Policy and purpose statement
- The Executive Order mandates education to maximize respect for human rights.
- It responds to the condition that the “past regime” was characterized by numerous violations of human rights.
- It aims to deter violations by educating the people on human rights, their serious consequences, and avenues of redress from violations.
- It directs use of formal and informal education for human-rights education, based on the recommendations of a human-rights committee.
Required integration in education system
- The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports must include study and understanding of human rights in the curricula of all levels of education and training in all schools in the country (Section 1).
- The Ministry must adapt the scope and treatment of human-rights subjects to the respective educational levels (Section 1).
- The Ministry must initiate and maintain regular programs and special projects providing venues for information and discussion of human rights (Section 1).
- The Ministry must employ informal education and other means to stress the importance of respect for human rights (Section 1).
Civil Service human-rights competency
- The Civil Service Commission must include basic knowledge on human rights in the qualifying examinations for government service (Section 2).
Core human-rights principles to be emphasized
- The Ministry and concerned agencies must consult and coordinate with the Presidential Committee on Human all times when formulating or creating human-rights courses and subjects and when writing, printing, and publishing related textbooks and reading materials (Section 3).
- Human-rights courses and materials must emphasize the following principles (Section 3):
- All persons have human dignity and inherent rights; no one loses dignity and rights regardless of what he or she has done or the person’s political conviction (Section 3(a)).
- Torture, other cruel and degrading treatment or punishment, unexplained or forced disappearances, and extra-legal executions (Salvaging) are crimes punishable by Philippine laws under any and all circumstances (Section 3(b)).
- Anyone may question the legality of arrest and detention before the appropriate court, by himself or on behalf of a person arrested or detained (Section 3(c)).
- The Bill of Rights must be taught adopted in toto in the Provisional Constitution under Proclamation No. 3 dated March 25, 1986, or in the New Constitution when ratified, including its jurisprudential ramifications (Section 3(d)).
- Prisoners must be treated with humanity; juvenile prisoners must be kept, if the jail permits, in apartments separate from prisoners more than eighteen years of age, and the different sexes must be kept apart; parents and friends seeking to exert moral influence must be permitted at all reasonable times under proper regulations (Section 3(e)).
- Convicted prisoners may be assigned to work suitable to their age, sex, and physical condition (Section 3(f)).
- The human-rights principles must include specified provisions of Philippine criminal law: Articles 124 to 131, 235, 245, 267 to 269 of the Revised Penal Code (Section 3(g)).
- The human-rights principles must include Republic Act No. 857 (Section 3(h)).
- The human-rights principles must include Rules 113 and 126 of the 1985 Rules on Criminal Procedure (Section 3(i)).
- The human-rights principles must include the Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the Department (now Ministry) of Justice on January 7, 1959, and the Ministry of Justice Manual containing general rules, policies, and operating principles adhered to in the prison service (Section 3(j)).
Optional inclusion of international standards
- If found appropriate and practicable by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, subjects or courses on human rights dealing with international conventions, agreements, declarations, or covenants on human rights may be included in the curricula (Section 4).
- Such international instruments must be those ratified by the Philippines or to which the Philippines is a signatory (Section 4).
Budget adjustments and incorporation
- The Ministry of Budget and Management, after consulting with the MECS, must recommend to the President the necessary changes or modifications in the expenditure items in the 1986 budget of the MECS to accommodate expenditures for implementation (Section 4).
- Subsequent expenditures for implementation in succeeding years must be incorporated into the annual budget of the MECS (Section 5).