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Deped Order No.88
Deped Order No.88
The Department of Education issued the “2010 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private
Schools in Basic Education” through DepEd Order No. 88 s. 2010. Posted below are my plain
language revisions of this DepEd Order.
Before After
Plain English / Plain Language revisions: Instead of “This Department,” I used “We” because it is
clear from the letterhead and logo that it’s the DepEd issuing the Order.
I deleted “hereby” since it adds nothing and nothing is lost by deleting it. (Drafting Wills, Trusts, and
Other Estate Planning Documents: A Style Manual, by Kevin D. Millard)
George Hathaway, chair of the State Bar of Michigan's Plain English Committee since 1983, says
about avoiding “hereby”:
“Law students usually write well, but when they get into actual practice, they switch. A fine example
is the word hereby. You would be amazed at how many law students know they should not use the
word hereby when writing their brief for a legal writing class; when they get out into practice,
however, there are 49 other types of documents, and in those 49 other documents, they usually use
the word hereby.”
Paragraph 1 of the Order states that for brevity, the manual should be referred to as “2010 Revised
Manual.” Yet, paragraph 4 inconsistently uses the complete title “2010 Revised Manual of
Regulations for Private Schools in Basic Education.”
Before After
Plain English / Plain Language revisions: The expression “which may be held invalid or declared
unconstitutional” (incorrectly) uses the relative pronoun “which” instead of “that.” In formal American
English, “that” is used for restrictive clauses while “which” (surrounded by commas) is used for non-
restrictive clauses. A clause is non-restrictive if it merely provides additional information and can be
removed without changing the meaning. But in paragraph 2 of the Order, removing the “which”
clause leads to this nonsensical statement:
“Any part or provision of the enclosed 2010 Revised Manual shall not affect the effectivity and
efficiency of operation and implementation of the remaining parts or provisions thereof.”
In British English, there is no distinction between “that” and “which.” Most Filipinos, unaware of the
difference between restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, use “which” instead of “that.” (I have also
made this mistake on numerous occasions.) But to achieve precision in government
communications, we must follow the American English distinction between the relative pronouns
“that” and “which.” (Please read Jose Carillo’s English Forum article “Learning to use the relative
pronouns confidently.”)
I used the single word “validity” instead of the wordy and pompous expression “effectivity and
efficiency of operation and implementation.”
I deleted “thereof.”
Before After
Plain English / Plain Language revisions: I used the word “supersedes” instead of the phrase
“repealed or modified.”
The Order incorrectly uses the word “deemed.” Bryan A. Garner, editor in chief of Black’s Law
Dictionary, in his book on language and writing says that “the word deem should create a legal
fiction, not state a truth.”
In “Synthesis: Legal Reading, Reasoning and Writing in Canada”
(by Margaret Elizabeth McCallum, Christina L. Kunz, Deborah A. Schmedem), the authors
recommend:
Avoid use of the term “to deem” as a substitute for “to think” or “to consider”. The word means “to
treat [a thing] as being something that it is not, or possessing certain qualities it does not possess”.
In this technical sense, “deem” is used in statutes to create a legal fiction; for example, a statute that
requires applications to be originals signed by the applicant may provide that faxed applications will
be deemed to be originals.
Before After
Plain English / Plain Language revisions: The word “enclosed” is used four times in this Order to
modify the 2010 Revised Manual. After paragraph 1 where the word is first used, “enclosed” should
no longer have been used. All references to the 2010 Revised Manual cannot possibly refer to any
other manual. Yet, paragraph 4 inconsistently uses the complete title “2010 Revised Manual of
Regulations for Private Schools in Basic Education.”
Before After
5. Immediate dissemination of 5. We direct all stakeholders
and strict compliance with this to immediately disseminate
Order is hereby directed. and comply with this Order.
“Immediate dissemination of and strict compliance with this Order is hereby directed” is boilerplate
text written in the passive voice. I rewrote it using the active voice.