Lakas-Kampi CMD presidential candidate Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro Jr. has vowed to allocate more resources to the country’s public schools in a bid to make the Filipino youth more competitive to face future global challenges.

“My time in UP taught me not to be a bigot and a hypocrite. In UP, students are taught not to judge their fellows by their political or family connection," Teodoro said, during a forum at the University of the Philippines in Iloilo.

The 45-year-old Teodoro shared his experience in UP-Manila where he attended school following the February 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution for his law education.

Despite their association with the late dictator Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, particularly his father Gilberto Teodoro Sr. who then served as chairman of the Social Security System (SSS), he never felt ostracized or prejudiced by UP students who were known to be critical of the Marcos family and their friends.

Teodoro – who also earned a masters degree at the Harvard Law School after he topped the bar exams in the Philippines – had earlier urged the national government to prioritize the improvement of public education to raise the level of its performance and efficiency comparable to those of the private sector.

The former defense chief emphasized the need to upgrade the education of the country’s youth to prepare them for global competitiveness.

The UP system has been a bastion of freedom and civil rights—a treasured tradition he hopes can help enhance his vision of the Philippines becoming the “fullest and purest functioning democracy” in the region.