MANILA - Congress on Wednesday ratified a bill requiring public and private schools to include Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) classes in its curriculum.

Under the GMRC and Values Education Act, GMRC will be incorporated into the activities of kindergarten students, while it will be a separate subject for elementary pupils.

Values Education will be taught as a stand-alone subject in high school, and will only be integrated in senior high school courses.

"GMRC shall inculcate among students the concepts of human dignity, respect for oneself and giving oneself to others in the spirit of community," while Values Education "shall encompass universal human, ethical, and moral values, among others," the measure read.

It is important to have values education at a time when minors are heavily exposed to social media, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who authored the bill, told his colleagues in plenary.

"Sa kanilang murang pag-iisip, napakarami nilang nakikita sa paligid, lalo na sa social media na maaaring magdala sa kanila sa maling landas dahil sa kakulangan ng paggabay," he said.

(With their young minds, they already see a lot in their surroundings, especially in social media which might take them to the wrong path due to lack of guidance.)

The measure hopes to curb incidents of criminality among the youth, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, a principal author of the bill, said in a statement.

“Kita naman po sa news kung gaano na napariwara ang ating kabataan (The news is showing how our youth have gone astray). Kulang sila sa guidance (They lack guidance). You all saw the CCTV footage of how those teenagers set that man’s balloons on fire, inadvertently bringing physical harm to him, on top of destroying his means of livelihood," he said.

"Clearly, may pagkukulang tayo sa mga batang ito. Napabayaan silang lumaki nang walang respeto, walang malasakit, o kahit sense of consequence man lang.” he said.

(Clearly, we have some shortcomings when it comes to these kids. They were allowed to grow lacking in the values of respect, of compassion or even having just the sense of consequence.)

The GMRC was removed as a subject in 2013 after the Philippines shifted to the K-12 basic education system.

Under the law, the Department of Education must be at the forefront of values formation, Sen. Joel Villanueva said as he lauded the ratification of the bill.

"Education is primarily values formation... This means values education should be at the core of the K-12 curriculum," he said.