Luistro called for the resignation of
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during the height of the
Hello Garci scandal in 2005. In which time, he became close to the Aquino family, a prominent
political family in the
Philippines. He also delivered a
eulogy (named
Cory, the Heart of a Saint) during the
wake of former President
Corazon Aquino, and said "our closeness with her was really borne out of that period [Hello Garci scandal], none of her children went to La Salle." becoming the second De La Salle brother to hold the post—the other was Gonzalez who was in office from 1998 to 2001. Aquino gave Luistro two years to address problems, including insufficient books, classrooms and teachers. Luistro estimated that there were a lack of 130,000 teachers; 72,000 classrooms; 7 million desks; 141,000 comfort rooms; and 96 million books. In his 2013
State of the Nation Address or SONA, Aquino praised Bro. Luistro for successfully erasing the shortages of resources and classrooms inherited from the previous administrations. As of December 2010, Luistro has the least net worth among Aquino's
cabinet. He had
₱89,000 (US$2,060). In contrast, the richest—
Cesar Purisima who is
Secretary of Finance—had ₱252 million (US$5.84 million).
Sex education The
Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) have expressed skepticism over Luistro's stand on
sex education citing his religious background. Meanwhile, Luistro's predecessor, Mona Valisno expressed her confidence with Luistro. The Department of Education has included sex education in its curriculum for fifth grade to
fourth year high school, which is still included in the K-12 program.
Roman Catholic groups have criticized it for allegedly not covering the emotional, psychological and spiritual dimensions of sexuality. Likewise, former
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan Oscar V. Cruz criticized Luistro for his alleged lack of comment regarding the
Reproductive Health Bill, which proposes to integrate sex education in
public schools. He appealed Luistro to "stop teaching lewd studies [sex education] in schools" (trans.). Luistro stated that sex education was not his priority. In line with this, he announced on December 28, 2010, that DepEd would terminate all of its 67 consultants by the end of the year. The DepEd-National Employees Union, in response, has called for his resignation. Luistro argued, however, that "streamlining is a must" as bulk of the department's budget goes to funding the salary of its employees.
K+12 Basic Education Program Luistro is a major proponent of the K+12 Basic Education Program in the Philippines. The program seeks to add two years to the current 10-year
basic education curriculum, and make graduates more competitive. The program involves
kindergarten, six years of elementary, four years of
junior high school, and two years of
senior high school. Kindergarten was required in 2012 while senior high school is planned to be included in the curriculum by 2016. DepEd said that 77 percent of its participants in fora are in favor of the change. Before its implementation in 2012, the Philippines was the only country in
Asia which employed 10 years of basic education—all other countries had 12. Numerous parties have opposed the plan including
Ateneo de Manila University President
Bienvenido Nebres and
progressive groups of students, teachers and parents. The framework aims to address Indigenous peoples' lack of access to "culture-responsive basic education". The framework directs DepEd offices and units to ensure that textbooks and other learning materials are free from discriminatory and erroneous content that misrepresent the history and culture of Indigenous peoples. ==Non-academic work==