Senior Deputy Minority Leader and ACT-Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro took up the cudgels on Thursday, Sept. 8 for teachers who have been vicmtized by the Professional Regulation Commission's (PRC) “utang-tagging”.

Castro raised the matter during the House Committee on Appropriations' deliberation on the proposed 2023 budget of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), which is the mother department of the PRC.

According to Castro, PRC had issued a resolution that prevents teachers from renewing their professional teaching license if they have debts from loan sharks. "Utang" means debt in Filipino.

“Kung kami pong mga aktibista ay nare-red tag, yung mga teacher na may mga utang ay tina-tag sa PRC para mahirapang mag-renew ng license (If we activists get red-tagged, the teachers who have debts are tagged by PRC so that they can give them a hard time renewing their license)," she said.

The Makabayan solon asked DOLE Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, who was presented at the briefing, if the resolution was still in effect.

"Yan po yung ginawa ng PRC at apektado po yung mga teachers natin, karamihan po ng nakausap ko sa Central Luzon. Effective pa po ba yung resolution na ito? (That's what the PRC has been doing and our teachers have been affected, most of whom I've spoken to are from Central Luzon. Is this resolution still in effect?)”

Laguesma admitted that he was not aware of such resolution from PRC. He wasn't thrilled to hear about it.

“Mukhang hindi po naman tama yung may utang-tagging, kasi po lalo po nating nade-deprive siguro ang mga teachers upang magkaroon ng pagkakataon, kung sakali man pong mayroong utang, ay makabayad sa utang (That utang-tagging doesn't sound right, because it will further deprive the teachers from getting the chance to pay their debt),” he said.

Laguesma vowed to review the resolution.

The PRC clarified during the briefing that a teacher will only be tagged if a summon was issued against him or her based on the case filed by the loan company for non-payment of loans.

Castro, who is a teacher, called the move illegal.

“Ilegal ito Mr. Chair, itinatali ninyo yung teacher doon sa na hindi pa man nade-decide-an.... Bakit pinipigilan natin siyang ma-issue-han ng license?...Yung lisensya ay hiwalay yan doon sa kaso nila o doon sa pag-uutang (This is illegal Mr. Chair, you're chaining up the teacher to a complaint that has yet to be decided on...Why are we preventing the teacher to get issued with the license? That doesn't have anything to do with the case or the loan)," she explained.

There are an estimated 700,000 public school teachers in the Philippines.