PUBLIC LIVES
August 19, 2010
Randy David
Language matters
It is that time of the year when we are prompted to revisit language issues in our society. In what language should we educate our children? What language should the government use to communicate with our people? What language should the courts in our country use? Is the bilingual policy that makes Filipino and English the official media of communication and instruction serving the national purpose? Are we doing enough to develop and enrich Filipino as the national language, as mandated by the Constitution? These issues have remained contentious and unresolved:
Even as languages evolve on their own, nations find themselves having to choose which languages best work for them as they pursue specific goals and purposes. As with persons, language preference ultimately mirrors a nation’s hierarchy of values. In the post-colonial years, especially in those societies marked by cultural diversity, the designation of a national language was thought crucial to the task of nation-building and political integration. Today, nations that have premised their growth on being able to ride the tide of globalization find little need to develop their own languages. They not only turn to English as the language of modernity; they also want to make it the lingua franca of their people.
This brings instant rewards to individuals who seek careers in the modern sector of the economy or in the global labor market. But for the majority who remain in the country, the costs are immense. Education becomes an alienating experience for schoolchildren, who cannot use their own language to create and access knowledge. Social inequalities are exacerbated. As English becomes a marker of class, a mechanism of exclusion, local languages are relegated to the margins of public discourse. Perhaps, most important of all, as we lose the use of our languages, we also break with our own basic orientations as a people. This is especially a problem for the English-speaking Filipino intelligentsia who find that increasingly they can neither understand nor communicate with their own people.
Recent research on the connection between language and ways of seeing and thinking provides new evidence for the thesis that language is not just a carrier but a shaper of thought. These studies, echoing the “linguistic turn” in philosophy, shift the analysis from the nature of the mind to the uses of language.
In an article for the Wall Street Journal (07/23/10), Dr. Lera Boroditsky, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, discusses recent field experiments that show how language structures not just the way we see but the way we solve problems and accumulate knowledge about the world. This is not a new idea at all. But Dr. Boroditsky has come up with new material to prove the point.
Language, she argues, shapes our notions of space, time, and causality. Such notions are not the same in all languages. “About a third of the world’s languages (spoken in all kinds of physical environments) rely on absolute directions for space.” Dr. Boroditsky and another colleague went to Australia to study the Pormpuraaw, an aboriginal group whose languages have no “terms like ‘left’ and ‘right.’ Instead, everything is talked about in terms of absolute cardinal directions (north, south, east, west), which means you say things like, ‘There’s an ant on your southwest leg.” This astounding precision in the language for depicting space allows people like the Pormpuraaws to “build many other more complex or abstract representations including time, number, musical pitch, kinship relations, morality, and emotions.”
Does the way we talk about space have any bearing on the way we talk about time? To find out, the researchers showed the Pormpuraaws some pictures indicating a progression of events – photos of a person or crocodile at different ages, or a banana being consumed in stages. While seated, the subjects were repeatedly asked to arrange the photos in the correct temporal order, facing in a different direction each time. English speakers arrange time from left to right. Speakers of languages that are written from right to left, like Hebrew, Bororditsky says, arrange time from right to left.
But the Pormpuraaws depict time progression in an east-to-west direction. Facing south, the subjects arranged the time photos from left to right. Facing north, they arranged them right to left. Facing east, they arranged them toward the body. No one needed to tell them where east or west was. In other languages, Boroditsky adds, the past may be represented as above, while the future is below (as in Mandarin). “In Aymara, spoken in South America, the future is behind and the past in front.”
What is true for time and space seems true as well for notions of causality. In some languages, accidents are attributed to no one, whereas in others, the doer who caused the accident is identified, what witnesses saw is important, and blame is assigned.
This reminds me of a story that Michel Foucault tells in an interview. A team of psychologists showed a short film about three characters to a village in Africa, and then asked the viewers to recount the film in their own words. They remembered nothing about the characters; only one thing engaged their attention: “the movement of the light and shadow through the trees.”
Language matters. We are formed by the language we speak. When we lose our language, we lose a part of ourselves. Ludwig Wittgenstein captured it so well in a crisp aphorism: “The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.”
public.lives@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Medical Help - Information Tutorial
The website below comes from the National Institute of Health. It is an information channel wherein diseases that we are familiar or not familiar with are explained in a simple manner. Click on the link below.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/
Friday, June 18, 2010
Service Learning
Please click on the link below for a primer on Service Learning.
http://www.statefarm.com/about/part_spos/community/ed_excel/servlrng.asp
http://www.statefarm.com/about/part_spos/community/ed_excel/servlrng.asp
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Funding American education
By Alyson Klein
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Against a current of political resistance—including from some Democrats—the Obama administration and congressional leaders continue to seek new strategies to pass a $23 billion measure aimed at helping schools stave off what could be massive layoffs.
Click on colored link.
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Against a current of political resistance—including from some Democrats—the Obama administration and congressional leaders continue to seek new strategies to pass a $23 billion measure aimed at helping schools stave off what could be massive layoffs.
Click on colored link.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Happiness May come with Age, Study.
Happiness May Come With Age, Study Says
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: May 31, 2010
It is inevitable. The muscles weaken. Hearing and vision fade. We get wrinkled and stooped. We can’t run, or even walk, as fast as we used to. We have aches and pains in parts of our bodies we never even noticed before. We get old.
Click on colored link.
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: May 31, 2010
It is inevitable. The muscles weaken. Hearing and vision fade. We get wrinkled and stooped. We can’t run, or even walk, as fast as we used to. We have aches and pains in parts of our bodies we never even noticed before. We get old.
Click on colored link.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Alfie Kohn, constructivist educator
Alfie Kohn
This is Alfie Kohn’s second time as a guest speaker at Constructing Modern Knowledge.
Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The latest of his eleven books are The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing (2006) and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason (2005). Of his earlier titles, the best known are Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes (1993), No Contest: The Case Against Competition (1986), and The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards” (1999).
Kohn has been described in Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” His criticisms of competition and rewards have helped to shape the thinking of educators — as well as parents and managers — across the country and abroad. Kohn has been featured on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including the “Today” show and two appearances on “Oprah”; he has been profiled in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, while his work has been described and debated in many other leading publications.
This is Alfie Kohn’s second time as a guest speaker at Constructing Modern Knowledge.
Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The latest of his eleven books are The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing (2006) and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason (2005). Of his earlier titles, the best known are Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes (1993), No Contest: The Case Against Competition (1986), and The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards” (1999).
Kohn has been described in Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” His criticisms of competition and rewards have helped to shape the thinking of educators — as well as parents and managers — across the country and abroad. Kohn has been featured on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including the “Today” show and two appearances on “Oprah”; he has been profiled in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, while his work has been described and debated in many other leading publications.
China boast of Supercomputer
The supercomputer named Nabulae, nested at Shenzen South China has achieved a record of 1.271 petaflops per second. A petaflop is equivalent to 1,000 trillion calculations.
Before 1950, China, a muddy ground ("nakadanas ka na ba maligo sa dagat ng basura?") can't make a respectable hammer. Now, let us look where China is now. They are going to open the World China Exhibit this June.
Did the Chinese made our PCOS machines?
Click on this colored link.
Before 1950, China, a muddy ground ("nakadanas ka na ba maligo sa dagat ng basura?") can't make a respectable hammer. Now, let us look where China is now. They are going to open the World China Exhibit this June.
Did the Chinese made our PCOS machines?
Click on this colored link.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Noam Chomsky remembers from the past
It's true that there is nothing fundamentally new in the process of deindustrialization. Owners and managers naturally seek the lowest labor costs; efforts to do otherwise, famously by Henry Ford, were struck down by the courts, so now it is a legal obligation. One means is shifting production.
http://www.truthout.org/remembering-fascism-learning-from-past58724
http://www.truthout.org/remembering-fascism-learning-from-past58724
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Ten To-Dos for New Teachers
Teaching Secrets: 10 To-Dos for New Teachers
By Marsha Ratzel
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Teacher Leaders Network College commencements are in the air, and while the thoughts of some new teacher graduates are no doubt turning to the beach or summer jobs, other freshly minted educators are already envisioning their first classrooms full of students, each with his or her own special learning needs.
It’s an exciting but also anxious time, as the experienced professionals in the Teacher Leaders Network know well. So for those early birds lucky enough to have found a teaching position in the current down-sized economy and eager to begin, we offer our first Teaching Secrets article of 2010, tailored to the particular needs of new teachers in the “tween” grades.
Author Marsha Ratzel teaches middle school math and science in Blue Valley, Kansas, where she has also served as a district-wide technology and curriculum coach. She’s National Board-certified and began her (so far) 18-year teaching journey after a first career in health care administration. Marsha’s 10 practical ideas can help novice educators better prepare for the first day of school and a successful year.
—John Norton, TLN moderator
Ratzel's Top 10 To-Do List for New Teachers Starting School
1. Find your curriculum and read through it several times. Put Post-it notes in places where you have questions. Work with the principal to partner with an experienced teacher at least several weeks before school starts to get an overview of the entire year and do serious scrutiny of the first month’s goals.
2. Find all your supporting materials, both student and teacher copies. Know where and how the curriculum and the textbooks match up in a general sense. Do a more thorough matching for the first unit, so you’ll know exactly where and what you’ll be using. Be sure to scan through all the supplemental materials that most publishers provide. This can be overwhelming at the level of fine detail, so go for the big picture snapshot. You can come back later when you see a need, once you have some working knowledge of the possibilities.
3. Ask to look over last year’s yearbook. It’s a great place to see the kinds of activities that are important to your new school community. The faculty pictures and names will be there, too. If the school has a student newspaper, that’s another source for developing a sense of the school identity.
4. Create a birthday list for each class (celebrate half-birthdays for summer birthdays, six months from the actual date). Decide what small thing you might do to honor each child. Maybe it is a B-Day postcard you send home. Maybe it’s a Free Homework Pass. Maybe it’s a Birthday Pencil. Take the list and group birthdays by month and get everything ready to go for the whole year. Since I use Homework Passes, I put student names and the birthday date on each pass, then hand them out with some ceremony at the start of each month.
5. Develop some sort of impartial method for calling on students during class. Assigning student numbers and then randomly picking a number works well. You can put the numbers on craft sticks or ping pong balls (some gradebook programs have a student picker option). You may be able to number the desks and call on the student sitting in that desk. However you do it, you’re demonstrating a method that removes bias and gives all students an equal chance to be asked.
6. Figure out how you will capture students on the first day of school. Going over the rules or what they’ll be learning is not the way. Think of some easy-to-implement, highly engaging activity to snag their interests and build a bridge between you and them. (You can find many ideas on the Web.) I always try to give them a sense of who I am, my sense of humor, and what I love about my job and them. This helps students relax and realize you are their ally, their partner, their facilitator…not the enemy. The activity has to be structured, though, or it could descend into chaos. It’s a fine balance—so ask around and see what has worked in the past for other teachers.
7. Design some method to manage and keep track of daily paperwork, especially for absent students. If you have all of your students regularly asking you for their missed work assignments, you’ll lose your mind. There are so many options out there. My favorite is to have a hanging folder for each student in every class. If I pass out papers, the student at the front of each row is responsible for filing the handouts in the appropriate folder for every absent student in that row. When the student returns they know they can look in their folder for all their work.
8. Make an appointment to sit down with important building specialists. If your building has a staffed library, see if you can meet with the library media specialist to find out how you can best utilize their resources. Even if the discipline you are teaching doesn’t seem to require library resources, you will be amazed at the things that are possible and available if you only ask.
9. Introduce yourself to the school secretaries, the nurse, the bookkeepers and the paraprofessionals. Most importantly, find out who is going to clean your room and make sure to start building a close relationship with them. Friendliness leads to cleanliness!
10. Decide where and when you will fight your battles with the kids. Gum chewing, talking, a failure to bring pencil and paper to class—these are all potential danger zones. Pencils used to be a constant battle for me. Now I just buy about 1,000 of them during the Back to School supply sales for $5.00. It’s the best $5.00 I could ever spend. Your rules must adhere to district/school policies and be supported by your fellow teachers. But that still leaves lots of latitude. For example, our policy leaves gum chewing up to the discretion of each teacher. This can be tricky as students move through the day. When it comes to potentially conflicting policies, teachers need to know where they stand (vis a vis other teachers) before something becomes an issue with a student.
These straightforward, practical tips can help you get off to a good start by smoothing the path to the destination you care about most—teaching well. Start thinking, planning and preparing now, and you’ll get there.
Marsha Ratzel blogs about teaching practice and policy at Reflections of a Techie. For more advanced new-teacher tips, see her 2008 article, “The Parent Meet and Greet.”
By Marsha Ratzel
Premium article access courtesy of TeacherMagazine.org.
Read more FREE content!
Article Tools
* PrintPrinter-Friendly
* EmailEmail Article
* ReprintReprints
* CommentsComments (4)
* Bookmark and Share
*
Sponsored by:
Teacher Leaders Network College commencements are in the air, and while the thoughts of some new teacher graduates are no doubt turning to the beach or summer jobs, other freshly minted educators are already envisioning their first classrooms full of students, each with his or her own special learning needs.
It’s an exciting but also anxious time, as the experienced professionals in the Teacher Leaders Network know well. So for those early birds lucky enough to have found a teaching position in the current down-sized economy and eager to begin, we offer our first Teaching Secrets article of 2010, tailored to the particular needs of new teachers in the “tween” grades.
Author Marsha Ratzel teaches middle school math and science in Blue Valley, Kansas, where she has also served as a district-wide technology and curriculum coach. She’s National Board-certified and began her (so far) 18-year teaching journey after a first career in health care administration. Marsha’s 10 practical ideas can help novice educators better prepare for the first day of school and a successful year.
—John Norton, TLN moderator
Ratzel's Top 10 To-Do List for New Teachers Starting School
1. Find your curriculum and read through it several times. Put Post-it notes in places where you have questions. Work with the principal to partner with an experienced teacher at least several weeks before school starts to get an overview of the entire year and do serious scrutiny of the first month’s goals.
2. Find all your supporting materials, both student and teacher copies. Know where and how the curriculum and the textbooks match up in a general sense. Do a more thorough matching for the first unit, so you’ll know exactly where and what you’ll be using. Be sure to scan through all the supplemental materials that most publishers provide. This can be overwhelming at the level of fine detail, so go for the big picture snapshot. You can come back later when you see a need, once you have some working knowledge of the possibilities.
3. Ask to look over last year’s yearbook. It’s a great place to see the kinds of activities that are important to your new school community. The faculty pictures and names will be there, too. If the school has a student newspaper, that’s another source for developing a sense of the school identity.
4. Create a birthday list for each class (celebrate half-birthdays for summer birthdays, six months from the actual date). Decide what small thing you might do to honor each child. Maybe it is a B-Day postcard you send home. Maybe it’s a Free Homework Pass. Maybe it’s a Birthday Pencil. Take the list and group birthdays by month and get everything ready to go for the whole year. Since I use Homework Passes, I put student names and the birthday date on each pass, then hand them out with some ceremony at the start of each month.
5. Develop some sort of impartial method for calling on students during class. Assigning student numbers and then randomly picking a number works well. You can put the numbers on craft sticks or ping pong balls (some gradebook programs have a student picker option). You may be able to number the desks and call on the student sitting in that desk. However you do it, you’re demonstrating a method that removes bias and gives all students an equal chance to be asked.
6. Figure out how you will capture students on the first day of school. Going over the rules or what they’ll be learning is not the way. Think of some easy-to-implement, highly engaging activity to snag their interests and build a bridge between you and them. (You can find many ideas on the Web.) I always try to give them a sense of who I am, my sense of humor, and what I love about my job and them. This helps students relax and realize you are their ally, their partner, their facilitator…not the enemy. The activity has to be structured, though, or it could descend into chaos. It’s a fine balance—so ask around and see what has worked in the past for other teachers.
7. Design some method to manage and keep track of daily paperwork, especially for absent students. If you have all of your students regularly asking you for their missed work assignments, you’ll lose your mind. There are so many options out there. My favorite is to have a hanging folder for each student in every class. If I pass out papers, the student at the front of each row is responsible for filing the handouts in the appropriate folder for every absent student in that row. When the student returns they know they can look in their folder for all their work.
8. Make an appointment to sit down with important building specialists. If your building has a staffed library, see if you can meet with the library media specialist to find out how you can best utilize their resources. Even if the discipline you are teaching doesn’t seem to require library resources, you will be amazed at the things that are possible and available if you only ask.
9. Introduce yourself to the school secretaries, the nurse, the bookkeepers and the paraprofessionals. Most importantly, find out who is going to clean your room and make sure to start building a close relationship with them. Friendliness leads to cleanliness!
10. Decide where and when you will fight your battles with the kids. Gum chewing, talking, a failure to bring pencil and paper to class—these are all potential danger zones. Pencils used to be a constant battle for me. Now I just buy about 1,000 of them during the Back to School supply sales for $5.00. It’s the best $5.00 I could ever spend. Your rules must adhere to district/school policies and be supported by your fellow teachers. But that still leaves lots of latitude. For example, our policy leaves gum chewing up to the discretion of each teacher. This can be tricky as students move through the day. When it comes to potentially conflicting policies, teachers need to know where they stand (vis a vis other teachers) before something becomes an issue with a student.
These straightforward, practical tips can help you get off to a good start by smoothing the path to the destination you care about most—teaching well. Start thinking, planning and preparing now, and you’ll get there.
Marsha Ratzel blogs about teaching practice and policy at Reflections of a Techie. For more advanced new-teacher tips, see her 2008 article, “The Parent Meet and Greet.”
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Supreme Court and Membership Dues
Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
A.M. No. 1928 August 3, 1978
In the Matter of the IBP Membership Dues Delinquency of Atty. MARCIAL A. EDILION (IBP Administrative Case No. MDD-1)
R E S O L U T I O N
CASTRO, C.J.:
The respondent Marcial A. Edillon is a duly licensed practicing attorney in the Philippines.
On November 29, 1975, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP for short) Board of Governors unanimously adopted Resolution No. 75-65 in Administrative Case No. MDD-1 (In the Matter of the Membership Dues Delinquency of Atty. Marcial A. Edillon) recommending to the Court the removal of the name of the respondent from its Roll of Attorneys for "stubborn refusal to pay his membership dues" to the IBP since the latter's constitution notwithstanding due notice.
On January 21, 1976, the IBP, through its then President Liliano B. Neri, submitted the said resolution to the Court for consideration and approval, pursuant to paragraph 2, Section 24, Article III of the By-Laws of the IBP, which reads:
.... Should the delinquency further continue until the following June 29, the Board shall promptly inquire into the cause or causes of the continued delinquency and take whatever action it shall deem appropriate, including a recommendation to the Supreme Court for the removal of the delinquent member's name from the Roll of Attorneys. Notice of the action taken shall be sent by registered mail to the member and to the Secretary of the Chapter concerned.
On January 27, 1976, the Court required the respondent to comment on the resolution and letter adverted to above; he submitted his comment on February 23, 1976, reiterating his refusal to pay the membership fees due from him.
On March 2, 1976, the Court required the IBP President and the IBP Board of Governors to reply to Edillon's comment: on March 24, 1976, they submitted a joint reply.
Thereafter, the case was set for hearing on June 3, 1976. After the hearing, the parties were required to submit memoranda in amplification of their oral arguments. The matter was thenceforth submitted for resolution.
At the threshold, a painstaking scrutiny of the respondent's pleadings would show that the propriety and necessity of the integration of the Bar of the Philippines are in essence conceded. The respondent, however, objects to particular features of Rule of Court 139-A (hereinafter referred to as the Court Rule) 1 � in accordance with which the Bar of the Philippines was integrated � and to the provisions of par. 2, Section 24, Article III, of the IBP By-Laws (hereinabove cited).
The authority of the IBP Board of Governors to recommend to the Supreme Court the removal of a delinquent member's name from the Roll of Attorneys is found in par. 2 Section 24, Article Ill of the IBP By-Laws (supra), whereas the authority of the Court to issue the order applied for is found in Section 10 of the Court Rule, which reads:
SEC. 10. Effect of non-payment of dues. � Subject to the provisions of Section 12 of this Rule, default in the payment of annual dues for six months shall warrant suspension of membership in the Integrated Bar, and default in such payment for one year shall be a ground for the removal of the name of the delinquent member from the Roll of Attorneys.
The all-encompassing, all-inclusive scope of membership in the IBP is stated in these words of the Court Rule:
SECTION 1. Organization. � There is hereby organized an official national body to be known as the 'Integrated Bar of the Philippines,' composed of all persons whose names now appear or may hereafter be included in the Roll of Attorneys of the Supreme Court.
The obligation to pay membership dues is couched in the following words of the Court Rule:
SEC. 9. Membership dues. Every member of the Integrated Bar shall pay such annual dues as the Board of Governors shall determine with the approval of the Supreme Court. ...
The core of the respondent's arguments is that the above provisions constitute an invasion of his constitutional rights in the sense that he is being compelled, as a pre-condition to maintaining his status as a lawyer in good standing, to be a member of the IBP and to pay the corresponding dues, and that as a consequence of this compelled financial support of the said organization to which he is admittedly personally antagonistic, he is being deprived of the rights to liberty and property guaranteed to him by the Constitution. Hence, the respondent concludes, the above provisions of the Court Rule and of the IBP By-Laws are void and of no legal force and effect.
The respondent similarly questions the jurisdiction of the Court to strike his name from the Roll of Attorneys, contending that the said matter is not among the justiciable cases triable by the Court but is rather of an "administrative nature pertaining to an administrative body."
The case at bar is not the first one that has reached the Court relating to constitutional issues that inevitably and inextricably come up to the surface whenever attempts are made to regulate the practice of law, define the conditions of such practice, or revoke the license granted for the exercise of the legal profession.
The matters here complained of are the very same issues raised in a previous case before the Court, entitled "Administrative Case No. 526, In the Matter of the Petition for the Integration of the Bar of the Philippines, Roman Ozaeta, et al., Petitioners." The Court exhaustively considered all these matters in that case in its Resolution ordaining the integration of the Bar of the Philippines, promulgated on January 9, 1973. The Court there made the unanimous pronouncement that it was
... fully convinced, after a thoroughgoing conscientious study of all the arguments adduced in Adm. Case No. 526 and the authoritative materials and the mass of factual data contained in the exhaustive Report of the Commission on Bar Integration, that the integration of the Philippine Bar is 'perfectly constitutional and legally unobjectionable'. ...
Be that as it may, we now restate briefly the posture of the Court.
An "Integrated Bar" is a State-organized Bar, to which every lawyer must belong, as distinguished from bar associations organized by individual lawyers themselves, membership in which is voluntary. Integration of the Bar is essentially a process by which every member of the Bar is afforded an opportunity to do his share in carrying out the objectives of the Bar as well as obliged to bear his portion of its responsibilities. Organized by or under the direction of the State, an integrated Bar is an official national body of which all lawyers are required to be members. They are, therefore, subject to all the rules prescribed for the governance of the Bar, including the requirement of payment of a reasonable annual fee for the effective discharge of the purposes of the Bar, and adherence to a code of professional ethics or professional responsibility breach of which constitutes sufficient reason for investigation by the Bar and, upon proper cause appearing, a recommendation for discipline or disbarment of the offending member. 2
The integration of the Philippine Bar was obviously dictated by overriding considerations of public interest and public welfare to such an extent as more than constitutionally and legally justifies the restrictions that integration imposes upon the personal interests and personal convenience of individual lawyers. 3
Apropos to the above, it must be stressed that all legislation directing the integration of the Bar have been uniformly and universally sustained as a valid exercise of the police power over an important profession. The practice of law is not a vested right but a privilege, a privilege moreover clothed with public interest because a lawyer owes substantial duties not only to his client, but also to his brethren in the profession, to the courts, and to the nation, and takes part in one of the most important functions of the State � the administration of justice � as an officer of the court. 4 The practice of law being clothed with public interest, the holder of this privilege must submit to a degree of control for the common good, to the extent of the interest he has created. As the U. S. Supreme Court through Mr. Justice Roberts explained, the expression "affected with a public interest" is the equivalent of "subject to the exercise of the police power" (Nebbia vs. New York, 291 U.S. 502).
When, therefore, Congress enacted Republic Act No. 6397 5 authorizing the Supreme Court to "adopt rules of court to effect the integration of the Philippine Bar under such conditions as it shall see fit," it did so in the exercise of the paramount police power of the State. The Act's avowal is to "raise the standards of the legal profession, improve the administration of justice, and enable the Bar to discharge its public responsibility more effectively." Hence, the Congress in enacting such Act, the Court in ordaining the integration of the Bar through its Resolution promulgated on January 9, 1973, and the President of the Philippines in decreeing the constitution of the IBP into a body corporate through Presidential Decree No. 181 dated May 4, 1973, were prompted by fundamental considerations of public welfare and motivated by a desire to meet the demands of pressing public necessity.
The State, in order to promote the general welfare, may interfere with and regulate personal liberty, property and occupations. Persons and property may be subjected to restraints and burdens in order to secure the general prosperity and welfare of the State (U.S. vs. Gomez Jesus, 31 Phil 218), for, as the Latin maxim goes, "Salus populi est supreme lex." The public welfare is the supreme law. To this fundamental principle of government the rights of individuals are subordinated. Liberty is a blessing without which life is a misery, but liberty should not be made to prevail over authority because then society win fall into anarchy (Calalang vs. Williams, 70 Phil. 726). It is an undoubted power of the State to restrain some individuals from all freedom, and all individuals from some freedom.
But the most compelling argument sustaining the constitutionality and validity of Bar integration in the Philippines is the explicit unequivocal grant of precise power to the Supreme Court by Section 5 (5) of Article X of the 1973 Constitution of the Philippines, which reads:
Sec. 5. The Supreme Court shall have the following powers:
xxx xxx xxx
(5) Promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice, and pro. procedure in all courts, and the admission to the practice of law and the integration of the Bar ...,
and Section 1 of Republic Act No. 6397, which reads:
SECTION 1. Within two years from the approval of this Act, the Supreme Court may adopt rules of Court to effect the integration of the Philippine Bar under such conditions as it shall see fit in order to raise the standards of the legal profession, improve the administration of justice, and enable the Bar to discharge its public responsibility more effectively.
Quite apart from the above, let it be stated that even without the enabling Act (Republic Act No. 6397), and looking solely to the language of the provision of the Constitution granting the Supreme Court the power "to promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice and procedure in all courts, and the admission to the practice of law," it at once becomes indubitable that this constitutional declaration vests the Supreme Court with plenary power in all cases regarding the admission to and supervision of the practice of law.
Thus, when the respondent Edillon entered upon the legal profession, his practice of law and his exercise of the said profession, which affect the society at large, were (and are) subject to the power of the body politic to require him to conform to such regulations as might be established by the proper authorities for the common good, even to the extent of interfering with some of his liberties. If he did not wish to submit himself to such reasonable interference and regulation, he should not have clothed the public with an interest in his concerns.
On this score alone, the case for the respondent must already fall.
The issues being of constitutional dimension, however, we now concisely deal with them seriatim.
1. The first objection posed by the respondent is that the Court is without power to compel him to become a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, hence, Section 1 of the Court Rule is unconstitutional for it impinges on his constitutional right of freedom to associate (and not to associate). Our answer is: To compel a lawyer to be a member of the Integrated Bar is not violative of his constitutional freedom to associate. 6
Integration does not make a lawyer a member of any group of which he is not already a member. He became a member of the Bar when he passed the Bar examinations. 7 All that integration actually does is to provide an official national organization for the well-defined but unorganized and incohesive group of which every lawyer is a ready a member. 8
Bar integration does not compel the lawyer to associate with anyone. He is free to attend or not attend the meetings of his Integrated Bar Chapter or vote or refuse to vote in its elections as he chooses. The only compulsion to which he is subjected is the payment of annual dues. The Supreme Court, in order to further the State's legitimate interest in elevating the quality of professional legal services, may require that the cost of improving the profession in this fashion be shared by the subjects and beneficiaries of the regulatory program � the lawyers. 9
Assuming that the questioned provision does in a sense compel a lawyer to be a member of the Integrated Bar, such compulsion is justified as an exercise of the police power of the State. 10
2. The second issue posed by the respondent is that the provision of the Court Rule requiring payment of a membership fee is void. We see nothing in the Constitution that prohibits the Court, under its constitutional power and duty to promulgate rules concerning the admission to the practice of law and the integration of the Philippine Bar (Article X, Section 5 of the 1973 Constitution) � which power the respondent acknowledges � from requiring members of a privileged class, such as lawyers are, to pay a reasonable fee toward defraying the expenses of regulation of the profession to which they belong. It is quite apparent that the fee is indeed imposed as a regulatory measure, designed to raise funds for carrying out the objectives and purposes of integration. 11
3. The respondent further argues that the enforcement of the penalty provisions would amount to a deprivation of property without due process and hence infringes on one of his constitutional rights. Whether the practice of law is a property right, in the sense of its being one that entitles the holder of a license to practice a profession, we do not here pause to consider at length, as it clear that under the police power of the State, and under the necessary powers granted to the Court to perpetuate its existence, the respondent's right to practise law before the courts of this country should be and is a matter subject to regulation and inquiry. And, if the power to impose the fee as a regulatory measure is recognize, then a penalty designed to enforce its payment, which penalty may be avoided altogether by payment, is not void as unreasonable or arbitrary. 12
But we must here emphasize that the practice of law is not a property right but a mere privilege, 13 and as such must bow to the inherent regulatory power of the Court to exact compliance with the lawyer's public responsibilities.
4. Relative to the issue of the power and/or jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to strike the name of a lawyer from its Roll of Attorneys, it is sufficient to state that the matters of admission, suspension, disbarment and reinstatement of lawyers and their regulation and supervision have been and are indisputably recognized as inherent judicial functions and responsibilities, and the authorities holding such are legion. 14
In In Re Sparks (267 Ky. 93, 101 S.W. (2d) 194), in which the report of the Board of Bar Commissioners in a disbarment proceeding was confirmed and disbarment ordered, the court, sustaining the Bar Integration Act of Kentucky, said: "The power to regulate the conduct and qualifications of its officers does not depend upon constitutional or statutory grounds. It is a power which is inherent in this court as a court � appropriate, indeed necessary, to the proper administration of justice ... the argument that this is an arbitrary power which the court is arrogating to itself or accepting from the legislative likewise misconceives the nature of the duty. It has limitations no less real because they are inherent. It is an unpleasant task to sit in judgment upon a brother member of the Bar, particularly where, as here, the facts are disputed. It is a grave responsibility, to be assumed only with a determination to uphold the Ideals and traditions of an honorable profession and to protect the public from overreaching and fraud. The very burden of the duty is itself a guaranty that the power will not be misused or prostituted. ..."
The Court's jurisdiction was greatly reinforced by our 1973 Constitution when it explicitly granted to the Court the power to "Promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice ... and the admission to the practice of law and the integration of the Bar ... (Article X, Sec. 5(5) the power to pass upon the fitness of the respondent to remain a member of the legal profession is indeed undoubtedly vested in the Court.
We thus reach the conclusion that the provisions of Rule of Court 139-A and of the By-Laws of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines complained of are neither unconstitutional nor illegal.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, it is the unanimous sense of the Court that the respondent Marcial A. Edillon should be as he is hereby disbarred, and his name is hereby ordered stricken from the Roll of Attorneys of the Court.
Fernando, Teehankee, Barredo, Makasiar, Antonio, Mu�oz Palma, Aquino, Concepcion, Jr., Santos, Fernandez and Guerrero, JJ., concur.
Footnotes
1 Adopted in the Supreme Court's Resolution, promulgated on January 9, 1973, ordaining the integration of the Bar of the Philippines.
2 114 A.L.R. 101.
3 Memorandum of Authorities on the Constitutionality of Bar Integration, cited in the Report of the Commission Bar Integration on the Integration of the Philippine Bar, Nov. 30, 1972; see also Supreme Court Resolution of January 9, 1973, ordaining the integration of the Philippine Bar.
4 In re Integrating the Bar, 222 Ark 35, 259 S. W. 2d 114; Petition of Florida State Bar Association, 40 So. 2d 902; Petition of Florida State Bar Association, 134 Fla. 851, 186 So. 280: In re Edwards, 45 Idaho 676, 266 P. 665; Commonwealth ex rel. Ward vs. Harrington, 266 Ky. 41 98 S. W. 2d 53; Ayres vs. Hadaway 303 Mich. 589, 6 N. W. 2d 905; Petition for Integration of Bar of Minnesota, 216 Minn. 195; Petition for Integration of Bar of Minnesota, 216 Minn. 195, 12 N. W. 2d 515; Clark vs. Austin, 101 S. W. 2d 977; In Re Integration of Nebraska State Bar Assn., 133 Neb. 283, 275 N. W. 265, 114 A.L.R. 151; In re Scott, 53 Nev. 24, 292 291; Baker vs. Varser, 240 N.C. 260, 82 S.E. 2d 90; In re Integration of State Bar of Oklahoma, 185 Okla, 505, 95 P. 2d 113; State ex rel. Rice vs. Cozad, 70 S. Dak. 193, 16 N. W. 2d 484; Campbell vs. Third District Committee of Virginia State Bar, 179 Va. 244, 18 S. E. 2d 883; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 10 Wis. 2d 230,102 N. W. 2d 404.
5 AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE INTEGRATION OF THE PHILIPPINE BAR AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, approved on September 17,1971.
6 In re Unification of New Hampsire Bar, 248 A. 2d 709; In re Gibson, 35 N. Mex. 550, 4P. 2d 643; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 10 Wis. 2d 230, 102 N. W. 2d 404; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 367 U.S. 820, 6 L. ed. 2d 1191, 81 S. Ct. 1826; Railways Employes' Dept. vs. Hanson, 351 U. S. 225, 100 L. ed. 1112, 76 S. Ct. 714.
7 Diokno, Jose W., "Bar Integration � A Sword and a Shield for Justice" (Manor Press, Q.C., 1962) p. 17.
8 Fellers James, "Integration of the Bar � Aloha!", Journal of the Am. Judicature Society, Vol. 47, No. 11 (1964) p. 256. 9 Lathrop vs. Donahue, 10 Wis. 2d 230, 102, N.W. 2d 404; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 367 U.S. 820, 6 L, ed. 2d 1191, 81 S. Ct. 1826.
9. Lathrop vs. Donohue, 10 Wis., 2d 230, 102, N.W. 2d 404; Lathrop vs. Donohue, 367 U.S. 820, 6L. ed. 2d 1191, 81 S. Ct. 1826.
10 Hill vs. State Bar of California, 97 P. 2d 236; Herron vs. State Bar of California, 24 Cal. 53, 147 P. 2d 543; Carpenter vs. State Bar of California, 211 Cal. 358, 295 P. 23; In re Mundy, 202 La. 41, 11 SO. 2d 398; In re Scott, 53 Nev. 24, 292 P. 291; In re Platz, 60 Nev. 24, 108 P. 2d 858, In re Gibson, 35 N. Mex. 550, 4 P. 2d 643; Kelley vs. State Bar of Oklahoma, 148 Okla, 282, 298 P. 623.
11 Petition of Florida State Bar Association, 40 So. 2d 902; In re Integration of Bar of Hawaii, 432 P. 2d 887; Petition for Integration of Bar of Minnesota, 216 Minn. 195, 12 N. W. 2d 515; In re Scott, 53 Nev. 24, 292 P. 291; In re Unification of New Hampshire Bar, 248 A. 2d 709; In re Gibson, 35 N. Mex. 550, 4 P. 2d 643; State Bar of Oklahoma vs. McGhnee 148 Okla, 219, 298 P. 580; Kelley vs. State Bar of Oklahoma, 148 Okla, 282, 298 P. 623; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 10 Wis. 2d 230,102 N. W. 2d 404.
12 In re Gibson, 4 P. 2d 643.
The following words of Justice Harlan are opposite: "The objection would make every Governmental exaction the material of a 'free speech' issue. Even the income tax would be suspect. The objection would carry us to lengths that have never been dreamed of. The conscientious objector, if his liberties were to thus extended, might refuse to contribute taxes in furtherance of war or of any other end condemned by his conscience as irreligious or immoral The right of private judgment has never yet been exalted above the powers and the compulsion of the agencies of Government." (Concurring opinion of Harlan, J, joined by Frankfurter, J., in Lathrop vs. Donahue, 367
U.S. 820, 6 L.ed. 21191, 81 S. Ct. 1826, citing Cardozo, J. with Branders and Stone, JJ., concurring, in Hamilton vs. Regents of Univ. of California, 293 U.S. 245, 79 L.ed. 343, 55 S. Ct. 197.)
13 Inre Scott, 53 Nev. 24, 292 P. 291.
14 Bar Flunkers Case, 50 O.G. 1602; In re Aguas, 1 Phil. 1, and others.
The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
A.M. No. 1928 August 3, 1978
In the Matter of the IBP Membership Dues Delinquency of Atty. MARCIAL A. EDILION (IBP Administrative Case No. MDD-1)
R E S O L U T I O N
CASTRO, C.J.:
The respondent Marcial A. Edillon is a duly licensed practicing attorney in the Philippines.
On November 29, 1975, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP for short) Board of Governors unanimously adopted Resolution No. 75-65 in Administrative Case No. MDD-1 (In the Matter of the Membership Dues Delinquency of Atty. Marcial A. Edillon) recommending to the Court the removal of the name of the respondent from its Roll of Attorneys for "stubborn refusal to pay his membership dues" to the IBP since the latter's constitution notwithstanding due notice.
On January 21, 1976, the IBP, through its then President Liliano B. Neri, submitted the said resolution to the Court for consideration and approval, pursuant to paragraph 2, Section 24, Article III of the By-Laws of the IBP, which reads:
.... Should the delinquency further continue until the following June 29, the Board shall promptly inquire into the cause or causes of the continued delinquency and take whatever action it shall deem appropriate, including a recommendation to the Supreme Court for the removal of the delinquent member's name from the Roll of Attorneys. Notice of the action taken shall be sent by registered mail to the member and to the Secretary of the Chapter concerned.
On January 27, 1976, the Court required the respondent to comment on the resolution and letter adverted to above; he submitted his comment on February 23, 1976, reiterating his refusal to pay the membership fees due from him.
On March 2, 1976, the Court required the IBP President and the IBP Board of Governors to reply to Edillon's comment: on March 24, 1976, they submitted a joint reply.
Thereafter, the case was set for hearing on June 3, 1976. After the hearing, the parties were required to submit memoranda in amplification of their oral arguments. The matter was thenceforth submitted for resolution.
At the threshold, a painstaking scrutiny of the respondent's pleadings would show that the propriety and necessity of the integration of the Bar of the Philippines are in essence conceded. The respondent, however, objects to particular features of Rule of Court 139-A (hereinafter referred to as the Court Rule) 1 � in accordance with which the Bar of the Philippines was integrated � and to the provisions of par. 2, Section 24, Article III, of the IBP By-Laws (hereinabove cited).
The authority of the IBP Board of Governors to recommend to the Supreme Court the removal of a delinquent member's name from the Roll of Attorneys is found in par. 2 Section 24, Article Ill of the IBP By-Laws (supra), whereas the authority of the Court to issue the order applied for is found in Section 10 of the Court Rule, which reads:
SEC. 10. Effect of non-payment of dues. � Subject to the provisions of Section 12 of this Rule, default in the payment of annual dues for six months shall warrant suspension of membership in the Integrated Bar, and default in such payment for one year shall be a ground for the removal of the name of the delinquent member from the Roll of Attorneys.
The all-encompassing, all-inclusive scope of membership in the IBP is stated in these words of the Court Rule:
SECTION 1. Organization. � There is hereby organized an official national body to be known as the 'Integrated Bar of the Philippines,' composed of all persons whose names now appear or may hereafter be included in the Roll of Attorneys of the Supreme Court.
The obligation to pay membership dues is couched in the following words of the Court Rule:
SEC. 9. Membership dues. Every member of the Integrated Bar shall pay such annual dues as the Board of Governors shall determine with the approval of the Supreme Court. ...
The core of the respondent's arguments is that the above provisions constitute an invasion of his constitutional rights in the sense that he is being compelled, as a pre-condition to maintaining his status as a lawyer in good standing, to be a member of the IBP and to pay the corresponding dues, and that as a consequence of this compelled financial support of the said organization to which he is admittedly personally antagonistic, he is being deprived of the rights to liberty and property guaranteed to him by the Constitution. Hence, the respondent concludes, the above provisions of the Court Rule and of the IBP By-Laws are void and of no legal force and effect.
The respondent similarly questions the jurisdiction of the Court to strike his name from the Roll of Attorneys, contending that the said matter is not among the justiciable cases triable by the Court but is rather of an "administrative nature pertaining to an administrative body."
The case at bar is not the first one that has reached the Court relating to constitutional issues that inevitably and inextricably come up to the surface whenever attempts are made to regulate the practice of law, define the conditions of such practice, or revoke the license granted for the exercise of the legal profession.
The matters here complained of are the very same issues raised in a previous case before the Court, entitled "Administrative Case No. 526, In the Matter of the Petition for the Integration of the Bar of the Philippines, Roman Ozaeta, et al., Petitioners." The Court exhaustively considered all these matters in that case in its Resolution ordaining the integration of the Bar of the Philippines, promulgated on January 9, 1973. The Court there made the unanimous pronouncement that it was
... fully convinced, after a thoroughgoing conscientious study of all the arguments adduced in Adm. Case No. 526 and the authoritative materials and the mass of factual data contained in the exhaustive Report of the Commission on Bar Integration, that the integration of the Philippine Bar is 'perfectly constitutional and legally unobjectionable'. ...
Be that as it may, we now restate briefly the posture of the Court.
An "Integrated Bar" is a State-organized Bar, to which every lawyer must belong, as distinguished from bar associations organized by individual lawyers themselves, membership in which is voluntary. Integration of the Bar is essentially a process by which every member of the Bar is afforded an opportunity to do his share in carrying out the objectives of the Bar as well as obliged to bear his portion of its responsibilities. Organized by or under the direction of the State, an integrated Bar is an official national body of which all lawyers are required to be members. They are, therefore, subject to all the rules prescribed for the governance of the Bar, including the requirement of payment of a reasonable annual fee for the effective discharge of the purposes of the Bar, and adherence to a code of professional ethics or professional responsibility breach of which constitutes sufficient reason for investigation by the Bar and, upon proper cause appearing, a recommendation for discipline or disbarment of the offending member. 2
The integration of the Philippine Bar was obviously dictated by overriding considerations of public interest and public welfare to such an extent as more than constitutionally and legally justifies the restrictions that integration imposes upon the personal interests and personal convenience of individual lawyers. 3
Apropos to the above, it must be stressed that all legislation directing the integration of the Bar have been uniformly and universally sustained as a valid exercise of the police power over an important profession. The practice of law is not a vested right but a privilege, a privilege moreover clothed with public interest because a lawyer owes substantial duties not only to his client, but also to his brethren in the profession, to the courts, and to the nation, and takes part in one of the most important functions of the State � the administration of justice � as an officer of the court. 4 The practice of law being clothed with public interest, the holder of this privilege must submit to a degree of control for the common good, to the extent of the interest he has created. As the U. S. Supreme Court through Mr. Justice Roberts explained, the expression "affected with a public interest" is the equivalent of "subject to the exercise of the police power" (Nebbia vs. New York, 291 U.S. 502).
When, therefore, Congress enacted Republic Act No. 6397 5 authorizing the Supreme Court to "adopt rules of court to effect the integration of the Philippine Bar under such conditions as it shall see fit," it did so in the exercise of the paramount police power of the State. The Act's avowal is to "raise the standards of the legal profession, improve the administration of justice, and enable the Bar to discharge its public responsibility more effectively." Hence, the Congress in enacting such Act, the Court in ordaining the integration of the Bar through its Resolution promulgated on January 9, 1973, and the President of the Philippines in decreeing the constitution of the IBP into a body corporate through Presidential Decree No. 181 dated May 4, 1973, were prompted by fundamental considerations of public welfare and motivated by a desire to meet the demands of pressing public necessity.
The State, in order to promote the general welfare, may interfere with and regulate personal liberty, property and occupations. Persons and property may be subjected to restraints and burdens in order to secure the general prosperity and welfare of the State (U.S. vs. Gomez Jesus, 31 Phil 218), for, as the Latin maxim goes, "Salus populi est supreme lex." The public welfare is the supreme law. To this fundamental principle of government the rights of individuals are subordinated. Liberty is a blessing without which life is a misery, but liberty should not be made to prevail over authority because then society win fall into anarchy (Calalang vs. Williams, 70 Phil. 726). It is an undoubted power of the State to restrain some individuals from all freedom, and all individuals from some freedom.
But the most compelling argument sustaining the constitutionality and validity of Bar integration in the Philippines is the explicit unequivocal grant of precise power to the Supreme Court by Section 5 (5) of Article X of the 1973 Constitution of the Philippines, which reads:
Sec. 5. The Supreme Court shall have the following powers:
xxx xxx xxx
(5) Promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice, and pro. procedure in all courts, and the admission to the practice of law and the integration of the Bar ...,
and Section 1 of Republic Act No. 6397, which reads:
SECTION 1. Within two years from the approval of this Act, the Supreme Court may adopt rules of Court to effect the integration of the Philippine Bar under such conditions as it shall see fit in order to raise the standards of the legal profession, improve the administration of justice, and enable the Bar to discharge its public responsibility more effectively.
Quite apart from the above, let it be stated that even without the enabling Act (Republic Act No. 6397), and looking solely to the language of the provision of the Constitution granting the Supreme Court the power "to promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice and procedure in all courts, and the admission to the practice of law," it at once becomes indubitable that this constitutional declaration vests the Supreme Court with plenary power in all cases regarding the admission to and supervision of the practice of law.
Thus, when the respondent Edillon entered upon the legal profession, his practice of law and his exercise of the said profession, which affect the society at large, were (and are) subject to the power of the body politic to require him to conform to such regulations as might be established by the proper authorities for the common good, even to the extent of interfering with some of his liberties. If he did not wish to submit himself to such reasonable interference and regulation, he should not have clothed the public with an interest in his concerns.
On this score alone, the case for the respondent must already fall.
The issues being of constitutional dimension, however, we now concisely deal with them seriatim.
1. The first objection posed by the respondent is that the Court is without power to compel him to become a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, hence, Section 1 of the Court Rule is unconstitutional for it impinges on his constitutional right of freedom to associate (and not to associate). Our answer is: To compel a lawyer to be a member of the Integrated Bar is not violative of his constitutional freedom to associate. 6
Integration does not make a lawyer a member of any group of which he is not already a member. He became a member of the Bar when he passed the Bar examinations. 7 All that integration actually does is to provide an official national organization for the well-defined but unorganized and incohesive group of which every lawyer is a ready a member. 8
Bar integration does not compel the lawyer to associate with anyone. He is free to attend or not attend the meetings of his Integrated Bar Chapter or vote or refuse to vote in its elections as he chooses. The only compulsion to which he is subjected is the payment of annual dues. The Supreme Court, in order to further the State's legitimate interest in elevating the quality of professional legal services, may require that the cost of improving the profession in this fashion be shared by the subjects and beneficiaries of the regulatory program � the lawyers. 9
Assuming that the questioned provision does in a sense compel a lawyer to be a member of the Integrated Bar, such compulsion is justified as an exercise of the police power of the State. 10
2. The second issue posed by the respondent is that the provision of the Court Rule requiring payment of a membership fee is void. We see nothing in the Constitution that prohibits the Court, under its constitutional power and duty to promulgate rules concerning the admission to the practice of law and the integration of the Philippine Bar (Article X, Section 5 of the 1973 Constitution) � which power the respondent acknowledges � from requiring members of a privileged class, such as lawyers are, to pay a reasonable fee toward defraying the expenses of regulation of the profession to which they belong. It is quite apparent that the fee is indeed imposed as a regulatory measure, designed to raise funds for carrying out the objectives and purposes of integration. 11
3. The respondent further argues that the enforcement of the penalty provisions would amount to a deprivation of property without due process and hence infringes on one of his constitutional rights. Whether the practice of law is a property right, in the sense of its being one that entitles the holder of a license to practice a profession, we do not here pause to consider at length, as it clear that under the police power of the State, and under the necessary powers granted to the Court to perpetuate its existence, the respondent's right to practise law before the courts of this country should be and is a matter subject to regulation and inquiry. And, if the power to impose the fee as a regulatory measure is recognize, then a penalty designed to enforce its payment, which penalty may be avoided altogether by payment, is not void as unreasonable or arbitrary. 12
But we must here emphasize that the practice of law is not a property right but a mere privilege, 13 and as such must bow to the inherent regulatory power of the Court to exact compliance with the lawyer's public responsibilities.
4. Relative to the issue of the power and/or jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to strike the name of a lawyer from its Roll of Attorneys, it is sufficient to state that the matters of admission, suspension, disbarment and reinstatement of lawyers and their regulation and supervision have been and are indisputably recognized as inherent judicial functions and responsibilities, and the authorities holding such are legion. 14
In In Re Sparks (267 Ky. 93, 101 S.W. (2d) 194), in which the report of the Board of Bar Commissioners in a disbarment proceeding was confirmed and disbarment ordered, the court, sustaining the Bar Integration Act of Kentucky, said: "The power to regulate the conduct and qualifications of its officers does not depend upon constitutional or statutory grounds. It is a power which is inherent in this court as a court � appropriate, indeed necessary, to the proper administration of justice ... the argument that this is an arbitrary power which the court is arrogating to itself or accepting from the legislative likewise misconceives the nature of the duty. It has limitations no less real because they are inherent. It is an unpleasant task to sit in judgment upon a brother member of the Bar, particularly where, as here, the facts are disputed. It is a grave responsibility, to be assumed only with a determination to uphold the Ideals and traditions of an honorable profession and to protect the public from overreaching and fraud. The very burden of the duty is itself a guaranty that the power will not be misused or prostituted. ..."
The Court's jurisdiction was greatly reinforced by our 1973 Constitution when it explicitly granted to the Court the power to "Promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice ... and the admission to the practice of law and the integration of the Bar ... (Article X, Sec. 5(5) the power to pass upon the fitness of the respondent to remain a member of the legal profession is indeed undoubtedly vested in the Court.
We thus reach the conclusion that the provisions of Rule of Court 139-A and of the By-Laws of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines complained of are neither unconstitutional nor illegal.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, it is the unanimous sense of the Court that the respondent Marcial A. Edillon should be as he is hereby disbarred, and his name is hereby ordered stricken from the Roll of Attorneys of the Court.
Fernando, Teehankee, Barredo, Makasiar, Antonio, Mu�oz Palma, Aquino, Concepcion, Jr., Santos, Fernandez and Guerrero, JJ., concur.
Footnotes
1 Adopted in the Supreme Court's Resolution, promulgated on January 9, 1973, ordaining the integration of the Bar of the Philippines.
2 114 A.L.R. 101.
3 Memorandum of Authorities on the Constitutionality of Bar Integration, cited in the Report of the Commission Bar Integration on the Integration of the Philippine Bar, Nov. 30, 1972; see also Supreme Court Resolution of January 9, 1973, ordaining the integration of the Philippine Bar.
4 In re Integrating the Bar, 222 Ark 35, 259 S. W. 2d 114; Petition of Florida State Bar Association, 40 So. 2d 902; Petition of Florida State Bar Association, 134 Fla. 851, 186 So. 280: In re Edwards, 45 Idaho 676, 266 P. 665; Commonwealth ex rel. Ward vs. Harrington, 266 Ky. 41 98 S. W. 2d 53; Ayres vs. Hadaway 303 Mich. 589, 6 N. W. 2d 905; Petition for Integration of Bar of Minnesota, 216 Minn. 195; Petition for Integration of Bar of Minnesota, 216 Minn. 195, 12 N. W. 2d 515; Clark vs. Austin, 101 S. W. 2d 977; In Re Integration of Nebraska State Bar Assn., 133 Neb. 283, 275 N. W. 265, 114 A.L.R. 151; In re Scott, 53 Nev. 24, 292 291; Baker vs. Varser, 240 N.C. 260, 82 S.E. 2d 90; In re Integration of State Bar of Oklahoma, 185 Okla, 505, 95 P. 2d 113; State ex rel. Rice vs. Cozad, 70 S. Dak. 193, 16 N. W. 2d 484; Campbell vs. Third District Committee of Virginia State Bar, 179 Va. 244, 18 S. E. 2d 883; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 10 Wis. 2d 230,102 N. W. 2d 404.
5 AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE INTEGRATION OF THE PHILIPPINE BAR AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, approved on September 17,1971.
6 In re Unification of New Hampsire Bar, 248 A. 2d 709; In re Gibson, 35 N. Mex. 550, 4P. 2d 643; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 10 Wis. 2d 230, 102 N. W. 2d 404; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 367 U.S. 820, 6 L. ed. 2d 1191, 81 S. Ct. 1826; Railways Employes' Dept. vs. Hanson, 351 U. S. 225, 100 L. ed. 1112, 76 S. Ct. 714.
7 Diokno, Jose W., "Bar Integration � A Sword and a Shield for Justice" (Manor Press, Q.C., 1962) p. 17.
8 Fellers James, "Integration of the Bar � Aloha!", Journal of the Am. Judicature Society, Vol. 47, No. 11 (1964) p. 256. 9 Lathrop vs. Donahue, 10 Wis. 2d 230, 102, N.W. 2d 404; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 367 U.S. 820, 6 L, ed. 2d 1191, 81 S. Ct. 1826.
9. Lathrop vs. Donohue, 10 Wis., 2d 230, 102, N.W. 2d 404; Lathrop vs. Donohue, 367 U.S. 820, 6L. ed. 2d 1191, 81 S. Ct. 1826.
10 Hill vs. State Bar of California, 97 P. 2d 236; Herron vs. State Bar of California, 24 Cal. 53, 147 P. 2d 543; Carpenter vs. State Bar of California, 211 Cal. 358, 295 P. 23; In re Mundy, 202 La. 41, 11 SO. 2d 398; In re Scott, 53 Nev. 24, 292 P. 291; In re Platz, 60 Nev. 24, 108 P. 2d 858, In re Gibson, 35 N. Mex. 550, 4 P. 2d 643; Kelley vs. State Bar of Oklahoma, 148 Okla, 282, 298 P. 623.
11 Petition of Florida State Bar Association, 40 So. 2d 902; In re Integration of Bar of Hawaii, 432 P. 2d 887; Petition for Integration of Bar of Minnesota, 216 Minn. 195, 12 N. W. 2d 515; In re Scott, 53 Nev. 24, 292 P. 291; In re Unification of New Hampshire Bar, 248 A. 2d 709; In re Gibson, 35 N. Mex. 550, 4 P. 2d 643; State Bar of Oklahoma vs. McGhnee 148 Okla, 219, 298 P. 580; Kelley vs. State Bar of Oklahoma, 148 Okla, 282, 298 P. 623; Lathrop vs. Donahue, 10 Wis. 2d 230,102 N. W. 2d 404.
12 In re Gibson, 4 P. 2d 643.
The following words of Justice Harlan are opposite: "The objection would make every Governmental exaction the material of a 'free speech' issue. Even the income tax would be suspect. The objection would carry us to lengths that have never been dreamed of. The conscientious objector, if his liberties were to thus extended, might refuse to contribute taxes in furtherance of war or of any other end condemned by his conscience as irreligious or immoral The right of private judgment has never yet been exalted above the powers and the compulsion of the agencies of Government." (Concurring opinion of Harlan, J, joined by Frankfurter, J., in Lathrop vs. Donahue, 367
U.S. 820, 6 L.ed. 21191, 81 S. Ct. 1826, citing Cardozo, J. with Branders and Stone, JJ., concurring, in Hamilton vs. Regents of Univ. of California, 293 U.S. 245, 79 L.ed. 343, 55 S. Ct. 197.)
13 Inre Scott, 53 Nev. 24, 292 P. 291.
14 Bar Flunkers Case, 50 O.G. 1602; In re Aguas, 1 Phil. 1, and others.
The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation
Saturday, April 17, 2010
In defence of Public school teachers
As the space of public schooling is reduced to a mindless infatuation with the metrics of endless modes of testing and increasingly enforces this deadening experience with disciplinary measures reminiscent of prison culture, teachers are increasingly removed from dealing with children as part of a broader historical, social and cultural context. As the school is militarized, student behavior becomes an issue that either the police or security forces handle. Removed from the normative and pedagogical framing of classroom life, teachers no longer have the option to think outside of the box, to experiment, be poetic or inspire joy in their students.
Please click on colored link as continuation.
Please click on colored link as continuation.
Friday, April 16, 2010
On Corruption, faith, changing the system,
The will to change
The will to change
Posted 10:10pm (Mla time) Mar 26, 2005
By Randy David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the March 27, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ON HIS way to Calvary, Jesus foretold many events that astonished his followers. He said he would be arrested, that one of his own disciples would betray him, and that Peter himself would deny that he knew him, not once but thrice. He said he would be crucified, and he would die on the cross. He would be buried, but he would rise from the dead. Jesus held these things to be true, and he acted upon them so that God might forgive the sins of men, and thus change the circumstances of their existence. This is the poetry of forgiveness around which the Christian faith revolves. It is a philosophy of action and hope, and Jesus was its strongest poet.
Many of us hold certain beliefs, but all too often we fail to act upon them. As such, they serve us no purpose. They have no meaning, no effect on the way we live our lives. They are books that remain unread, music that is unheard, faith that is unrealized. We remain trapped in old untested beliefs, from which we cannot free ourselves because of fear. We do not develop the courage to experiment, to test our beliefs, to connect them to the practical details of our lives. Consequently, there is a huge gap between the beliefs we profess and the beliefs we actually hold by default, our habits of action. And, indeed, there is an even bigger gap between our habits of action as a people and our social goals.
A friend of mine was complaining recently about corruption in a city government office. He said he needed to secure a hundred and one permits just to remodel an old house. Every precious signature depended on compliance with a set of requirements that kept growing as he produced the necessary documentation. After some months of following up papers, his contractor told him that the message being conveyed was loud and clear: a small amount, the usual S-O-P or "standard operating procedure," would hasten the release of the needed permits.
I advised my friend to go and report the matter to the National Bureau of Investigation so an entrapment operation could be set. He was ready to do so, but he never got around to it. His contractor decided to pay, offering to take the added expense out of his earnings. These people work as a syndicate, he said; you get one of them arrested, and the rest of the gang will make life difficult for you.
The contractor's fear is not unfounded. Everyone who has dealt with such offices assumes a general order of things to which you can only adjust. When you are busy earning a living, you cannot afford to take risks fighting the system. Yet elsewhere in the metropolis, my daughter, who is building a house in Cainta, was pleasantly surprised to be able to get all the building permits she needed in one day without having to pay anybody or secure special favors from anyone. There are such pockets of institutional integrity in our society, and they are steadily multiplying, quietly supplanting the old discredited ways of doing things with straightforward public service.
It is less difficult to reform systems from within than to expect heroic individuals to expose the evils of systems from outside. Corruption thrives on the proliferation of unnecessary and unreasonable requirements. It is the stepchild of inefficiency. A responsible leader in an office usually knows who is on the take. If he is not himself part of the racket, and feels strongly about it, he will find ways of eliminating the opportunity and getting rid of the rotten personnel. To do this, he needs a critical mass of reformers to help him, for the corrupt will do everything to tie his hands, to sabotage his efforts, and to undermine his authority and integrity by capitalizing on his own minor lapses.
It is never easy to initiate change. The will to change has to be anchored on a will to believe that things can be different. Such a belief often cannot be grounded simply on the evidence at hand. Yet if one believes and, on this basis, he acts upon the world, his action may change the situation in ways he himself has not anticipated. In the results, he may find the affirmation of his belief or feeling unjustified in his faith, he may become cynical. Such are what John Dewey called "the risks of faith." The point is that we will never know if our beliefs matter until we act on them, or unless we live them.
In his thought-provoking essay, "Christianity and Democracy," Dewey said: "The one claim that Christianity makes is that God is truth; that as truth He is love and reveals Himself fully to man, keeping back nothing of Himself; that man is so one with the truth thus revealed that it is not so much revealed to him as in him; he is its incarnation." Dewey is not a theologian but a philosopher. But his understanding of the nature of man in Christianity allows one to appreciate better the portrayal of Jesus in the gospels.
Jesus was being prosecuted for supposedly claiming he was the son of God. Yet in fact he always referred to himself as the son of man. He called God his Father only because he believed that all human beings were God's children. His disciples were stunned by the revelations he made, and how they all turned out to be true. But the bigger truth he was teaching them by his own life was the truth that is already in them, waiting to be lived.
People sometimes wonder how a predominantly Christian culture like ours could be the fount of corruption. There is a simple explanation for that: faith, for most of us, is separate from everyday life. We do not draw from it ideals or the will to change.
Happy Easter!
The will to change
Posted 10:10pm (Mla time) Mar 26, 2005
By Randy David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the March 27, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ON HIS way to Calvary, Jesus foretold many events that astonished his followers. He said he would be arrested, that one of his own disciples would betray him, and that Peter himself would deny that he knew him, not once but thrice. He said he would be crucified, and he would die on the cross. He would be buried, but he would rise from the dead. Jesus held these things to be true, and he acted upon them so that God might forgive the sins of men, and thus change the circumstances of their existence. This is the poetry of forgiveness around which the Christian faith revolves. It is a philosophy of action and hope, and Jesus was its strongest poet.
Many of us hold certain beliefs, but all too often we fail to act upon them. As such, they serve us no purpose. They have no meaning, no effect on the way we live our lives. They are books that remain unread, music that is unheard, faith that is unrealized. We remain trapped in old untested beliefs, from which we cannot free ourselves because of fear. We do not develop the courage to experiment, to test our beliefs, to connect them to the practical details of our lives. Consequently, there is a huge gap between the beliefs we profess and the beliefs we actually hold by default, our habits of action. And, indeed, there is an even bigger gap between our habits of action as a people and our social goals.
A friend of mine was complaining recently about corruption in a city government office. He said he needed to secure a hundred and one permits just to remodel an old house. Every precious signature depended on compliance with a set of requirements that kept growing as he produced the necessary documentation. After some months of following up papers, his contractor told him that the message being conveyed was loud and clear: a small amount, the usual S-O-P or "standard operating procedure," would hasten the release of the needed permits.
I advised my friend to go and report the matter to the National Bureau of Investigation so an entrapment operation could be set. He was ready to do so, but he never got around to it. His contractor decided to pay, offering to take the added expense out of his earnings. These people work as a syndicate, he said; you get one of them arrested, and the rest of the gang will make life difficult for you.
The contractor's fear is not unfounded. Everyone who has dealt with such offices assumes a general order of things to which you can only adjust. When you are busy earning a living, you cannot afford to take risks fighting the system. Yet elsewhere in the metropolis, my daughter, who is building a house in Cainta, was pleasantly surprised to be able to get all the building permits she needed in one day without having to pay anybody or secure special favors from anyone. There are such pockets of institutional integrity in our society, and they are steadily multiplying, quietly supplanting the old discredited ways of doing things with straightforward public service.
It is less difficult to reform systems from within than to expect heroic individuals to expose the evils of systems from outside. Corruption thrives on the proliferation of unnecessary and unreasonable requirements. It is the stepchild of inefficiency. A responsible leader in an office usually knows who is on the take. If he is not himself part of the racket, and feels strongly about it, he will find ways of eliminating the opportunity and getting rid of the rotten personnel. To do this, he needs a critical mass of reformers to help him, for the corrupt will do everything to tie his hands, to sabotage his efforts, and to undermine his authority and integrity by capitalizing on his own minor lapses.
It is never easy to initiate change. The will to change has to be anchored on a will to believe that things can be different. Such a belief often cannot be grounded simply on the evidence at hand. Yet if one believes and, on this basis, he acts upon the world, his action may change the situation in ways he himself has not anticipated. In the results, he may find the affirmation of his belief or feeling unjustified in his faith, he may become cynical. Such are what John Dewey called "the risks of faith." The point is that we will never know if our beliefs matter until we act on them, or unless we live them.
In his thought-provoking essay, "Christianity and Democracy," Dewey said: "The one claim that Christianity makes is that God is truth; that as truth He is love and reveals Himself fully to man, keeping back nothing of Himself; that man is so one with the truth thus revealed that it is not so much revealed to him as in him; he is its incarnation." Dewey is not a theologian but a philosopher. But his understanding of the nature of man in Christianity allows one to appreciate better the portrayal of Jesus in the gospels.
Jesus was being prosecuted for supposedly claiming he was the son of God. Yet in fact he always referred to himself as the son of man. He called God his Father only because he believed that all human beings were God's children. His disciples were stunned by the revelations he made, and how they all turned out to be true. But the bigger truth he was teaching them by his own life was the truth that is already in them, waiting to be lived.
People sometimes wonder how a predominantly Christian culture like ours could be the fount of corruption. There is a simple explanation for that: faith, for most of us, is separate from everyday life. We do not draw from it ideals or the will to change.
Happy Easter!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Does the University have a future in a network society?
Who should care about the future of the university? Why should they care?
The university used to be an elite institution that most working people rarely encountered. The training and socialization that the elite classes received prior to taking up leading positions in government and industry was arguably as much of a rite of passage as a search for enlightenment. Of course, there were always those few for whom the love of knowledge and the reading of great texts was a consuming passion. But if one were concerned only with them, there would be few larger social issues to be raised about the university in society. The situation is different now.
Click on colored link for continuation.
The university used to be an elite institution that most working people rarely encountered. The training and socialization that the elite classes received prior to taking up leading positions in government and industry was arguably as much of a rite of passage as a search for enlightenment. Of course, there were always those few for whom the love of knowledge and the reading of great texts was a consuming passion. But if one were concerned only with them, there would be few larger social issues to be raised about the university in society. The situation is different now.
Click on colored link for continuation.
The Market Colonization of Intellectuals
In many forums over the past decade, public intellectuals seem unable to talk about pressing social issues without performing the equivalent of an academic literature review. Although reasons range from trying to inform their audiences of relevant debates to efforts to demonstrate erudition, that many public intellectuals present their work as the basis for rewards in academe and the entertainment industry suggests influences tantamount to the colonization of intellectuals by the ever-expanding market.
Click on the colored link for continuation.
Click on the colored link for continuation.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Automatic Membership
Dear Fellow CFA members,
Greetings of peace and friendship to all!
Last Saturday, Mila, Ato, Ave, Becky, Beth and I met to discuss the issue of automatic membership provision of the 2007 CFA Constitution duly ratified and with no vote, and which was the product of many discussions and debates that started in the term of Dan Reyes and was finished in my term as CFA president.
President Mila Serrana has requested me to write down some facts and reflection about the issue. And so this write-up.
The old CFA constitution's provision on membership is voluntary and semestral with membership fee paid each semester. So membership expires every end of the sem and recruitment is every sem. Sometimes the CFA officers did not recruit, did not pay their own membership fees, and did not collect membership fees while spending the CFA fund.
When I was the CFA president and before the new constitution, for three consecutive semesters, I would personally approach and recruit teachers to the CFA.
There are two reasons why the automatic membership is justified: legally and ethically.
Legal Justification: the new CFA constitution was duly drafted and duly ratified according to the 1994 CFA constitution without a single no vote. While being drafted, two lawyers were consulted on the legality of the automatic membership. Atty Ngo of the CBEA said that this is a common practice in other schools including the UST college where he was teaching. Atty Faustino Madriaga, JR who was the lawyer of St Paul College-QC and Lourdes School was also consulted and whose legal opinion is that automatic membership is legal and should be put in the constitution, and being an educator for many years, added the opinion that when there are teachers who think and feel they have valid reasons for being exempted from this provision, should write a formal letter to the Executive Board which has the final decision to exempt.
Ethical Reason: the Higher Education Unit is a community of communities and a family of families. A HEU teacher is a member of these communities/families with rights and duties. We do not only come to teach in Miriam College but be a good member of the community of teachers. The College Faculty Association promotes, articulates, defends and represents the rights, the concerns, the interests of all HEU teachers. It is inclusive of all teachers. When it organizes welcome/acquantance parties, Christmas parties, faculty outings, teachers’ day programs, etc., it does not discriminate: it invites and welcomes all teachers. When it dialogues with the President, the HR director, the Finance director, the Deans, it represents all the teachers. When it requests salary benefits, more parking space, better working conditions, better food and better prices in the canteen, better health/accident insurance, it does so for all the teachers. When the CFA honors and shows appreciation for our service awardees and retirees, aren't we all glad and proud that we are part of an appreciative organization? When the CFA shows solidarity and social responsibilty in helping the victims of natural calamities, in fighting for truth and justice in EDSA 1 and 2, in the ZTE scandal, and in so many issues affecting our country, our school and ourselves, aren't we glad and proud we are part of a great organization that has made a difference in the lives of our people?
And what do we give in return for all of these? For most part-time faculty members, it is only their membership fee of P150 per semester. For us who have been officers of the CFA, much work, responsibilities, time, money, criticism, energy, talents, leadership skills have been given in sacrifice for the sake of love of the school and our family of teachers!
Sincerely yours,
Raul F. Alejandrino
CFA President 2006-2008
Greetings of peace and friendship to all!
Last Saturday, Mila, Ato, Ave, Becky, Beth and I met to discuss the issue of automatic membership provision of the 2007 CFA Constitution duly ratified and with no vote, and which was the product of many discussions and debates that started in the term of Dan Reyes and was finished in my term as CFA president.
President Mila Serrana has requested me to write down some facts and reflection about the issue. And so this write-up.
The old CFA constitution's provision on membership is voluntary and semestral with membership fee paid each semester. So membership expires every end of the sem and recruitment is every sem. Sometimes the CFA officers did not recruit, did not pay their own membership fees, and did not collect membership fees while spending the CFA fund.
When I was the CFA president and before the new constitution, for three consecutive semesters, I would personally approach and recruit teachers to the CFA.
There are two reasons why the automatic membership is justified: legally and ethically.
Legal Justification: the new CFA constitution was duly drafted and duly ratified according to the 1994 CFA constitution without a single no vote. While being drafted, two lawyers were consulted on the legality of the automatic membership. Atty Ngo of the CBEA said that this is a common practice in other schools including the UST college where he was teaching. Atty Faustino Madriaga, JR who was the lawyer of St Paul College-QC and Lourdes School was also consulted and whose legal opinion is that automatic membership is legal and should be put in the constitution, and being an educator for many years, added the opinion that when there are teachers who think and feel they have valid reasons for being exempted from this provision, should write a formal letter to the Executive Board which has the final decision to exempt.
Ethical Reason: the Higher Education Unit is a community of communities and a family of families. A HEU teacher is a member of these communities/families with rights and duties. We do not only come to teach in Miriam College but be a good member of the community of teachers. The College Faculty Association promotes, articulates, defends and represents the rights, the concerns, the interests of all HEU teachers. It is inclusive of all teachers. When it organizes welcome/acquantance parties, Christmas parties, faculty outings, teachers’ day programs, etc., it does not discriminate: it invites and welcomes all teachers. When it dialogues with the President, the HR director, the Finance director, the Deans, it represents all the teachers. When it requests salary benefits, more parking space, better working conditions, better food and better prices in the canteen, better health/accident insurance, it does so for all the teachers. When the CFA honors and shows appreciation for our service awardees and retirees, aren't we all glad and proud that we are part of an appreciative organization? When the CFA shows solidarity and social responsibilty in helping the victims of natural calamities, in fighting for truth and justice in EDSA 1 and 2, in the ZTE scandal, and in so many issues affecting our country, our school and ourselves, aren't we glad and proud we are part of a great organization that has made a difference in the lives of our people?
And what do we give in return for all of these? For most part-time faculty members, it is only their membership fee of P150 per semester. For us who have been officers of the CFA, much work, responsibilities, time, money, criticism, energy, talents, leadership skills have been given in sacrifice for the sake of love of the school and our family of teachers!
Sincerely yours,
Raul F. Alejandrino
CFA President 2006-2008
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
CFA - MCFI., Constitution and by laws.
COLLEGE FACULTY ASSOCIATION OF MIRIAM COLLEGE FOUNDATION, INC.
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS
PREAMBLE
We, the College Faculty of Miriam College Foundation, Inc,. imploring the grace of Almighty God in order to establish an association which shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, and secure for ourselves the blessings of academic freedom, democracy, and the rule of truth, love, justice, peace and integrity of creation, do ordain and promulgate this constitution.
ARTICLE I
NAME AND ADDRESS
SECTION 1. Name of the Association. The name of the association shall be:
“THE COLLEGE FACULTY ASSOCIATION OF MIRIAM COLLEGE FOUNDATION, INC.
SECTION 2. Place of Business. The principal office of the Association is Caritas Room 206, Miriam College Foundation Inc., Katipunan Road, Loyola Heights, Quezon City or as decided by the CFA Executive Board.
ARTICLE II
PURPOSES
SECTION 1. Purposes. The purposes for which the Association is formed are as follows:
a. To promote unity and cooperation among the members;
b. To uphold, protect, and promote the members’ individual and collective rights, interests, and welfare;
c. To ensure the active involvement of the members in issues affecting the Association;
d. To sustain and enhance the democratic participation of the members in line with the College’s philosophy of participative management;
e. To serve as a venue for the articulation and exchange of views, opinions, grievances, needs and interests of the members;
f. To initiate, encourage, and facilitate active participation in activities promoting the holistic development of the members;
g. To represent the members in decision and policy formulating bodies;
h. To assist the institution in enhancing the quality of education in line with the College Vision and Mission;
i. To build, promote and strengthen professionalism; and
j. To establish harmonious and dynamic relations with other Faculty Associations, other sectors of the institution and the larger society.
ARTICLE III
MEMBERSHIP
SECTION 1. Who may be members. All higher education faculty members and guidance counselors of Miriam College are automatic members of the Association.
SECTION 2. Who are disqualified. All institutional and Higher Education Administrators such as the College Deans, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, the Registrar, and the Head Librarian.
SECTION 3. Types of membership. The following are the types of members of the Association:
a. Regular members are those with full-time status;
b. Associate members are those with part-time status.
SECTION 4. Rights and Privileges. The following are the rights and privileges of the members of the Association:
a. Access to all the facilities and services of
the Association;
a. Right to vote on all matters brought before the members;
b. Eligibility for an elective or appointive position in the Association except for positions requiring more than mere membership.
SECTION 5. Duties and Responsibilities. The following are the duties and responsibilities of a member:
a. To uphold the principles and purposes of the Association;
b. To pay the membership dues and other fees that may be required by the Association by a vote of at least the majority of the members present in a meeting especially called for such a purpose;
c. To settle any financial obligations which may have been incurred from the Association;
d. To attend the regular and special meetings, and assemblies called by the Association;
e. To actively participate and become involved in the Association’s activities;
f. For regular members, to join at least one committee.
SECTION 6. Membership Fee. A fee of P150 shall be charged each member for every semester, provided that any increase in the amount of membership fee shall be made upon the concurrence of the majority of the members present in a meeting called for that purpose.
SECTION 7. Sanctions. Appropriate sanctions shall be imposed on any member who shall fail to comply with her/his duties and obligation. Such sanctions shall be determined by the Association’s Executive Board (CFAEB) and the same shall be circularized after the CFAEB shall have passed a resolution on the said matter.
ARTICLE IV
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
SECTION 1. Officers of the Association. The officers of the College Faculty Association are as follows:
a. President
b. Vice-President
c. Secretary
d. Associate Secretary
e. Treasurer
f. Assistant Treasurer
g. Auditor
h. Public Relations Officer
i. Chairpersons of the Standing Committees which are:
h.1. Teachers’ Rights
h.2. Socio-Civic and Cultural
h.3. Special Projects
h.4. Part-time Faculty Concerns
All the above-mentioned officers are members of the College Faculty Executive Board (CFAEB).
SECTION 2. Powers and Functions of the CFAEB. The College Faculty Association Executive Board is empowered to formulate and implement policies and disseminate such to the members. For major policies and/or projects that involve finances exceeding twenty thousand pesos (PhP20,000.00), the board shall first seek the approval of the members of the Association. A policy or project is deemed approved if it gets a majority vote as defined in Article VI Section 3.
SECTION 3. Term of Office. Officers of the Association shall hold office for two (2) consecutive academic years and shall act as such until after their successors shall have been duly elected and/or appointed, and duly proclaimed.
The President cannot run for a second consecutive term as President of the Association, provided that: The President shall ipso facto become an ex-officio member of the CFAEB following the assumption of the new set of officer after the turn-over rites.
SECTION 4. Duties and Responsibilities of the Officers.
The following are the duties and responsibilities of the elected officers:
a. PRESIDENT
The President shall be the chief executive officer of the
Association and as such, shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
a.1. Call and preside over the meetings of the Association;
a.2. Supervise the affairs and properties of the Association;
a.3. Submit to the Executive Board as soon as possible after the close of each academic year, and to the members at each first regular meeting, a complete report of the operations of the Association for the preceding year;
a.4 Appoint officers for positions in the CFAEB for
which no member is elected, with the approval of the
majority of the EB;
a.5. Represent the Faculty in the Administrative Board of each college or appoint her/his representative to the Council of Representatives, Council on Permanency, Discipline Board, Faculty Grievance Committee, College Academic Council, and other institutional/college bodies where faculty interests must be promoted;
a.6. Create ad hoc committees as may be necessary for the business of the Association;
a.7. Appoint upon the approval of the majority of the CFAEB, a member to serve the unfinished term of an officer who has vacated his/her position;
a.8. Disseminate information pertinent to faculty business;
a.9. Oversee the different activities of the committees;
a.10. Represent the faculty in external affairs and functions related to faculty interests;
a.11. Delegate to the VP or other officers
certain duties/functions as demanded by circumstances;
and
a.12. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association.
b. VICE PRESIDENT
The Vice-President shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the President in case of the absence or inability of the latter, and shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
b.1. Serve the unexpired term of the President in case
of the former’s resignation, removal or incapacity;
b.2. Serve the powers that the President may lawfully designate or delegate; and
b.3. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association.
c. SECRETARY
The Secretary shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
c.1. Keep the minutes of all the meetings of the CFA and of the executive board in a book kept for that purpose;
c.2. Keep the seal of the Association, and when authorized by the Executive Board, to affix such seal to any paper or instrument requiring the same;
c.3. Call the roll of all regular and special meetings;
c.4. Post notices pertinent to the Association;
c.5. Keep/Take charge of all records of the Association excluding financial records; and
c.6. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association.
d. ASSOCIATE SECRETARY
The Associate Secretary shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the Secretary in case of the absence or inability of the latter, and shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
d.1. Collaborate with the secretary in taking the minutes of all the meetings of the CFA and Executive Board; and
d.2. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the Secretary or the President or the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association.
e. TREASURER
The Treasurer shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
e.1. Take charge of the funds, receipts, and disbursements of the Association;
e.2. Deposit all the monies and other valuables of the Association in such bank or banks as designated by the Executive Board;
e.3. Render to the President or to the Executive Board, whenever required, an account of the financial condition of the Association of all transactions made by her/him as Treasurer;
e.4. Keep correct books of accounts of all transactions of the Association;
e.5. Sign all checks paid out or endorsed by the Association and countersigned by the President;
e.6. Collect membership fees and issue receipts;
e.7. Prepare annual written financial report to be presented to the Association during the first general assembly; and
e.8. Perform other tasks as may be designated, delegated or assigned from time to time by the President or the CFAEB.
f. ASSISTANT TREASURER
The Assistant Treasurer shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the Treasurer in case of the absence or inability of the latter, and shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
f.1. Assist the Treasurer in all financial matters of the Association;
f.2. Represent the Treasurer when the latter is absent, and takes the place of the Treasurer when the latter resigns, or is incapacitated;
f.3. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the Treasurer or the President or the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association .
g. AUDITOR
The following are the responsibilities of the Auditor:
g.1. To perform the financial audits of the books of accounts and their supporting documents at the end of each year;
g.2. To conduct an inventory of all properties and cash accountability of the Association periodically as determined by the CFAEB;
g.3. To attest to the fairness of all the formal financial reports prepared by the Treasurer; and
g.4. To perform such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or the President in furtherance of the goals and
objectives of the Association.
h. PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
The following are the duties and responsibilities of the Public Relations Officer:
h.1. To promote better relations and goodwill among members of the CFA, between the CFA and the Administration and between the CFA and other organizations that the CFA deals with;
h.2. To foster linkages with other groups and Associations or former CFA members that may help achieve the objectives of the Association; and
h.3. To perform such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or the President in furtherance of the goals and
objectives of the Association.
SECTION 5. Committees. The Association shall have a Teachers’ Rights Committee, Special Projects Committee, Socio-Civic and Cultural Committee, and Part-time Faculty Concerns Committee. Each committee shall be composed of a minimum of five core members with a chairperson, vice-chairperson and secretary. The functions of the Committees of the Association are as follows:
a. Teachers’ Rights committee
This committee shall be tasked with providing legal assistance to the Association and any of its members. Its functions are:
a.1. To inform teachers about their rights
and benefits;
a.2. To assert, articulate, promote and
protect teachers’ rights;
a.3. To conduct annual survey on teachers’
rights and concerns;
a.4. To study faculty rights and benefits in
other schools; and
a.5. To facilitate dialogues between administration
and faculty
b. Special Projects Committee
This committee shall be tasked with the planning, coordinating, and implementing of activities pertinent to the actualization of the Association’s purposes.
c. Socio-Civic and Cultural Committee
It shall be tasked with the planning, organizing, and implementing of activities to ensure better interpersonal relations among members. It shall also develop programs and activities to deepen cultural, socio-civic awareness among the members.
d. Part-time Faculty Concerns Committee
This committee shall be tasked with promoting the rights, interests, and concerns of part-time faculty members.
SECTION 6. Responsibilities and Duties of the Committee
Chairpersons
Each committee chairperson is tasked to recruit, organize and mobilize her/his committee members to attain the constitutional objective of the committee. Each chairperson has to submit a written report of all the activities, problems and projects of her/his committee to the CFAEB at the end of the school year.
a. Teachers’ Rights
a.1. Takes the leadership role in the protection and promotion of teachers’ rights; and
a.2. Performs such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or her/his committee and/or the President in
furtherance of the goals and objectives of the
Association.
b. Special Projects
b.1. Conducts research, gathers materials, and implements special projects for the activities of the Association; and
b.2. Performs such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or her/his committee and/or the President in
furtherance of the goals and objectives of the
Association.
c. Socio-Civic and Cultural
c.1. Takes charge of all social and civic functions of the Association;
c.2. Takes charge of promoting camaraderie and social interactions among members; and
c.3. Performs such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or her/his committee and/or the President in
furtherance of the goals and objectives of the
Association.
d. Part-time Faculty Concerns
d.1. Shall be tasked with the planning, organizing and implementing of activities that promote the welfare, integration, and interpersonal relations of part-time faculty;
d.2. Shall ensure the active participation of the part-time faculty;
d.3. Shall give inputs and feedback regarding candidates for permanency to the CFAEB which will make formal recommendation to the Council on Permanency accordingly; and
d.4. Shall perform such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or her/his committee and/or the President in
furtherance of the goals and objectives of the
Association.
SECTION 7. COMELEC. The COMELEC shall be composed of three commissioners, one of whom is the chairperson; all are appointed by the President upon the approval of the CFAEB in its first board meeting. The COMELEC commissioners shall take their oath of office during the induction of the new set of officers. Their term of office will be two years. The following are the duties and responsibilities of the chairperson of the COMELEC:
a. Takes charge of the regular and special elections of the CFA, Referendum-Plebiscite and other election- related activities;
b. Formulates and implements guidelines for the electoral process including the assessment of the candidates’ qualifications;
c. Immediately and formally reports election results to the candidates, the Faculty Association and to the college community;
d. Proclaims the duly elected officers of the Association; and
e. Acts and adjudicates election-related protests which may arise from the electoral process.
SECTION 8. Eligibility of the Officers of the Association. The following are the minimum qualifications of the officers who shall be elected by the members of the Faculty Association:
a. The President, Vice-President and the Treasurer must be permanent faculty members of Miriam College and active members of the Faculty Association.
b. All other officers and the Committee Chairpersons must be:
b.1. Active members of the Association;
b.2. Members of the Association for at least one year immediately preceding the election; and
b.3. Must have taught in the college for at least one academic year but not necessarily immediately preceding the election.
SECTION 9. Council of Elders. The Council of Elders is composed of all former CFA Presidents who are members of the CFA except the immediate past president and those who are current members of the CFAEB. The members of the Council shall choose from among themselves the chairperson who shall call and preside over the meeting of the Council whenever necessary. Its functions are:
a. It shall settle disputes and questions regarding the correct and proper interpretation of the Constitution or its enforcement.
b. When the CFAEB or any CFA officer seriously neglects or violates his/her constitutional duty, the Council of Elders as the protector of the Constitution and the general Welfare of the CFA members shall decide and impose appropriate sanctions on the erring officer or board after due process and as a last resort.
c. As a body of senior advisers, its constitutional mandate includes giving timely advice to the CFAEB.
d. It acts as the COMELEC of the CFA in the absence of the COMELEC or its failure to function as such.
e. It shall give orientation to the new set of officers regarding the history, responsibilities and duties of CFA officers.
ARTICLE V
SEAL OF THE ASSOCIATION
SECTION 1. Form. The seal of the Association shall, unless otherwise ordered by the Executive Board, be circular in form and shall bear the words: “COLLEGE FACULTY ASSOCIATION. MIRIAM COLLEGE”
ARTICLE VI
MEETINGS
SECTION 1. General Assembly. The general assembly shall be held once a semester at Miriam College, Quezon City, not later than the sixth Monday of the semester. A member who does not attend the assembly waives the right to participate in any decision arrived at by the body. Regular members who could not attend should notify the Executive Board of her/his reasons for not attending. A penalty of fifty pesos (PhP 50.00) shall be imposed on members who are absent without any valid reason. Any increase in the fine shall be decided by the general assembly
SECTION 2. Agenda. The first General Assembly of the CFA shall include the President’s and the Treasurer’s reports, and the CFA plans for the school year. If there is a new set of officers, the reports must be made by the former President and the former Treasurer.
SECTION 3. Emergency/Special Meetings. Other meetings may be called by the President or by any CFA member to address immediate concerns that affect the faculty. The member should write a request for such, addressed to the President/Executive Board. To be valid, the request must be signed by at least 10% of the CFA. If the members believe that the President/Executive Board does not have a valid reason for not acting on the request, the request could be addressed to the Council of Elders.
SECTION 4. Passage of the Resolutions and/or Policies. Resolutions and/or policies passed by 50% + 1 of the members present at any meeting of the Association are valid and binding upon the Association.
ARTICLE VII
MANNER OF ELECTIONS
SECTION 1. Elections. The elections of officers of the Association shall be held on the first week of February of the end of the term of office of the outgoing officers. The new set of officers shall assume office on April 1 after the February election.
SECTION 2. Manner of Election. Members shall be entitled to one vote, and they may vote either in person or by proxy, which must be in writing and signed by the member giving the proxy. Voting shall be by secret balloting.
ARTICLE VIII
AMENDMENTS
SECTION 1. Revision and Amendments. Subject to the approval of the CFAEB, this Constitution and By-Laws may be amended or repealed, in whole or in part, by a secret vote of the majority of the votes cast by the members in a referendum/plebiscite supervised by the COMELEC. Any member of the Association may propose amendments or revisions to this Constitution and By-Laws to the CFAEB.
SECTION 2. Approval. At least a majority of all the votes cast by the members in favor of the proposed revisions are required to ratify proposed revisions or amendments to this Constitution and By-Laws
SECTION 3. Effectivity. Revision or Amendments shall be effective the semester after the ratification.
MEMBERS:
AD HOC CONSTITUTIONAL COMMITTEE ( 1993-94)
Raul F. Alejandrino Rubina B. Aquino
Walfredo P. Belen Norminda P. Binuya
Patrick S. De Castro Pacita L. Fernandez
Glenda E. Fortez Carlo P. Garcia
Mildred Legaspi Ramon V. Manaloto
Jose B. Maribay Ronaldo A. Motilla
Belinda San Luis Evina B. Torres
Ma. Rosario G. Wood
VOTED upon and adopted this 18th day of February, in the Year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-four, by the majority of the members of the Association.
(NB: By AL Jose Leonidas
The CFA COMELEC Proclamation on the 10th of December 2007 composed of Commissioners: Romille Alberto, Christian Vernon Mogol and Angelito Jocson announced the approval/ratification of the proposed 2007 CFA Constitution and By-Laws.
Out of 96 members, 51 voted with 50 members voted Yes to the approval of the new Constitution, one voted to abstain and nobody voted No.
The idea of inviting to amend, propose changes to CFA constitution started in the administration of Mr. Danny Reyes and was concluded by the administration of Mr. Raul Alejandrino.
Active members of this group were: Francis Evangelista, Ying Barros, Ronnie Motilla, Ato de la Cruz, Raul Alejandrino, AL Leonidas, Joel Cordova, Mila Serrana and Dennis Sajo.
Mr. Jose Leonidas, organized the working groups. 21 February 2008. #
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS
PREAMBLE
We, the College Faculty of Miriam College Foundation, Inc,. imploring the grace of Almighty God in order to establish an association which shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, and secure for ourselves the blessings of academic freedom, democracy, and the rule of truth, love, justice, peace and integrity of creation, do ordain and promulgate this constitution.
ARTICLE I
NAME AND ADDRESS
SECTION 1. Name of the Association. The name of the association shall be:
“THE COLLEGE FACULTY ASSOCIATION OF MIRIAM COLLEGE FOUNDATION, INC.
SECTION 2. Place of Business. The principal office of the Association is Caritas Room 206, Miriam College Foundation Inc., Katipunan Road, Loyola Heights, Quezon City or as decided by the CFA Executive Board.
ARTICLE II
PURPOSES
SECTION 1. Purposes. The purposes for which the Association is formed are as follows:
a. To promote unity and cooperation among the members;
b. To uphold, protect, and promote the members’ individual and collective rights, interests, and welfare;
c. To ensure the active involvement of the members in issues affecting the Association;
d. To sustain and enhance the democratic participation of the members in line with the College’s philosophy of participative management;
e. To serve as a venue for the articulation and exchange of views, opinions, grievances, needs and interests of the members;
f. To initiate, encourage, and facilitate active participation in activities promoting the holistic development of the members;
g. To represent the members in decision and policy formulating bodies;
h. To assist the institution in enhancing the quality of education in line with the College Vision and Mission;
i. To build, promote and strengthen professionalism; and
j. To establish harmonious and dynamic relations with other Faculty Associations, other sectors of the institution and the larger society.
ARTICLE III
MEMBERSHIP
SECTION 1. Who may be members. All higher education faculty members and guidance counselors of Miriam College are automatic members of the Association.
SECTION 2. Who are disqualified. All institutional and Higher Education Administrators such as the College Deans, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, the Registrar, and the Head Librarian.
SECTION 3. Types of membership. The following are the types of members of the Association:
a. Regular members are those with full-time status;
b. Associate members are those with part-time status.
SECTION 4. Rights and Privileges. The following are the rights and privileges of the members of the Association:
a. Access to all the facilities and services of
the Association;
a. Right to vote on all matters brought before the members;
b. Eligibility for an elective or appointive position in the Association except for positions requiring more than mere membership.
SECTION 5. Duties and Responsibilities. The following are the duties and responsibilities of a member:
a. To uphold the principles and purposes of the Association;
b. To pay the membership dues and other fees that may be required by the Association by a vote of at least the majority of the members present in a meeting especially called for such a purpose;
c. To settle any financial obligations which may have been incurred from the Association;
d. To attend the regular and special meetings, and assemblies called by the Association;
e. To actively participate and become involved in the Association’s activities;
f. For regular members, to join at least one committee.
SECTION 6. Membership Fee. A fee of P150 shall be charged each member for every semester, provided that any increase in the amount of membership fee shall be made upon the concurrence of the majority of the members present in a meeting called for that purpose.
SECTION 7. Sanctions. Appropriate sanctions shall be imposed on any member who shall fail to comply with her/his duties and obligation. Such sanctions shall be determined by the Association’s Executive Board (CFAEB) and the same shall be circularized after the CFAEB shall have passed a resolution on the said matter.
ARTICLE IV
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
SECTION 1. Officers of the Association. The officers of the College Faculty Association are as follows:
a. President
b. Vice-President
c. Secretary
d. Associate Secretary
e. Treasurer
f. Assistant Treasurer
g. Auditor
h. Public Relations Officer
i. Chairpersons of the Standing Committees which are:
h.1. Teachers’ Rights
h.2. Socio-Civic and Cultural
h.3. Special Projects
h.4. Part-time Faculty Concerns
All the above-mentioned officers are members of the College Faculty Executive Board (CFAEB).
SECTION 2. Powers and Functions of the CFAEB. The College Faculty Association Executive Board is empowered to formulate and implement policies and disseminate such to the members. For major policies and/or projects that involve finances exceeding twenty thousand pesos (PhP20,000.00), the board shall first seek the approval of the members of the Association. A policy or project is deemed approved if it gets a majority vote as defined in Article VI Section 3.
SECTION 3. Term of Office. Officers of the Association shall hold office for two (2) consecutive academic years and shall act as such until after their successors shall have been duly elected and/or appointed, and duly proclaimed.
The President cannot run for a second consecutive term as President of the Association, provided that: The President shall ipso facto become an ex-officio member of the CFAEB following the assumption of the new set of officer after the turn-over rites.
SECTION 4. Duties and Responsibilities of the Officers.
The following are the duties and responsibilities of the elected officers:
a. PRESIDENT
The President shall be the chief executive officer of the
Association and as such, shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
a.1. Call and preside over the meetings of the Association;
a.2. Supervise the affairs and properties of the Association;
a.3. Submit to the Executive Board as soon as possible after the close of each academic year, and to the members at each first regular meeting, a complete report of the operations of the Association for the preceding year;
a.4 Appoint officers for positions in the CFAEB for
which no member is elected, with the approval of the
majority of the EB;
a.5. Represent the Faculty in the Administrative Board of each college or appoint her/his representative to the Council of Representatives, Council on Permanency, Discipline Board, Faculty Grievance Committee, College Academic Council, and other institutional/college bodies where faculty interests must be promoted;
a.6. Create ad hoc committees as may be necessary for the business of the Association;
a.7. Appoint upon the approval of the majority of the CFAEB, a member to serve the unfinished term of an officer who has vacated his/her position;
a.8. Disseminate information pertinent to faculty business;
a.9. Oversee the different activities of the committees;
a.10. Represent the faculty in external affairs and functions related to faculty interests;
a.11. Delegate to the VP or other officers
certain duties/functions as demanded by circumstances;
and
a.12. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association.
b. VICE PRESIDENT
The Vice-President shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the President in case of the absence or inability of the latter, and shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
b.1. Serve the unexpired term of the President in case
of the former’s resignation, removal or incapacity;
b.2. Serve the powers that the President may lawfully designate or delegate; and
b.3. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association.
c. SECRETARY
The Secretary shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
c.1. Keep the minutes of all the meetings of the CFA and of the executive board in a book kept for that purpose;
c.2. Keep the seal of the Association, and when authorized by the Executive Board, to affix such seal to any paper or instrument requiring the same;
c.3. Call the roll of all regular and special meetings;
c.4. Post notices pertinent to the Association;
c.5. Keep/Take charge of all records of the Association excluding financial records; and
c.6. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association.
d. ASSOCIATE SECRETARY
The Associate Secretary shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the Secretary in case of the absence or inability of the latter, and shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
d.1. Collaborate with the secretary in taking the minutes of all the meetings of the CFA and Executive Board; and
d.2. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the Secretary or the President or the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association.
e. TREASURER
The Treasurer shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
e.1. Take charge of the funds, receipts, and disbursements of the Association;
e.2. Deposit all the monies and other valuables of the Association in such bank or banks as designated by the Executive Board;
e.3. Render to the President or to the Executive Board, whenever required, an account of the financial condition of the Association of all transactions made by her/him as Treasurer;
e.4. Keep correct books of accounts of all transactions of the Association;
e.5. Sign all checks paid out or endorsed by the Association and countersigned by the President;
e.6. Collect membership fees and issue receipts;
e.7. Prepare annual written financial report to be presented to the Association during the first general assembly; and
e.8. Perform other tasks as may be designated, delegated or assigned from time to time by the President or the CFAEB.
f. ASSISTANT TREASURER
The Assistant Treasurer shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the Treasurer in case of the absence or inability of the latter, and shall exercise the following functions and responsibilities:
f.1. Assist the Treasurer in all financial matters of the Association;
f.2. Represent the Treasurer when the latter is absent, and takes the place of the Treasurer when the latter resigns, or is incapacitated;
f.3. Perform such other functions as may be designated, delegated or assigned by the Treasurer or the President or the CFAEB in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Association .
g. AUDITOR
The following are the responsibilities of the Auditor:
g.1. To perform the financial audits of the books of accounts and their supporting documents at the end of each year;
g.2. To conduct an inventory of all properties and cash accountability of the Association periodically as determined by the CFAEB;
g.3. To attest to the fairness of all the formal financial reports prepared by the Treasurer; and
g.4. To perform such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or the President in furtherance of the goals and
objectives of the Association.
h. PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
The following are the duties and responsibilities of the Public Relations Officer:
h.1. To promote better relations and goodwill among members of the CFA, between the CFA and the Administration and between the CFA and other organizations that the CFA deals with;
h.2. To foster linkages with other groups and Associations or former CFA members that may help achieve the objectives of the Association; and
h.3. To perform such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or the President in furtherance of the goals and
objectives of the Association.
SECTION 5. Committees. The Association shall have a Teachers’ Rights Committee, Special Projects Committee, Socio-Civic and Cultural Committee, and Part-time Faculty Concerns Committee. Each committee shall be composed of a minimum of five core members with a chairperson, vice-chairperson and secretary. The functions of the Committees of the Association are as follows:
a. Teachers’ Rights committee
This committee shall be tasked with providing legal assistance to the Association and any of its members. Its functions are:
a.1. To inform teachers about their rights
and benefits;
a.2. To assert, articulate, promote and
protect teachers’ rights;
a.3. To conduct annual survey on teachers’
rights and concerns;
a.4. To study faculty rights and benefits in
other schools; and
a.5. To facilitate dialogues between administration
and faculty
b. Special Projects Committee
This committee shall be tasked with the planning, coordinating, and implementing of activities pertinent to the actualization of the Association’s purposes.
c. Socio-Civic and Cultural Committee
It shall be tasked with the planning, organizing, and implementing of activities to ensure better interpersonal relations among members. It shall also develop programs and activities to deepen cultural, socio-civic awareness among the members.
d. Part-time Faculty Concerns Committee
This committee shall be tasked with promoting the rights, interests, and concerns of part-time faculty members.
SECTION 6. Responsibilities and Duties of the Committee
Chairpersons
Each committee chairperson is tasked to recruit, organize and mobilize her/his committee members to attain the constitutional objective of the committee. Each chairperson has to submit a written report of all the activities, problems and projects of her/his committee to the CFAEB at the end of the school year.
a. Teachers’ Rights
a.1. Takes the leadership role in the protection and promotion of teachers’ rights; and
a.2. Performs such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or her/his committee and/or the President in
furtherance of the goals and objectives of the
Association.
b. Special Projects
b.1. Conducts research, gathers materials, and implements special projects for the activities of the Association; and
b.2. Performs such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or her/his committee and/or the President in
furtherance of the goals and objectives of the
Association.
c. Socio-Civic and Cultural
c.1. Takes charge of all social and civic functions of the Association;
c.2. Takes charge of promoting camaraderie and social interactions among members; and
c.3. Performs such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or her/his committee and/or the President in
furtherance of the goals and objectives of the
Association.
d. Part-time Faculty Concerns
d.1. Shall be tasked with the planning, organizing and implementing of activities that promote the welfare, integration, and interpersonal relations of part-time faculty;
d.2. Shall ensure the active participation of the part-time faculty;
d.3. Shall give inputs and feedback regarding candidates for permanency to the CFAEB which will make formal recommendation to the Council on Permanency accordingly; and
d.4. Shall perform such other functions as may be
designated, delegated or assigned by the CFAEB
and/or her/his committee and/or the President in
furtherance of the goals and objectives of the
Association.
SECTION 7. COMELEC. The COMELEC shall be composed of three commissioners, one of whom is the chairperson; all are appointed by the President upon the approval of the CFAEB in its first board meeting. The COMELEC commissioners shall take their oath of office during the induction of the new set of officers. Their term of office will be two years. The following are the duties and responsibilities of the chairperson of the COMELEC:
a. Takes charge of the regular and special elections of the CFA, Referendum-Plebiscite and other election- related activities;
b. Formulates and implements guidelines for the electoral process including the assessment of the candidates’ qualifications;
c. Immediately and formally reports election results to the candidates, the Faculty Association and to the college community;
d. Proclaims the duly elected officers of the Association; and
e. Acts and adjudicates election-related protests which may arise from the electoral process.
SECTION 8. Eligibility of the Officers of the Association. The following are the minimum qualifications of the officers who shall be elected by the members of the Faculty Association:
a. The President, Vice-President and the Treasurer must be permanent faculty members of Miriam College and active members of the Faculty Association.
b. All other officers and the Committee Chairpersons must be:
b.1. Active members of the Association;
b.2. Members of the Association for at least one year immediately preceding the election; and
b.3. Must have taught in the college for at least one academic year but not necessarily immediately preceding the election.
SECTION 9. Council of Elders. The Council of Elders is composed of all former CFA Presidents who are members of the CFA except the immediate past president and those who are current members of the CFAEB. The members of the Council shall choose from among themselves the chairperson who shall call and preside over the meeting of the Council whenever necessary. Its functions are:
a. It shall settle disputes and questions regarding the correct and proper interpretation of the Constitution or its enforcement.
b. When the CFAEB or any CFA officer seriously neglects or violates his/her constitutional duty, the Council of Elders as the protector of the Constitution and the general Welfare of the CFA members shall decide and impose appropriate sanctions on the erring officer or board after due process and as a last resort.
c. As a body of senior advisers, its constitutional mandate includes giving timely advice to the CFAEB.
d. It acts as the COMELEC of the CFA in the absence of the COMELEC or its failure to function as such.
e. It shall give orientation to the new set of officers regarding the history, responsibilities and duties of CFA officers.
ARTICLE V
SEAL OF THE ASSOCIATION
SECTION 1. Form. The seal of the Association shall, unless otherwise ordered by the Executive Board, be circular in form and shall bear the words: “COLLEGE FACULTY ASSOCIATION. MIRIAM COLLEGE”
ARTICLE VI
MEETINGS
SECTION 1. General Assembly. The general assembly shall be held once a semester at Miriam College, Quezon City, not later than the sixth Monday of the semester. A member who does not attend the assembly waives the right to participate in any decision arrived at by the body. Regular members who could not attend should notify the Executive Board of her/his reasons for not attending. A penalty of fifty pesos (PhP 50.00) shall be imposed on members who are absent without any valid reason. Any increase in the fine shall be decided by the general assembly
SECTION 2. Agenda. The first General Assembly of the CFA shall include the President’s and the Treasurer’s reports, and the CFA plans for the school year. If there is a new set of officers, the reports must be made by the former President and the former Treasurer.
SECTION 3. Emergency/Special Meetings. Other meetings may be called by the President or by any CFA member to address immediate concerns that affect the faculty. The member should write a request for such, addressed to the President/Executive Board. To be valid, the request must be signed by at least 10% of the CFA. If the members believe that the President/Executive Board does not have a valid reason for not acting on the request, the request could be addressed to the Council of Elders.
SECTION 4. Passage of the Resolutions and/or Policies. Resolutions and/or policies passed by 50% + 1 of the members present at any meeting of the Association are valid and binding upon the Association.
ARTICLE VII
MANNER OF ELECTIONS
SECTION 1. Elections. The elections of officers of the Association shall be held on the first week of February of the end of the term of office of the outgoing officers. The new set of officers shall assume office on April 1 after the February election.
SECTION 2. Manner of Election. Members shall be entitled to one vote, and they may vote either in person or by proxy, which must be in writing and signed by the member giving the proxy. Voting shall be by secret balloting.
ARTICLE VIII
AMENDMENTS
SECTION 1. Revision and Amendments. Subject to the approval of the CFAEB, this Constitution and By-Laws may be amended or repealed, in whole or in part, by a secret vote of the majority of the votes cast by the members in a referendum/plebiscite supervised by the COMELEC. Any member of the Association may propose amendments or revisions to this Constitution and By-Laws to the CFAEB.
SECTION 2. Approval. At least a majority of all the votes cast by the members in favor of the proposed revisions are required to ratify proposed revisions or amendments to this Constitution and By-Laws
SECTION 3. Effectivity. Revision or Amendments shall be effective the semester after the ratification.
MEMBERS:
AD HOC CONSTITUTIONAL COMMITTEE ( 1993-94)
Raul F. Alejandrino Rubina B. Aquino
Walfredo P. Belen Norminda P. Binuya
Patrick S. De Castro Pacita L. Fernandez
Glenda E. Fortez Carlo P. Garcia
Mildred Legaspi Ramon V. Manaloto
Jose B. Maribay Ronaldo A. Motilla
Belinda San Luis Evina B. Torres
Ma. Rosario G. Wood
VOTED upon and adopted this 18th day of February, in the Year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-four, by the majority of the members of the Association.
(NB: By AL Jose Leonidas
The CFA COMELEC Proclamation on the 10th of December 2007 composed of Commissioners: Romille Alberto, Christian Vernon Mogol and Angelito Jocson announced the approval/ratification of the proposed 2007 CFA Constitution and By-Laws.
Out of 96 members, 51 voted with 50 members voted Yes to the approval of the new Constitution, one voted to abstain and nobody voted No.
The idea of inviting to amend, propose changes to CFA constitution started in the administration of Mr. Danny Reyes and was concluded by the administration of Mr. Raul Alejandrino.
Active members of this group were: Francis Evangelista, Ying Barros, Ronnie Motilla, Ato de la Cruz, Raul Alejandrino, AL Leonidas, Joel Cordova, Mila Serrana and Dennis Sajo.
Mr. Jose Leonidas, organized the working groups. 21 February 2008. #
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