SC: College faculty members must have master’s degree

As early as in 1992, the requirement of a Master’s degree in the undergraduate program professor’s field of instruction has been in place, through DECS Order 92 (series of 1992, August 10, 1992) or the Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools; Art. IX, Sec. 44, par. 1 (a) thereof provides that college faculty members must have a master’s degree in their field of instruction as a minimum qualification for teaching in a private educational institution and acquiring regular status therein; promulgated by the DECS in the exercise of its rule-making power as provided for under Sec. 70 of B.P. Blg. 232, otherwise known as the Education Act of 1982; University of the East v. Pepanio, cited; thus, when the CBA was executed between the parties in 2006, they had no right to include therein the provision relative to the acquisition of tenure by default, because it is contrary to, and thus violative of, the 1992 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools that was in effect at the time; as such, said CBA provision is null and void, and can have no effect as between the parties. (Son vs. Univ. of Sto. Tomas, G.R. No. 211273, April 18, 2018)

When CHED Memorandum Order No. 40-08 came out, it merely carried over the requirement of a masteral degree for faculty members of undergraduate programs contained in the 1992 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools; it cannot be said that the requirement of a master’s degree was retroactively applied in petitioners’case; from a strict legal viewpoint, the parties are both in violation of the law: respondents, for maintaining professors without the mandated masteral degrees, and for petitioners, agreeing to be employed despite knowledge of their lack of the necessary qualifications. (Son vs. Univ. of Sto. Tomas, G.R. No. 211273, April 18, 2018)