Most Frequently Asked Questions (MFAQ) in Legal Bases of

Education and Their Possible Answer(OR A Simplified Catechetic in

Legal Bases of Education)
Question: This question is in connection with student arrest in the school
premises.
the arresting officer taking the student under custody is a
member of the military establishment properly identified but
without warrant of arrest, what would be the responsibility of the
school if the student injury is sustained within the campus?
Answer:

The school authorities have no liability. The reason is that they

could not fight the police or military establishment. In this
connection, the Supreme court gives the advice that when one is
picked up by the police officer, he should not argue with the
policeman. He must argue in court.

Question: Is a parents signature permitting his child to join on outing or

excursion or field trip tantamount to a waiver? Suppose
something happens to the students.
Answer:

It is not a waiver. A parent just gives the permission to his child

to join the outing or excursion or field trip but not the permission
to be injured.

Questions:
Assuming that one can prove that he exercised proper
diligence, what then is the parameter for proper? When do we
know it is proper not proper? What constitutes proper or not
proper?who will decide that?
Answer:

According to the Supreme Court of the Philippines, you cannot

show that the diligence exercised was proper by calibrated
degrees. Each case will have to depend on the circumstances
surroundings the event. It is found in the Latin
quis,quid,quibos,qour,quomodo,quando. What is proper diligence
is one case may not be so in another circumstances because of
the difference in the attendant circumstances .There are no hard
and fast rules that can possibly be given.

Question: Would the school authority be liable for any accident that
happens to its students in the school bus or because of traffic
accidents to and from the school?

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Answer:

If the school bus belongs to the school, the school is liable. If it

belongs to a private company, then the concessionaire is the one
that is liable.

Question: Suppose that in a student evaluation, a teacher is consistently

graded in a manner of leading to the conclusion that the teacher
is inefficient; would this be ground for dismissing the teacher:
Answer:

If the testimony of the students is convincing, and with due

process, yes.

Question: Suppose something happens to the students on the way from the
school to the police precinct, what is the schools liability?
Answer:

The school no liability. Nothing. The reason is that the student is

now under police custody.

Question: It is said that most foolishness and conduct unbecoming of a

student occur when the teacher dismisses his class too early, let
us say, twenty minutes after the time or fifteen minutes before
the time, Since every school head is after escaping liability, may
he issue as an exercise of diligence, a regulation that anything
that may happen within the period when the teacher is supposed
to be in the classroom will be his liability and that the school
head has nothing to do with it?
Answer:

If it was already known to the school authorities that a particular

teacher or teachers are in the habit of coming to class late or
dismissing classes too early, the school has not done anything
about, then the school is still liable. The regulation should be a
general rule such as an announcement at the beginning of the
school year or during faculty or teachers, meeting and that
violation of that rule will be ground for disciplinary action on the
teacher. That teacher shall be subject to administrative action.

Question: Suppose during a class a student leave without the teachers

permission. Then, he meets an accident outside the school
campus.the question is: Is the teacher, and therefore the school
liable?
Answer:

In such a case the age of the student will be the one to be the
deciding factor. If the student is a minor the law requires that the
school post guards so that the students cannot go out during
class hours. If he is of age and he goes out of the school, the
school is not liable. The schools negligence will be for failure to

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post guards for the security of the students who are considered
minors.
Question: how do you differentiate tenure from term of office?
Answer:

The word tenure refers to the period of time during which the
incumbent is in office where the word term of office refers to the
period of time during which the incumbent has the right to be in
office

Question: If an educational institution converts itself into a foundation and

any of its employees or teachers refuse to become part of the
foundation, would the refusal be tantamount to separation?
Answer:

In the words of the Supreme Court, transfer is not just physical

severance but the fact of being separated. Now, if a school
employee or teacher refuses to be absorbed by the foundation,
he has thereby made his own decision. In the words of the
Existentialist Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, a person who makes a
decision is the moral one and the one who cannot make a
decision is the immoral one. Now, he has thereby made his own
decision. He has laid off himself. In short, he has dismissed
himself!

Question: Suppose a school transfer location due to a government order on

dispersal, is the refusal of a teacher to join that school that
transfer location be a ground for separation, and may the
Commission hold the school accountable?
Answer:

Because the relocation of the school is mandated by the state,

whoever refuses to join the migration and complains to the
Commission on accounts of his separation would have to
convince the NLRC that the school was acting in bad faith.

Question: why is it difficult to dismiss inefficient faculty members and yet

comparatively easy for a faculty member to walk out of his
school with very little penalty?
Answer:

The question has, of course, serious socio-economic and moral

implications. The state has to use its police power to counteract
certain pressures in the free world economy. In a developing
country like the Philippines which has a labor excess economy,
which means that here we have a situation where the man runs
after the jobs and not the job running after the man, the
guidelines are based on the philosophy that unemployed workers
constitutes a social burden to the government and such a

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situation should not be recommended to escalate. Moreover, the

philosophy of egalitarian must be used here where the State is
guided by the motto: the greatest good for the greatest number.
Question: If a professor carries on an affair with a female student and the
affair is carried on outside the school, may the professor be
charged with immorality? Or if an unmarried teacher should
become pregnant is this a case of immorality?
Answer:

Moral standards are supposed to be universal. Such a situation

should not be tolerated whether the school is private or public.

Question: What is our law on tenure?

Answer:

The explicit mandate of the 1987 Philippine Constitution enjoins

the State to assure the security of tenure of workers in
employment. This constitutional provision abolishes the almost
absolute right of the employer under the Termination Pay Law (R.
A 1987) to terminate at any time the services of his employees
even without just cause. (Department of Labor Staff Committee
on labor code)

Question: what statutory law implements the constitutional provision on

tenure?
Answer:

The statutory law that implements the constitutional provision on

tenure is presidential Decree 442, as amended, which took effect
last may 1, 1974. Specifically its pertinent provision provides that
In cases of employment without a definite period, the employer
shall not terminate the services of an employee except for a just
cause or when authorized by this Title. (Article 269, Labor Code)

Question: What is the effect of an unjust dismissal of an employee?

Answer:

He shall be entitled to reinstatement without loss of seniority

right and to his back wages computed from the time his
compensation which was withheld up to the time of his
compensation which was withheld up to the time of his actual
reinstatement. (Article 269, Labor Code)

Question: What do you mean by dismissal for a just cause?

Answer:

As a sufficient ground for dismissal, a just cause is a legal cause

and not merely a cause, which the appointing power, in the
exercise of his discretion, deems sufficient. It is the statutory
prescription of the cause of termination of employment.

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Question: What exactly do we mean by probationary period?

Answer:

Under the Labor Code, the probationary period is actually the

period needed to determine fitness for the job. This period, due
to lack of a better measurement, is deemed to be the period
needed to learn the job.

Question: What is the probationary period for employees covered by the

Labor Code?
Answer:

The general probationary period is actually six months. If the job

is apprenticeable, the probationary period is the apprenticeship
period, which may range from less than six to more than six
months depending upon the nature of the job. The probationary
employment of professors, instructors, and teachers shall be
subject to standards established by the Department of Education
and Culture (Policy Instruction No. 11). However, for those
working in the DepEd now, there is no more probationary period.

Question: what is liability, if any, or to what extent will heads of schools be

liable for mass demonstration similar to those in Thailand or in
China?
Answer:

Mass demonstrations are without sanction of the school

activities. Therefore, the schools are not liable.

Question: Suppose the demonstration is inside the school premises without

permission of the school authorities during class hours just like
what happen to the University of Southern Mindanao way back in
1983s, what liabilities do the school officials have?
Answer:

If the activity is in violation of school regulations and the school

authorities had tried their best to stop it, the school would not be
liable. The school will be held liable if there was implied consent.

Question: In case of an arrest of student during class hours. What is the

liability of the school if it refuses to surrender a student?
Answer:

This is disobedience to lawful authority. The school is therefore

held liable.

Question: Can a teacher who has to use force in a students fight be held
liable if he accidentaly hurts a student in trying to stop the fight?

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Answer:

No., because the teacher was acting in the performance of lawful

duty. However, the forced employed by the teacher must be
commensurate with the danger involved.

Question; Is there direct assault if both offender and offended are persons
in authority?
Answer:

In a case where a superintendent boxed a fellow superintendent

because of conflict of jurisdiction, it was ruled that there was no
assault.

Question: Is serious vandalism committed by an employee against the

property of teachers in the classroom considered as assault of
person in authority?
Answer:

The offense may be termed malicious mischief or destruction of

property with evil motive, etc..

Question: Is a student liable for direct assault upon a person in authority

even if the act was committed during recess time and not in
actual performance of the teachers duties?
Answer:

Yes, as long as it is by reason or no accession of the teachers

duties. When we say on occasion of the reason behind the
assault was the performance of the teachers duties.

Question: If a students refusal to obey teacher in public provokes the

teachers anger who loses his temper and slaps the student or
even manhandles him, should the school officials side with the
teacher or the student?
Answer:

That situation is a plain case of the teacher taking the law into
her own hands-the teacher becomes the offender and the
students, his victim. More importantly, the offense is even
aggravated by the teacher being a person in authority.

Question: When we refer to students assaulting persons in authority, do we

refer only to student currently enrolled or does this include
students who have been granted honourable dismissal?
Answer:

The law does not mention students only.It includes nonstudent,parents, even strangers. If a student was flunked by a
professor there is direct assault on a person in authority

Question: In most barrios it is difficult to divorce the social functions of a

teacher from the academic. If a teacher attends a school social
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function and in refusing to dance with a man she gets slapped

direct assault on a person in authority?
Answer:

It depends on the reason why the teacher was slapped.

Question: The teacher refused to dance with him because he smells liquor.
Answer:

The teachers refusal to dance has nothing to do with the

performance of a teachers duty but for a private reason. If a
teacher is in the performance of duty, no matter if the reason for
the assault has nothing to do with teacher (such as when a
teacher is explaining a lesson and a creditor comes and slaps her
in front of the students)there is direct assault of person in
authority. The reason is immaterial if the assault is committed
while the teacher is performing her duties.

Question: Would homosexual practices constitute just cause for separation?

Answer:

The attending circumstances should be taken into account. In

most state universities and colleges as well asprivate

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