of expression made in the memo by the 2 commissioners in banning the printing and distribution of five fiction books,” she added.
The statement comes after the KWF issued a resolution banning books from classrooms, including books written by Malou Jacob, Rommel Rodriguez, and Don Pagusara, which the body also published in April last year.