Conversion of Children~s Educational Foundation into College

Purpose for children of adversity

Section 3 establishes the college as a system for the custodial care and vocational education of children of adversity at Doroluman and Medlambid in the Municipality of Magpet, Province of North Cotabato.
Section 3 defines “Children” to include orphans, homeless, neglected children, indigent children from broken homes, and children from poverty-stricken families due to sickness, calamities and other misfortunes.
Section 4 requires the college to entrust custodial care and vocational education functions to the Custodial Care Administrator, foster parents, in cooperation with educators, psychologists, sociologists and other professionally trained personnel employed by the college.
Section 4 mandates the college to provide care, custody, correction, education and vocational training, and physical, moral and spiritual uplift for the covered children.
Section 4 makes the college a laboratory and training center for child welfare development studies and provides opportunities for manual labor, higher education and assistance to deserving self-supporting and industrious students in Mindanao.

Educational programs and degrees

Section 5 requires the college to offer elementary, secondary general, and secondary vocational courses, including two years vocational, industrial arts and trades, home technology, engineering and agriculture.
Section 5 requires the college to offer associate in animal science and food technology.
Section 5 requires the college to offer baccalaureate degrees, including:
- Bachelor of Science in Agriculture
- Bachelor of Science in Home Economics
- Bachelor of Science in Forestry
- Bachelor of Science in Geology
- Bachelor of Science in Social Service and Development
- Bachelor of Science in Anthropology
- Bachelor of Science in Trades and Industries
- Bachelor of Science in Agri-Business
- midwifery, pre-nursing, and other technical courses relevant to the needs of the region.
Section 5 requires baccalaureate and technical offerings to be offered on the college level as prescribed and approved by the Board of Trustees.

Governance: president and board

Section 6 designates the head of the Foundation College as the President.
Section 6 requires the President to be appointed for a term of six years by the President of the Philippines, upon the recommendation of the Board of Trustees.
Section 6 requires the President to coordinate, plan and implement Board policy, and provides that the President holds the powers and duties of a college president in addition to those specifically stated in the Act.
Section 6 requires the Board to appoint two vice-presidents upon the recommendation of the Foundation College President:
- one for academic affairs
- one for administrative and land development affairs
Section 7 vests college government in a Board of Trustees composed of:
- the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports as presiding chairman
- the President of the Foundation College as vice-chairman
- a representative of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as member
- two (2) prominent citizens, one representing the alumni of the institution, and one chosen from prominent citizens of the province
Section 7 requires prominent citizens to be appointed by the President of the Philippines upon recommendation of the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports.
Section 7 provides that Board members serve without compensation, except actual and necessary expenses incurred in attending meetings or other official business authorized by Board resolution, subject to existing budget laws on honoraria and allowances.
Section 8 sets quorum as a majority of all the members, and requires that among those present are the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports or, in the Minister’s absence, the President of the Foundation College acting as presiding officer.
Section 8 directs that processes against the Board of Trustees shall be served on the President or Secretary thereof.

Board powers; councils; faculty governance

Section 9 gives the Board of Trustees authority to enact college rules and regulations not contrary to law and to appropriate sums provided by law for the support of the college.
Section 9 authorizes the Board to confer degrees upon successful candidates, issue certificates for completion of non-degree programs, award awards of merit, and grant honorary degrees for learning, public service, statesmanship, or eminence in the fields relevant to the college.
Section 9 requires Board confirmation of appointments of vice-presidents, deans, directors, registrars, heads of departments, professors, teachers, social workers, foster parents, and other officials and employees, and authorizes the Board to fix compensation subject to Presidential Decree No. 985 and other budget and compensation laws, set hours of service, grant leaves of absence at its discretion, and remove for cause after an investigation and hearing.
Section 9 requires Board approval of curricula and rules of discipline drawn up by administrative and academic councils.
Section 9 empowers the Board to set foster home care rules, admission criteria and functions and maintenance for children in addition to those provided by the Act, and to fix tuition fees and other school charges.
Section 9 authorizes the Board to establish chairs, provide fellowships for faculty, and scholarships for deserving students for leadership and good citizenship.
Section 9 authorizes the Board to receive in trust legacies, gifts, and donations of real and personal property and administer them for the college or for children or students per donor directions, or otherwise in the Board’s discretion.
Section 9 permits authorization of construction/repair of buildings, machineries, equipment, and facilities, and purchase of supplies and equipment, notwithstanding any contrary law, provided funds come from authorized appropriations for the Foundation College.
Section 10 requires the Board to submit on or before the fifteenth day of the second month after the opening of the regular classes each year a detailed report to the President of the Philippines on progress, condition, and needs of the Foundation College.
Section 11 creates a Foundation College council composed of an administrative council and an academic council.
Section 11 gives the academic council power to prescribe curricula and rules of discipline subject to Board approval, and to fix admission, graduation, and degree requirements subject to Board review.
Section 11 grants the academic council, through the President, disciplinary powers over children and student members within Board limits.
Section 12 vests faculty and staff governance in the faculty and staff body, with the President as presiding officer, and requires it to promote professional growth, formulate rules and a code of ethics or conduct, and judge disciplinary action against members within Board-prescribed limits.
Section 12 requires that religious opinions or affiliation must not be made the subject of examination or inquiry, except when employees are educationally qualified and proficient in the type of work required.

Foster parents and custodial care duties

Section 13 creates a Board of Consultants whose membership is selected by the Board of Trustees from heads of institutions dedicated to custodial care, protection, education, training of youths and children, and other persons whose technical know-how is valuable to the Act’s objectives.
Section 13 requires consultants to attend Board meetings by invitation of the Chairman for members whose technical advice is deemed beneficial to welfare.
Section 14 requires the Custodial Care Administrator and foster parents to possess integrity, proven love for children, morally upright and wholesome personality, and be physically and mentally healthy.
Section 14 establishes five types of foster parents:
1. childless couples with completed college education
2. newly married couples educationally qualified and technically trained to handle phases of work in the Foundation College
3. elderly couples retired from government jobs or private firms, capable of being employed as foster parents, and provided they have no dependents
4. unmarried individuals professionally or technically capable of becoming foster mothers or foster fathers
5. widows or widowers educationally qualified with no dependents
Section 14 requires the President to appoint foster parents and requires Board of Trustees confirmation, with salaries/compensation determined by the Board subject to Presidential Decree No. 985 and other budget and compensation laws.
Section 15 requires each foster parent to live in a government cottage with fifteen or twenty children grouped according to age, sex, interest or convenience.
Section 15 requires enough space for gardening and other income-producing projects.
Section 15 forbids dividing children under ten years of age into groups and requires allowing them to mingle to have normal home life.
Section 15 requires children to be enrolled in classes according to aptitudes and abilities and in vocational courses they are best inclined to pursue.
Section 15 requires children to receive job responsibilities with nominal payment to prepare them for awe efficiency and to enable them to grow into self-respecting citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.
Section 16 requires foster parents to be responsible for supply and preservation of house equipment, clothing, and general supplies for children under their care.
Section 16 requires foster parents to make a monthly report to the President regarding expenses for each child.
Section 16 requires foster parents to coordinate with the child guidance counselor, doctor and dentist, and other personnel to promote wholesome personality of the children, and to act with loving care as real parents by providing wholesome family life and motivating individual or shared projects.

Admission age limits and exit procedure

Section 17 sets the age limit of children admitted as from seven to eighteen years.
Section 17 requires that those who are eighteen years old receive at least two years of college vocational training before release from the Foundation College.
Section 17 requires release training to be through the Foundation College’s Job Placement Office for better qualification and employment readiness.
Section 17 allows a child to leave before reaching age eighteen only with approval of the Board of Trustees upon recommendation of the Foundation College President.
Section 17 requires that parents, guardians, and relatives execute an affidavit of support for the child’s care and education as a condition for early leaving.
Section 17 requires periodic follow-up supervision by the President for custodial care and education until the child reaches majority age.
Section 17 authorizes the Foundation College, in its discretion, to take back the child if parents, guardians, and relatives fail to comply with the requirements.
Section 17 requires the Job Placement Office to encourage adoptions of rehabilitated children by families morally and financially qualified to love and care for children as if their own, subject to supervision by the Foundation College until the children reach majority age.

Secretary, treasury, and government support

Section 18 requires a Secretary of the Foundation College, recommended by the President and appointed by the Board of Trustees.
Section 18 requires the Secretary to keep records of the Foundation College as designated by the Board.
Section 19 designates the Treasurer of the Philippines as ex officio Treasurer of the Foundation College, and requires all accounts and expenses to be audited by the Commission on Audit or its duly authorized representative.
Section 19 requires all disbursements to be made in accordance with rules and regulations prescribed by the Commission on Audit.
Section 20 authorizes heads of bureaus or offices of the national government, upon request of the Foundation College President, to loan or transfer apparatus or supplies needed by the Foundation College and detail employees for duty if it can be spared without serious detriment to public service.
Section 20 requires detailed employees to perform duties required by the President of the Foundation College and deems the time employed as part of their regular official service.

Recruitment and transportation assistance

Section 21 empowers the superintendent of city schools and provincial division superintendents, through district supervisors and teachers, to help recruit children of adversity including orphans, abandoned and neglected children from destitute families, children from broken homes, and children from families stricken by poverty, calamities, sickness or other misfortunes.
Section 21 requires the barangay captain to refer an orphan child to the barrio teacher, who must help file an application for custodial care and education to the President of the Foundation College.
Section 21 requires the President to approve application papers after screening and joint recommendation by the district supervisor, division superintendent, and the deputized social service development official of the province.
Section 21 authorizes admission of youths and children from all over the islands, including Manila Boy's Town, Welfareville, the Children's Garden, the Children Catholic Charities, the Youth Conservation Corps, or other public or private agencies, by special arrangement approved by the Board of Trustees.
Section 21 requires that, as a condition of such special arrangement, the President accepts the placement and the agencies concerned pay living, education and travel expenses to the Foundation College.
Section 22 requires free passes, with chaperons, for indigent children admitted to the Foundation College, through special arrangement made by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees with the air force, army, navy, and other public transportation means.

Land segregation and appropriations transfer

Section 23 segregates one thousand hectares for the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology from the five thousand ninety-one hectares at Arakan Valley, Municipality of Magpet, Province of North Cotabato, reserved for the Mindanao Institute of Technology (formerly) University of Southern Mindanao (presently) under Proclamation Order No. 428.
Section 23 describes the segregated area boundaries by specific point references and distances starting from “Forest Station 135” at the junction of Culaman River and Tinanan River, following Tinanan River, then making specified straight horizontal-line and parallel-line connections toward Arakan River and Makalangot.
Section 24 transfers all existing appropriations for the Children’s Educational Foundation to the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology for disbursement in accordance with the Act.
Section 24 requires the necessary sum for operation and maintenance of the college to be provided in subsequent General Appropriations Acts.

Effectivity

Section 25 provides that the Act takes effect upon approval.
The Act was approved, June 10, 1983.