A FORMER lawmaker has pushed to restore the “culture” and “sports” strands of the Department of Education (DepEd), noting that cultural and sports activities begin at the grassroots, such as public schools and communities.
In a statement, former Buhay party-list representative Jose “Lito” Atienza said that the removal of the culture and sports strands of DepEd “has not done any good” as Filipino children are growing up “without any consciousness, much less knowledge on Philippine culture,” which he said is “disastrous.”
DepEd was renamed from the previous Department of Education, Culture and Sports by virtue of Republic Act 9155 or the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, moving culture and sports agencies to the National Commission on Culture and the Arts and the Philippine Sports Commission, respectively.
Former Buhay party-list representative Jose “Lito” Atienza. TMT file photo
“Now that we have realized its negative impact, we should restore it. It used to be the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) but they removed culture and sports and now it is only the Department of Education,” Atienza said.
“Millions of poor Filipinos are growing up in public schools without any knowledge of our culture, and they are not getting the necessary sports training that could give the Philippines back its world standing of producing excellent athletes,” he added.
During his three terms as mayor of the City of Manila, Atienza said that sports was one of his priority programs and the recent victory of Carlos Yulo in the 2024 Paris Olympics is a good example of why sports should be prioritized.
“He is the product of a public school and got his gymnastics training at Aurora Quezon Elementary School in Malate because we decided to restore sports. I did not follow the ridiculous removal of sports training among public school students. Yulo learned gymnastics in a public school during my term as mayor. Now he gave us two gold medals in the recently concluded Paris Olympics,” he said.
Atienza has pushed for the prioritization of sports training and cultural orientation among public school children, which would enable the Philippines to produce world-class athletes like Yulo and the late sprint queen Lydia de Vega-Mercado.
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