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Republic of the Philippines
Congress of the Philippines
Quezon City

Seventeenth Congress
First Regular Session

4512

House Bill No.

Introduced by Hon. CARLOS ROMAN L. UYBARRETA

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Everest Academy Inc. is the first Catholic international school in
the Philippines and is part of a worldwide system of over 220 Catholic
schools in 20 countries. The schools in this network are founded, owned
and operated by Regnum Christi, a Catholic movement composed of lay
people and priests from the Religious Congregation of the Legionaries of
Christ. The first work of apostolate of the Regnum Christi was a school in
Mexico City called the Cumbres Institute (Cumbres is a Spanish work for
the Peaks or the Heights), which opened in 1954. Everest Academy Inc.
is the first Regnum Christi School in Asia, and reports to the Regnum
Christi headquarters in Rome.

All the Regnum Christi schools follow the educational philosophy
and method developed by Regnum Christi and the Legion of Christ
known as Integral Formation®, the development of all aspects of the
student’s personality; the intellectual, human, spiritual, and apostolic,
dimensions of the whole person.

Integral Formation®, allows students to develop their full potential
according to his or her unique gifts and talents, as mature, youth of
character and integrity, authentic leaders, who live according to the
Gospel values, leaders in the community, home, work place, and Church
who have a genuine concern for others.

‘As an educational principle of Integral Formation®, leadership
training, at all levels from Kindergarten to high school, fosters in
students a social responsibility towards others. Students are led to
become responsible and compassionate leaders with the ability to
recognize and identify the needs of their fellowmen, to understand how to
solve problems and to implement solutions for the good of all members of
society.

This unique pedagogical approach focused on holistic formation is
achieved through faculty teamwork, low student-to-adult/teacher ratio
and personalized attention. While the Catholic Church emphasizes
integral formation in all Catholic schools, what makes Everest Academy
and all Regnum Christi schools unique is the manner by which Integral
Formation is carried out and applied in order to successfully develop
well-rounded individuals. RC schools have a comprehensive education
program designed to achieve integral formation among all its students

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which is distinct from the basic methodologies prescribed by the
Department of Education. These essential principles of Integral
Formation® are offered through a highly specialized international team of
religious, administration, faculty and staff for the formation of well-
rounded individuals. Mentoring, allows the team to get to know the
students over the course of their school years as well as their families.
With a personalized and team approach, students come to know their
strengths and talents, and to build on these, while overcoming their
weaknesses.

Further, as the foundation of the student’s integral formation,
students are personally guided in their spiritual development. Dails
access to the sacraments, and opportunities to grow in the spiritual life
coupled with character formation; developing a disciplined will; learning
to be master of oneself; acquiring virtue; formation of the conscience; and
adherence to moral principles and values. This is achieved in a
nurturing, joyful, Christ-centered environment that promotes respect,
healthy peer relationships, friendships and a family spirit.

Overall the best elements of academic excellence, worldwide
educational practices and research, and of both the progressive and
traditional approaches are combined to develop the intellectual ability in
our students: to enable them to understand and form opinions and to act
positively on the challenges of the times; to be competitive and to know
the truth; and to be able to face and resolve complex circumstances. The
objective is to ensure that the students as exceptionally well-formed
leaders are fully competent and effective in their professional or
vocational field and prepared for a highly globalized society.

As an asset to the Philippine educational system, this proprictary
system of Integral Formation® which has delivered excellent results in
over 20 countries in the world was brought to the Philippines through
Everest Academy Inc.

Since its opening in Manila in August 2007 and in order to prepare
the students to face the challenges of the future in a globalized society,
Everest Academy Inc. has been implementing an international
curriculum developed and licensed by National Consultants for
Education, an organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This
international curriculum was developed encompassing the highest
educational standards in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. It
allows our typical student to develop as a person who is highly qualified
and ready to successfully enter into university life and later scale the
heights of professional life.

With an emphasis on academic excellence and leadership skills,
this international curriculum allows for a solid in-depth and high level of
intellectual preparation that goes beyond the acquisition of knowledge to
arrive at an intellectually mature person. This is fundamental to the
integral development of our students and required by the social
responsibility they have. This curriculum was developed in accordance
to the Regnum Christi educational mission in the preparation of our
students as leaders in a globalized world village, global citizens, with the
capacity to renew society.


Students acquire a wealth of knowledge, the underpinnings of their
own national culture, history and western ideals; a firm grounding in
accelerated math and the sciences, the scientific method, and in
technology, all of the STEM subjects. This is balanced and enhanced by
the study of the humanities, foreign language, music, and the fine arts.
Our athletics along with extracurricular clubs and events, allow students
io explore personal interests and develop new skills and talents. Athletics
are an important means for preparing students to maximize character
and leadership skills, a spirit of personal and team effort, healthy
competition, and sportsmanship.

Communication skills are a vital part of this international
curriculum and emphasize an ability to think logically; speak and write
clearly, coherently, precisely, attractively and persuasively. Students
develop exceptional thinking, reasoning and communicating skills which
are built upon a keen sense of perception and a sharp memory; a
capacity for reflection and imagination; as well as those technological
and inquiry skills intrinsic to the exact and social sciences’ a critical
mind that can tell right from wrong, fact from fiction, and truth from
opinion, Students achieve and experience ease in public speaking, debate
and declamation.

Everest Academy Inc. follows international standards and further
uses international methods of evaluation and standardized testing to
prepare them to qualify for universities abroad, particularly the United
States. This inchides the administration of the Stanford 10 a widely
used and rigorous norm referenced test published in the USA. It is
implemented from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Student progress
is analyzed annually, both individually and by class to improve student
learning,

High school students are prepared with the SAT and the ACT. The
SAT is the Scholastic Aptitude Test, a standardized test for college
admissions in the United States. It is published by the College Board.
The ACT is the American College Test, a standardized college entrance
exam. Each of these evaluation tools provide a measure of our students’
progress in relation to their international counterparts abroad allowing
for a competitive preparation.

At the High school level, Everest offers Honors level and Advanced
Placement (AP) courses as means to academically challenge our students
and to prepare them to successfully enter university and college levels
locally and abroad. These classes challenge the more advanced students
and allow them to work at a pace that is appropriate for their learning
ability and style.

Honors courses are taught at an above-grade level standard and
require above-average academic performance, application and aptitude in
the subject areas. Advanced Placement courses are structured as college-
level courses and are more rapidly-paced and cover a greater depth of
content, Admission to an AP course requires proven high-level academic
performance on behalf of the student, above-average aptitude and
student application and dedication.

Course electives are offered that allow students to extend and
explore their specific interests and talents. Students may specialize in

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STEM, Humanities, Fine Arts, as a means of pursuing their post-
secondary education choices.

Everest Academy Inc. also has international accreditation through
AdvancEd, the largest community of educational professionals in the
world committed to help schools achieve world class levels in educational
practice. As an accrediting agency, AdvancEd is partner to 32,000
schools and school systems—employing more than four million
educators and enrolling more than 20 million students—across the
United States and 70 other nations.

When Everest Academy Inc. started with the help of the first
Filipino members of Regnum Christi, it opened with only 19 students in
Grades 1 and 2, which eventually became 33 by the end of the first
school year in 2007-2008. The first batch of 8 Grade Middle Schoolers
graduated in SY 2013-2014. The Kindergarten and High School opened
in SY 2014-2015 as Everest Academy was created to accommodate a
Lower School (Kinder to Grade 5), a Middle School (Grades 6 to 8) and a
High School (Grades 9 to 12). The student population will be over 400
from Kindergarten to Grade 10 in SY 2015-2016.

‘The objective of Regnum Christi is to carry out the school’s mission
of delivering the Integral Formation and quality international education
among Filipino and Philippine based foreign families. Everest Academy
offers its services to the Archdiocese of Manila and the local Christian
and surrounding communities, specifically Filipino and foreign families
who seek quality international and Catholic education for their children.
As such, the population is made up of approximately 70% Filipino
students, 20% students of mixed Filipino and foreign descent and 10%
foreign and expat families. Although the program has been implemented
successfully for decades in other countries, it is very new here in the
Philippines. Some existing students of the school have and will
experience this as they have been able to take advantage of our
international immersion programs allowing them to study in the Regnum
Christi sister schools abroad, which carry out the same formation
through the same approach as Everest Academy Inc.

Unfortunately, there are no local Filipino educators and
administrators who have the level of experience implementing the
Integral Formation program equal to the experience of their counterparts
in the countries the Regnum Christi schools have been in operation for
the past 50-60 years. For Filipino and Philippine based families to fully
benefit and achieve the full potential that the program promises, it
therefore requires that foreign experts with years of experience with
Integral Formation and the NCE curriculum take active roles in the
administration and management of Everest Academy. This is crucial for
the school to be able to fulfil the Vision and Mission that it has set out to
do. The achievement and realization of the Vision and Mission will
benefit the country as a whole as Everest Academy Inc. graduates will be
fully equipped and compelled to respond to the needs the country faces
as it strives to take an important role among other nations and lead the
renewal of Philippine society in a global environment, not for personal
gain but based on Catholic values.

Considering the above, the author of this bill finds it necessary to
transform the present Everest Academy Inc. into an educational

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institution of international character, to be known as the Everest
Academy International School, so as it may be granted by law certain
prerogatives such as, but not limited to the election of members of the
Board who may or may not be foreign citizens, appoint of a school head
who need not be a Filipino and employment of foreign educators all of
whom are recognized experts having years of experience with Integral
Formation and the NCE curriculum, conducive for its growth and to
achieve its laudable objective to educate both Filipino and foreign
students to become well-rounded, creative, and passionate leaders able
to effectively communicate and collaborate with others, strong in
character and virtue, guided in their actions and choices by ethical
principles and respect for the human person, and develop mature
Christians who understand, value, live and share their faith, forge
socially-concerned individuals responsive to the spiritual and material
needs of others.

For this purpose, the bill aims to recognize the Everest
International Academy the status as an international school and granting
certain prerogatives conducive to its growth like the Southville
International School and the Cebu International School.

In view of the foregoing, the approval of this bill is earnestly
sought.

——
carSos RaviAN L. UYBARRETA

Representative, 1-CARE Party List


Republic of the Philippines
Congress of the Philippines
Quezon City

Seventeenth Congress
First Regular Session

House Bill No, 4512

Introduced by Hon. CARLOS ROMAN L. UYBARRETA

“AN ACT RECOGNIZING EVEREST ACADEMY AS AN
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OF INTERNATIONAL CHARACTER,
GRANTING CERTAIN PREROGATIVES TO HASTEN ITS GROWTH AS SUCH,
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.”

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
Philippines in Congress assembled:

SEC. 1. Everest Academy, herein referred to as the School, is hereby
jared an educational institution of international character authorized to
operate educational programs that primarily and principally adhere to
universally accepted and recognized educational policies.

SEC. 2. Everest International Academy, shail be the registered name of the
School and shall have as its members the school management and the parents
or guardians, whether of Philippine or foreign nationality, of the children who
have enrolled and attended the School for at least one (1) school year: Provided,
that the school year shall be deter in accordance with the School’s own
calendar of stud and work schedule: Provided, further, That the School shall
be governed by a Board of Trustees, herein referred to as the “Board”, elected at
large from among the corporation’s members of good standing.

SEC.3. To enable the School to continue carrying out its educational
program, improve its standard of instruction and meet the special needs of the
foreign temporaty resident community for quality education, it shall:

(a) Be able to accept provisions and donations of every kind to carry out
the purposes of the Everest International Academy and be entitled to
use properties, real or personal, so donated and to construct
buildings thereon exclusively for educational purposes: Provided, That
for any reason, Everest International Academy, ceases to occupy
and/or use reai properties il may acquire by virtue of this Act, the
properties and all improvements thereon of permanent nature shall
accrue to the Government of the Republic of the Philippines;

(b) Whenever necessary to carry out its objectives, have the right to
obtain leases on real properties, acquire personal properties, tangible
or intangible, or any interests in such properties other real, by
purchase, lease, barter, donation, gift or otherwise, and dispose of ,

bene! f the school concerned;

(c) Accept applicants for admission, regardless of nationality, in
accordance with its own eligibility standards, and rules for admission
and grade placement: Provided, That no single alien nationality shall


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consist more than thirty percent (30% of the entire student population
in a given school year, as stated in the records of the School;

(d) Be managed and administered by a President/Principal/Executive
Director, who may or not be a Filipino citizen and who possess the
qualifications prescribed by the Board;

(e) Upon consultation with the Secretary of Education, determine its own
curriculum and teach whatever language or languages it may deem
proper and determine the amount of fecs and assessments which may
be reasonably imposed upon its pupils and/or students, to maintain
or conform to Everest International Academy’s standard of education;

(f) Maintain the international standards of education compatible with
those obtained in similar schools of generally recognized standing;
and

(g) Employ its own teaching and management personnel selected by the
Board either locally or abroad, from the Philippines or other countries
or nationalities, such foreign personnel being exempt from laws that
impose nationality restrictions on control and administration of
educational institutions, except laws that have been or will be enacted
for the protection of employees: Provided; That such exemption shall
not extend to their liability for income taxes, uniess otherwise
provided by a bilateral agreement;

(h) Promote international friendship, goodwill and understanding among
members of the foreign community and citizens of the Philippines;
and

(i) Not to teach anything derogatory to the prestige and well- being of the
Philippines and its people, nor those
institutions and government

SEC.4. The Secretary of Education, in consultation with the members of
the Board of the Everest International Academy, shall issue such rules as may
be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.

SEC 5. if any clause, sentence, paragraph or part of this Act is
subsequently declared unconstitutional, the validity of the remaining
provisions hereof shall remain in full force and effect.

SEC. 6. This act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in
the Official Gazette.

Approved,