MANILA, Philippines?Textbooks filled with errors had escaped eagle eyes in the Department of Education for years, until irate parents discovered them and protested.

In September 1996, Helmut Haas discovered errors in the books of his daughters, counting at least 194 errors in ?Science and Health (for Grade 3),? 420 in ?Civic and Culture (Grade 3)? and 727 in ?Civic and Culture (Grade 5).?

Then Education Secretary Ricardo Gloria convened a two-day workshop to review textbooks used in elementary and high school.

After public hearings, the House of Representatives committee on education established that the Instructional Materials Council, the department?s official textbook evaluators, had committed ?grave negligence.?

Gloria issued an apology and ordered the pullout of 36 titles found to have ?glaring errors? in facts, grammar, concepts and illustrations.

However, no charges were filed against the officials who approved the textbooks.

In 1999, Matt Dizon, owner of Marian School in Quezon City, discovered errors in the book used by his fourth-year high school son?Sonia Zaide?s ?Kasaysayan ng Daigdig.?

Dizon collaborated with school board member Antonio Calipjo Go to evaluate textbooks being sold to the school. Go said he found 950 factual errors and 550 typographical errors in the book.

Dizon and Go wrote the author-publisher. When they received no response, they went to the school of Dizon?s son, which lodged a formal complaint.

The book was pulled out, and the publisher released a new edition that incorporated the corrections made by Dizon and Go, albeit without any due recognition to their efforts.

Go goes ballistic

Since then, Go has made it a personal crusade to look for errors in textbooks.

In 2000, Go found mistakes in the preschool workbook ?I Can Learn to Read,? the Grade I textbook ?Effective Language,? the third-year high school literature textbook ?Sandigan? and ?Asian History and Civilization,? as well as the instructional materials of the education department.

On Sept. 20, 2004, using his own money, Go placed a newspaper advertisement in the Philippine Daily Inquirer asserting that the 316-page textbook, ?Asya: Noon, Ngayon at sa Hinaharap,? approved by the education department, was replete with 431 errors.

Go questioned the textbook?s assertion that Sun Yat-Sen founded the Communist Party of China, that the Chinese were fond of opium, that the Muslim prophet Mohammad went into meditation after marrying a rich woman, that warlords were people who owned land, and that many mosques were designed by Christian architects.

The authors, publisher and the department quickly dismissed Go?s claims. Education Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz also accused Go of having malicious intent, saying that he had earlier offered his 82-page notes of corrections to Vibal, the book?s publisher, for a fee.

Go admitted the charge. ?Is it wrong to be paid for your services?? he said. In his ad, however, Go said he was willing to donate his 82-page critique.

On Sept. 27, the education department agreed to review the book and later acknowledged the mistakes pointed out by Go. The department agreed to issue ?teaching notes? to guide the teachers about the errors and corrections.

Vibal agreed to pay for the printing of some 1 million copies of the rewritten textbook and teacher?s manual.

Authors in denial

On Oct. 11, Go exposed three other department textbooks which he said were filled with errors: ?Kasaysayan ng Daigdig? for third year high school and ?Science and Technology for the Modern World? for first and second year high school.

Curiously, the two science textbooks were still being used even after they had been disapproved in 2001 for errors. Luz said it was possible that the textbook was revised, resubmitted the next year and approved.

The fiasco prompted the department to work with 22 historians and evaluators to ?reword? or ?rewrite? entire chapters in the book, ?Asya: Noon, Ngayon at sa Hinaharap.?

On Nov. 16, the National Book Development Board, the government agency that oversees the book industry, recommended that Vibal pull out ?Asya: Heograpiya, Kasaysayan at Kultura? from private schools.

Throughout the controversy, the authors were consistently in denial. Two of the four authors even filed separate libel cases against Go. They said Go?s ad portrayed the authors as ?criminals? and ?idiots? to have allowed such textbook to be used in schools.

In December, the education department reportedly turned over a 113-page manuscript containing corrections to Vibal. The publishing house was told to print and distribute 13,000 teacher?s manuals.

However, culpability for the errors could not be ascertained because the book had gone through evaluators and were approved three times during the terms of Secretaries Gloria in 1997, Raul Roco in 1999 and Bro. Andrew Gonzalez FSC in 2001.

?Clearly, we?re going to prevent this from happening again,? Luz then said.

But in June 2005, Go once more found out that there were at least 24 textbooks being used in private schools that were replete with errors.