THE Department of Justice clarified that the law on government assistance to students and teachers in private schools enacted in 1989 remains enforceable.

In a legal opinion, the DOJ said that Republic Act No. 6728, or the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Act or GASTPE, has not been repealed by RA 8545, the 1998 law on Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Schools or E-GASTPE.

Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo sought for the legal opinion in order to know if RA 6728 has been repealed by RA 8545 since the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Culture has been in the process of studying a substitute bill that will amend E-GASTPE.

Citing RA, 8545, the DOJ said the GASTPE’s repealing clause states that: All laws and decrees, particularly Presidential Decree Nos. 932 and 1371, and such letters of instructions, rules and regulations or parts thereof which are inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

“In our view, it is clear that RA No. 8545 explicitly repealed Presidential Decree Nos. 932 and 1371 only. We echo the Supreme Court’s pronouncement in a long line of cases that when the law is clear and free from any doubt or ambiguity, it must be given its literal meaning or applied according to its express terms, without any attempted interpretation,” the DOJ stressed.

The legal opinion pointed out that GASTPE and EGASTPE do not appear to be inconsistent with each other that would lead to the conclusion of an implied repeal of RA No. 6728.

GASTPE was enacted to provide government assistance to students and teachers in private basic elementary and secondary education while, in EGASTPE, the coverage of the government assistance was expanded even to post-secondary vocational and technical education and higher education, and provided salary subsidy to teachers in private high schools.