TL;DR: The Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers is not a DepEd order. It is Board Resolution No. 435 of the Board for Professional Teachers, adopted under Article II, Section 6(e) of Republic Act No. 7836, and it is enforced through the professional teacher licence rather than through the school. It has 13 articles covering the teacher's duties to the State, the community, the profession, colleagues, superiors, learners, parents and business, plus the teacher as a person. It applies to public and private school teachers from preschool through secondary, and to supervisors and administrators at those levels, but not to higher education faculty. Article XII makes any violation sufficient ground for revocation of the licence, suspension from practice, reprimand, or cancellation of a temporary or special permit.
Almost every Filipino education student meets the Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers as a reviewer topic, memorises the article headings, and then never reads the actual resolution again. That is a problem the first time something real happens: a parent offers a gift, a colleague asks you to sign off on work you did not do, or a complaint lands on the division office desk. The article headings do not tell you which body enforces what, or what the actual penalty is.
This guide works from the resolution text posted by the Professional Regulation Commission itself. It covers who the Code binds, what each of the 13 articles actually says, how enforcement splits between the PRC and DepEd, and which provisions come up most often in practice. If you are still working toward the licence, our guides to becoming a teacher in the Philippines and the LET cover the route in; this one is about what the licence obliges you to do once you have it.
What Is the Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers?
It is a resolution of the Board for Professional Teachers (BPT), not a law and not a DepEd issuance. The Code was adopted and promulgated as Board Resolution No. 435, series of 1997, under the authority of paragraph (e), Article II of Republic Act No. 7836, the Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994, which empowers the Board to "prescribe and/or adopt a code of ethical and professional standards for the practice of the teaching profession."
One detail that trips up citation checks: the copy the PRC posts is signed "in the City of Manila this 11th day of November 1998," and Article XIII provides that the Code takes effect 60 days after publication in the Official Gazette or a newspaper of general circulation. So the resolution number carries the 1997 series while the signing date on the official copy is 1998. Both dates appear in circulation and neither is a typo.
RA 7836 itself was later amended by Republic Act No. 9293 (approved 21 April 2004), which changed the qualification, registration-without-examination and para-teacher provisions. It did not replace the Code of Ethics, and the PRC still posts Resolution No. 435 as the governing code for the profession.
Disclaimer: this is an explainer, not legal advice. For an actual complaint, disciplinary proceeding or licence question, deal directly with the PRC, your Schools Division Office, or counsel.
Who Does the Code Actually Cover?
Article I, Section 2 draws the boundary, and it is narrower than most summaries suggest:
| Covered | Not covered by this Code |
|---|---|
| Public and private school teachers | Higher education faculty (college and university) |
| Preschool, primary, elementary and secondary levels | Tertiary-level instructors as such |
| Academic, vocational, special, technical and non-formal programmes | |
| Industrial arts and vocational teachers | |
| Persons performing supervisory or administrative functions at those levels | |
| Full-time and part-time alike |
The inclusion of supervisors and administrators matters. A principal, head teacher or master teacher at a covered level is bound by the same Code as the classroom teacher, and Article VII is written specifically about how school officials must treat teachers and other personnel.
What Do the 13 Articles Say?
The Code is short. Each article is a set of numbered sections covering one relationship. Here is the full structure with the provisions that carry practical weight.
| Article | Subject | Provisions worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| I | Scope and limitations | Applies to all teachers in all Philippine schools at the covered levels |
| II | The teacher and the State | No promotion of partisan political, religious or other partisan interest; no soliciting money or services for such purposes; no using position to coerce a political course of action; academic freedom, with research inimical to declared State policy referred to proper authorities |
| III | The teacher and the community | Behave with honour and dignity; refrain from gambling, smoking, drunkenness, other excesses and illicit relations; study local customs; may attend church but shall not use position to proselytise |
| IV | The teacher and the profession | Uphold the highest standards; participate in the Continuing Professional Education programme of the PRC; no improper misrepresentation through personal advertisements |
| V | The teacher and the teaching community | No claiming work not your own; give due credit; leave records to your successor; hold confidential information inviolate; criticism of a colleague only on incontrovertible evidence and preferably in writing |
| VI | The teacher and higher authorities | Support legitimate school policy; no false or anonymous accusations against superiors; transact through channels except in defined cases; right to seek redress without jeopardising learners |
| VII | School officials, teachers and other personnel | Professional courtesy toward teachers; attend to their professional growth; no dismissal except for cause; contracts and tenure per civil service rules and existing laws |
| VIII | The teacher and learners | Interest and welfare of learners first; no prejudice or discrimination; no gifts in exchange for concessions; no unauthorised tutorial remuneration; evaluate only on merit; no corporal punishment; utmost professional discretion where mutual attraction arises |
| IX | The teacher and parents | Cordial relations; inform parents of progress or deficiencies with candour and tact; hear complaints with sympathy and discourage unfair criticism |
| X | The teacher and business | May engage in legitimate income generation that does not affect the work; settle just debts; no acting as agent of, or being financially interested in, a commercial venture supplying textbooks or school commodities the teacher can influence |
| XI | The teacher as a person | Live with dignity at all times; self-respect and self-discipline; be a model worthy of emulation |
| XII | Disciplinary action | Any violation is sufficient ground for revocation, suspension, reprimand or cancellation of permit |
| XIII | Effectivity | Approved by the PRC, effective 60 days after publication |
Two of these read as products of the late 1990s and should be handled with that in mind. Article III, Section 3's list of "such activities as gambling, smoking, drunkenness and other excesses" is a conduct standard tied to social recognition, not a criminal provision. Article VIII, Section 7's treatment of "mutual attraction and subsequent love" between a teacher and a learner instructs the teacher to exercise "utmost professional discretion" — language that predates DepEd's own child protection framework. For anything involving a minor learner, the operative standard today is DepEd Order No. 40, s. 2012, the DepEd Child Protection Policy, covering protection of children in school from abuse, violence, exploitation, discrimination, bullying and other forms of abuse. Where the two differ, the safeguarding rule governs conduct in the school and the Code governs the licence.
What Happens If a Teacher Violates the Code?
Article XII is one sentence and it is the whole enforcement mechanism: any violation of any provision is sufficient ground for disciplinary action consisting of revocation of the Certificate of Registration and Licence as Professional Teacher, suspension from the practice of the teaching profession, reprimand, or cancellation of a temporary or special permit, under the causes specified in Section 23, Article III of RA 7836 and Rule 31, Article VIII of its implementing rules.
Section 23 of RA 7836 lists the grounds the Board may act on, including conviction for a criminal offence by a court of competent jurisdiction; immoral, unprofessional or dishonourable conduct; malpractice, gross incompetence, gross negligence or serious ignorance; fraud or deceit in obtaining a certificate; chronic inebriety or habitual use of drugs; and violation of the Act or its regulations.
The part most teachers get wrong is which door a complaint goes through. There are two, and they are independent:
- The licence track. A complaint aimed at the Certificate of Registration goes to the Board for Professional Teachers at the PRC under RA 7836. The outcome is a licence sanction. This track reaches private school teachers too, because the licence is national.
- The employment track. A complaint against a public school teacher as a government employee is handled administratively by DepEd under its own Revised Rules of Procedure of the Department of Education in Administrative Cases, DepEd Order No. 49, s. 2006, with the Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service applying suppletorily. The outcome is an employment sanction.
The same incident can produce proceedings in both, or in only one. A private school teacher dismissed by the school is not thereby stripped of a licence, and a teacher cleared administratively by a division office has not thereby been cleared by the Board.
Where Practice Varies by School and Division
The Code is national and uniform. What is not uniform is the front end: how a complaint is received, screened and routed before it becomes a formal case. In practice this is set locally, and it genuinely differs.
- Who you file with first varies. Some Schools Division Offices route ethics-type complaints through the division office legal or investigation unit; others expect the school head to conduct a fact-finding first.
- Private schools set their own internal discipline process under their employment contracts and handbooks. The Code binds the teacher's licence regardless, but the school's own procedure is what governs the job.
- Local supplements exist. Divisions and regions issue their own memoranda on conduct, social media use and gift policy. These cannot contradict the Code or RA 7836, but they can add detail, and they are the operative document for day-to-day compliance questions. Our guide on how to find and read DepEd orders covers how to check whether the memo you were handed is current.
If you are told "the Code of Ethics says you must," ask which article and section. Several rules teachers are told come from the Code — dress requirements, reporting hours, lesson plan formats — come from DepEd issuances instead, and those change far more often than the Code does.
How Is the Code Different From the PPST and RA 6713?
Three separate instruments regulate a Filipino public school teacher's conduct, and they are routinely confused with each other.
| Instrument | Issued by | What it governs | Enforced through |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers (BPT Resolution No. 435) | Board for Professional Teachers, PRC | Professional and personal conduct of licensed teachers, preschool to secondary | The professional teacher licence |
| Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017) | DepEd | Teaching competencies across career stages | Professional development and performance appraisal, including the RPMS and IPCRF |
| Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (RA 6713) | Congress | Conduct of all government personnel, including public school teachers | Civil service and criminal processes |
A private school teacher is covered by the Code of Ethics and not by RA 6713, because RA 6713 binds public officials and employees. A public school teacher is covered by all three at once.
Which Provisions Come Up Most in Practice?
Four clusters account for most of the real-world questions:
- Gifts. Article VIII, Section 4 bars accepting favours or gifts from learners, parents or others on their behalf "in exchange for requested concessions, especially if undeserved." For public school teachers, RA 6713 Section 7(d) is stricter: no soliciting or accepting anything of monetary value in connection with official duties. RA 6713 Section 3(c) excludes an unsolicited gift of nominal or insignificant value not given in anticipation of or in exchange for a favour, which is the narrow room a card or a small token from a class occupies.
- Tutoring your own learners. Article VIII, Section 5 prohibits accepting, directly or indirectly, any remuneration from tutorials other than what is authorised for the service. Read together with Section 4 and with the no-collection policy, paid tutoring of learners you also grade is the exposure to watch.
- Selling to your own school. Article X, Section 3 bars a teacher from acting as agent of, or being financially interested in, a commercial venture furnishing textbooks and other school commodities where the teacher can exercise official influence over purchase and disposal.
- Grading and punishment. Article VIII, Section 6 requires evaluation based only on merit and quality of academic performance, and Section 8 prohibits both corporal punishment and deducting from scholastic ratings as punishment for acts that are not manifestations of poor scholarship. That second half is the one that surprises people: docking marks for behaviour is a Code issue, separate from whatever the grading system currently allows.
Practical Checks Before You Act
- Read the section, not the summary. The Code is seven pages. The PRC posts it in full; a reviewer slide deck is not a substitute when something is at stake.
- Ask which body has jurisdiction over the specific thing you are worried about. Licence, employment, and criminal exposure are three different questions with three different answers.
- Keep your CPE current. Article IV, Section 3 makes participation in the PRC's Continuing Professional Education programme a Code obligation, not just a renewal formality. See our PRC licence renewal guide for the mechanics.
- Document rather than escalate first. Article V, Section 5 conditions seeking correctives against a colleague on incontrovertible evidence, and Article VI, Section 2 bars anonymous accusations against superiors.
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Sources
- PRC — Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers, Board Resolution No. 435 (official PDF)
- PRC — Professional Teachers regulatory board page (laws and board resolutions)
- Republic Act No. 7836, Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994 (full text)
- Republic Act No. 9293, amending RA 7836 (full text)
- Republic Act No. 6713, Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees
- DepEd — DO 40, s. 2012: DepEd Child Protection Policy (official)
- SchoolFinderPH — How to Become a Teacher in the Philippines
- SchoolFinderPH — How to Find and Read DepEd Orders
- SchoolFinderPH — RPMS and IPCRF Guide
