MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has named Senator Sonny Angara as the new secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd).
“President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has announced that he is set to appoint Senator Juan Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara as the new Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd), replacing Vice President Sara Duterte who resigned last June 19, 2024, effective July 19, 2024,” the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) announced on Tuesday, July 2.
Angara, whose term in the Senate ends in 2025, replaced Vice President Sara Duterte, who resigned as DepEd chief on June 19.
Angara was among those recommended by the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) to Marcos, along with Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian, Negros Occidental 3rd District Representative Kiko Benitez, and Synergeia Foundation president Milwida Guevara.
Marcos was supposed to announce his choice for DepEd chief over the weekend but he said on Saturday, June 29, that he needed “more time” to choose, given the demands of the job and the “valid concerns” raised by various stakeholders.
Senate President Chiz Escudero had earlier endorsed Angara’s appointment as education secretary. “I was one of the first, if not the first, to actually recommend him to become the DepEd Secretary given his competence, given his track record, given his experience,” Escudero said in a chance interview with reporters on Monday, July 1.
Angara inherits a gargantuan problem in the education sector, including the poor performance of Filipino students in global education assessments. A World Bank report showed that 9 in 10 Filipino students aged 10 are struggling to read a simple text.
Angara, the son of the late Senate president and educator Edgardo Angara, began his political career as Aurora congressman from 2004 to 2013. During his time at the House of Representatives, he was also active in advocating for education and welfare of the Filipino youth. He was the co-author of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 or the K to 12 program in the lower chamber.
Angara was first elected as a senator in 2013. He authored bills concerning the education sector, among others. He was a commissioner of the Second Congressional Commission on Education or EDCOM II, which aims to address education woes.
As EDCOM II commissioner, Angara promised a comprehensive review of the K to 12 program.
“The DepEd and EDCOM 2 will work hand-in-hand in reviewing the K to 12 program and come out with recommendations to improve the curriculum, which the DepEd has found to be congested, that some prerequisites of identified essential learning competencies are missing or misplaced, and that a significant number of learning competencies cater to high cognitive demands,” Angara said in his Manila Bulletin column in April 2023.
Under her watch, Sara Duterte began the review of the K to 12 curriculum amid growing clamor from the public to either revise it or scrap it. She had made a commitment to make the program “relevant to produce competent, job-ready, active, and responsible citizens.” The review was not yet done at the time of her resignation.
Angara, a lawyer like the Vice President, earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of the Philippines College of Law. He finished his Masters of Laws at Harvard Law School in 2003. – Rappler.com