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College profs must have masters degrees, SC rules
By Jerome Aning |Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:58 am | Monday, February 18th, 2013

The Supreme Court has upheld the policy of the Commission on Higher Education
(CHEd) requiring teachers of tertiary schools to acquire postgraduate degrees to
become tenured or regular employees.
In an eight-page decision dated Jan. 23, the courts Third Division junked the suit of two
University of the East professors who charged the school with illegal dismissal after their
dean repeatedly extended their probationary status as professors for not having masters
degrees.
The justices, pointing out that the operation of educational institutions involved the public
interest, said the requirement of a masters degree for college teachers was not
unreasonable.
The government has a right to ensure that only qualified persons in possession of sufficient
academic knowledge and teaching skills are allowed to teach in such institutions. Government
regulation in this field of human activity is desirable for protecting, not only the students, but
the public as well from ill-prepared teachers lacking in the required scientific or technical
knowledge. They may be required to take an examination or to possess postgraduate degrees
as a prerequisite to employment, the court said in the decision penned by Justice Roberto
Abad.
Concurring with Abad were the division chairman, Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., and
members Diosdado Peralta, Jose Mendoza and Marvic Leonen.
The petitioners, UE professors Analiza Pepanio and Mariti Bueno, who were hired in 2000
and 1997, respectively, filed a labor case against then UE dean Eleanor Javier, contesting the
schools policy that obligated them to acquire masters degrees as a condition for tenureship.
Pepanio and Bueno said the 1994-1999 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between UE
management and its faculty provided that the school shall extend semester-to-semester
appointments to college faculty staff like themselves who did not possess the minimum
qualifications such as a masters degree.
In 2001, the new CBA extended probationary full-time appointments to full-time faculty
members who did not yet have the required postgraduate degrees provided that the latter
complied with the requirement within their probationary period.
In 2003, Javier reminded Pepanio and Bueno of the expiration of their probationary status.
The two, however, demanded that they be placed on regular status given the years of service
they had rendered.
The labor arbiter, in 2004, ruled in favor of the professors and ordered their reinstatement.
UE, however, appealed to the National Labor Relations Commission, which reversed the
arbiters decision in 2006.
The professors ran to the Court of Appeals and in 2010 secured a reversal of the NLRC
decision. The UE management then elevated the case to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court noted that as early as 1992, the then Department of Education,
Culture and Sports had issued a revised manual of regulations for private schools which
required college faculty members to have a masters degree as a minimum educational
qualification for acquiring regular status. The CHEd, created in 1994 to supervise
tertiary schools, upheld the requirement.