Instead of repeatedly warning teachers and other personnel against electioneering, the Department of Education (DepEd) was urged to empower its massive workforce to responsibly exercise their rights and freedoms amid the election season through education.
“DepEd's heavy reminders on the 'don'ts' while failing to highlight the 'dos' for teachers amid the election season have effectively silenced teachers for fear of being charged with electioneering,” said ACT Secretary-General Raymond Basilio.
Instead of “sowing fear,” ACT Philippines called on the DepEd to champion education workers' rights, “not repress them.”
“At one point, DepEd even insisted that teachers remain apolitical—which is misinformed at best, and, at worst, downright violative of teachers' basic rights and freedoms,” Basilio said.
DepEd, he added, should be “equipping teachers with knowledge and tools to do their duty of contributing to the molding of a well-informed public and to responsibly exercise their constitutionally protected rights.”
ACT said that that electioneering only covers activities that involve actively campaigning for or against candidates.
However, the group emphasized that it “does not and cannot trample” on teachers' right to express their political views and stances as well as their duty to counter disinformation, historical revisionism, corruption, and all other political issues prevalent during and beyond the election season.
The group noted that the voices of thousands of educators are “essential amid the reign of disinformation” in the discourse surrounding the upcoming elections.
Basilio also claimed that “hyperfocusing on electioneering has snowballed into various misinterpretations of laws and policies, and disenfranchisement of many of our teachers.”
“We've encountered teachers who believe their license will be revoked if they so much as expressed their like or dislike of candidates, or corrected a fake news being peddled by certain Presidentiables,” Basilio said. “See how it's repressive and curtails even the performance of our basic duties?” he added.
ACT, which identified itself as the biggest organization of education workers' unions, associations, and organizations in the country, said that the protection of teachers' rights and liberties are “critical not only for the education sector but for the nation as well.”
Given this, Basilio said that it is “both our right and duty to contribute reason and truth as the Filipino decides on its next leaders and to add our voices to the discourse on change and progress that our nation aspires to achieve.”
RELATED STORY:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/01/08/deped-calls-on-personnel-stakeholders-to-champion-a-clean-safe-and-fair-2022-elections/