Citing data from its own ground monitoring, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Wednesday, March 31, alleged that the number of personnel in the Department of Education (DepEd) who have contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been increasing.
ACT said that based on its own monitoring of infection among DepEd personnel in the Metro Manila, it showed that a “total of 70 teaching and 21 non-teaching personnel were infected in Quezon City districts wherein five have already succumbed to the disease.”
The group noted that Numancia Residences - a teacher housing area in Manila - was “locked down recently after recording 14 positive cases, four of which were teachers and 10 were family members.”
ACT claimed that “half of them were forced to go to private hospitals and shoulder their own medical expenses while the other half were left to isolate in their homes due to overcapacity of public hospitals.”
The group also noted that “Makati City reported 14 total cases, with four persons under monitoring (PUM), five recoveries and two deaths from last year.” Meanwhile, ACT said that a “public school in Pasay City reported 10 individuals who were home quarantined and one person in a quarantine facility.”
ACT alleged that based on the reports that they have, it showed “that they received no financial support both from the Department of Education (DepEd) and their respective local government units (LGU).”
In Las Piñas City, ACT said that “1 death and 6 active cases, 3 of which are home quarantined and 3 in a quarantine facility; Navotas City reported 5 previously recorded recovered cases and 1 death; while Marikina City accounted 21 active cases, all in a quarantine facility” were accounted.
“These patients reportedly received support from their LGUs but none from the DepEd,” ACT said.
Given this, ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio “urgent assistance” should be given to the teacher-patients.
ACT further demanded for teachers to be accorded other protection mechanisms and medical support such as the grant of 15-day sick leave and for DepEd to set-up a medical fund to support the hospitalization and medical needs of its personnel who will be infected with COVID-19.
Basilio also stressed that the government is mandated by the 1966 Magna Carta for Public School Teachers to ensure the free hospitalization and treatment of public school teachers, “but the government has not implemented this ever since."
“Nakakaawa ang ating mga guro na nalulubog sa utang o hindi makapagpagpa-ospital dahil walang suporta ang pamahalaan para sa kanila (Our teachers are pitiful, they are in debt and some of them are unable to go to the hospital because the government does not support them,” Basilio added.