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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
June 29, 2026 | 5:16pm
MANILA, Philippines — House lawmakers have pressed the Civil Service Commission to hasten the approval of standards blocking the hiring of 10,000 school counselors already funded in this year's budget, saying these personnel are needed amid an uptick in campus violence.
The House basic education panel on June 24 flagged the CSC and said its delays with paperwork have kept Republic Act 12080, or the Basic Education Mental Health and Well-Being Promotion Act, from taking effect nearly two years after it was signed in 2024.
Without CSC approval of the qualification standards for "school counselor associates," the Department of Budget and Management cannot create the plantilla positions, and the Department of Education cannot hire, the basic education committee said.
The salaries for such positions are already parked in the 2026 budget.
The committee took up the issue at a hearing on school safety last Wednesday, a week after two students shot and killed three classmates and wounded 20 others at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City on June 22.
The attack has been described as the country's worst school shooting on record.
"Why did it take too long?" said Rep. Roman Romulo, the House basic education committee chair, who also co-chairs the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2).
"They submitted it to you on November 27, 2025. The people will really think you are suddenly acting on it because Tacloban has already happened. But if you had acted on this earlier, then maybe they could have done something. That law is still in 2024. So how long will it take?" Romulo said in mixed English and Filipino during the hearing.
DepEd Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral told lawmakers the department drafted the qualification standards soon after the law took effect and submitted them to the CSC on Nov. 27, 2025.
The CSC sent the documents back in January 2026, raising questions about a requirement that counselors complete 200 hours of specialized training. Cabral said that requirement is in the law itself.
"We submitted a request for the creation of positions of School Counselor Associate I items to the DBM, but we received a communication saying that the creation will be subject to the approval of the qualification standards that we submitted to the Civil Service Commission," Cabral said.
As of June 3, DepEd had been informed that the standards were before the CSC's commission en banc for approval. The agency has since sent a follow-up letter.
At the hearing, the CSC confirmed the standards remained under deliberation and declined to set a timeline.
Teachers carrying the load
The 10,000 school counselor associates are meant to give public schools basic mental health support.
This is a job that has long fallen to teachers already saddled with oversized classes amid a shortage of registered guidance counselors nationwide.
At a House appropriations committee hearing in September 2025, Angara said the country had only 4,069 licensed guidance counselors as of 2022, far from the more than 50,000 needed to meet the ideal global ratio of one counselor for every 250 students.
"Schools must remain places where children feel safe, supported, and ready to learn," Romulo said. "The law is already there. The funding is already there. What we need now is swift implementation. We cannot afford any more delays."
Campus violence. The hearing came against a string of campus violence and threats.
On June 25, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said it had foiled a plot by a 14-year-old Grade 10 student to stage a mass attack at Tolosa National High School, also in Leyte, following a tip relayed by Sen. Bam Aquino.
Earlier in June, a Grade 8 student stabbed seven Grade 5 pupils with a kitchen knife at Bethel Academy in General Trias, Cavite, and an 18-year-old stabbed a schoolmate at Cavite National High School over an unresolved grudge.
