EDICT NO. 305
ADOPT-A-SCHOOL PROGRAM
WHEREAS, education is of universal great importance that as early as 1863, an Educational Decree was issued by the Spanish providing for the establishment of free and public primary schools and that in 1901, the Americans established the compulsory public system of education;
WHEREAS, education is the country's answer to the growing problem of poverty as lack of education affects not only this generation but the future as well and thus should not be left in the hands of the few but should be developed and cultivated by every Filipino in every way that they can;
WHEREAS, the data of the Department of Education (DepEd) shows that there is an enormous demand for public education in the primary and secondary levels in view of the rising costs in the country that a lot of families could no longer afford the high cost of education;
WHEREAS, basic education is too big and too important a task to just leave to the government and with the continuing problems in budgets and limited resources, government funded schools often experience shortage in about everything and as much as the DepEd wants to provide public school students first class learning environment that they deserve, such task is enormous and therefore becomes difficult;
WHEREAS, under Section 5, Article III Duties of a Lodge, Part II Ordinances of the Masonic Law Book, one of the duties of a lodge to its community is “To aid and support the public school system";
WHEREAS, in order for the Lodges to fulfill its very important duty to the community, Masonry should extend its hands towards educational development by partnering with the government in education by adopting a public elementary or secondary school to aid in the areas of infrastructure, health and nutrition, teaching skills development, computer and science lab and equipment, support and upgrading and modernization of facilities among others;
WHEREAS, there are already Lodges who regularly provide aid and support to some public schools even outside of their Masonic jurisdictions. Hence, institutionalizing this kind of community service by the brethren will better expose them to this Masonic virtue;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, ABRAHAM N. TOLENTINO, Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers in me vested by the Constitution, do hereby decree:
The Grand Lodge of the Philippines hereby institutionalizes the Lodges’ duty to aid and support the public school children by creating a program called “Adopt-a-School”;
Under the program, all subordinate Lodges are enjoined to participate in the “Adopt-a-school” program of the Grand Lodge by adopting at least one (1) public elementary or secondary school regardless of territorial jurisdictions;
Schools that are less privileged, located in remote areas or low income municipalities, which have limited resources but have large student population, experiencing classroom shortage and overcrowding, insufficient textbooks and instructional materials, with poor but have high performing students and those with undernourished students should be given consideration;
To formalize the arrangements with the school, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Lodge and the school concerned for aid and support for a period of three (3) years shall be executed renewable at the option of the parties;
Two (2) or three (3) lodges may jointly adopt the same school under one MOA;
The MOA shall be submitted to the Grand Lodge to form part of the records of the lodges.
All provisions of the Constitution, edicts, circulars and other issuances inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed or amended accordingly.
This Edict shall take effect immediately and shall be read in open lodge at the Stated Meeting next following its receipt, which fact of reading shall be recorded in the Minutes of the stated meeting of the Lodge.
Given under my hand and the seal of this Grand Lodge in the City of Manila, this 3rd day of July 2017.
ABRAHAM N. TOLENTINO Grand Master
Attest:
DANILO D. ANGELES, PGM Grand Secretary