A federation of teachers called on the Department of Education (DepEd) and the local government units (LGUs) to ensure the safety of teachers after it has been tagged as “Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) front organization” by a government agency.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), in a virtual press conference on Tuesday, March 16, said that it will coordinate with the DepEd to ensure the protection of its members - particularly the teachers - after the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued a memorandum against the organization and one more group.
“We have yet to coordinate with DepEd but we will,” said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio in Filipino.
In particular, ACT called on DepEd to “defend and protect the rights of its employees—on whose shoulders rest the delivery of education amid sorely lacking state support.”
Likewise, ACT encouraged all local government officials “who advocate the cause of education to speak up against the baseless terror-tagging of public school teachers who serve their constituencies.”
In a communication signed by Assistant Secretary for Public and Security Alexander Macario addressed to its regional directors dated March 10, DILG noted that need to “initiate an investigation” on the supposed infiltration of CTGs - particularly ACT and COURAGE - in private and public schools and the DepEd and in other government offices.
Regional directors were also advised to “validate employees who are definite members” and submit the authenticated names for “perusal.”
ACT condemned the move of DILG and maintained that it remains the “sole and exclusive negotiating agent” of public school teachers in five regions and has duly-registered unions in 12 other regions.
“We have been in continuous working relations with DepEd but with numerous local government units in addressing teachers' and education's issues and concerns,” the group said.
Given this, ACT is asking DILG to immediately recall the said directive.
The group likewise urged the government to reconsider the more than P16 billion funds given to DILG - through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) - to implement the administration’s counterinsurgency program.
These funds, ACT said, should be channeled to “the requisites for an accessible distance learning and limited face-to-face classes in low-risk areas.”
Despite the threat of the said DILG directive, ACT noted that “such brazen attacks on our organization, however, will not deter our just fight for the youth's right to education and for education workers' rights and freedoms, nor will such gross violation be left unchallenged.”