ACT: No calls for Briones's resignation, Duterte's ouster
Group says it is focused on addressing teachers' issues
MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers said it is not calling for the removal of Education Secretary Leonor Briones nor the ouster of President Rodrigo Duterte despite the dismal state of the country’s public school system.
ACT issued the statement Thursday in response to Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua’s comment that the teachers’ organization wants to portray the government as “insincere” and “heartless.” This, after ACT Teachers party-list representatives called on DepEd to solve the shortage in facilities, learning resources and personnel in public schools.
“ACT would want to show that this government led by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and his alter ego Education Secretary Leonor Magtulis Briones [is] not caring but insincere, sinungaling (liar), heartless and all those usual slogans and labels they shout at the streets, and the only solution is for the secretary to resign and for the president to be ousted,” Pascua said in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
ACT—an organization of teachers, education workers and advocates—is distinct and independent from ACT Teachers party-list. The party-list was represented by Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro in the 17th Congress.
'More concerned with teachers' issues'
The teachers’ group clarified it did not issue calls for Briones to step down from her post or for Duterte to be booted out of office.
“The call for Secretary Briones’ resignation is a sentiment that, per our social media monitoring, came from ordinary teachers who have seen the video of Secretary Briones saying it was the teachers’ choice to use CRs as faculty rooms as it is ‘more dramatic and touching,’” ACT said.
The group added it is more concerned in tackling pressing issues of teachers and holding a dialogue with DepEd and the president to address the problems.
“We are more interested in having teachers’ issues resolved than in the fate of the position of Secretary Briones. Undersecretary Pascua’s presumptuous lie about ACT calling for Duterte’s ouster is a deliberate effort to instigate attacks from Duterte supporters against ACT,” it said.
RELATED: Delayed 2019 budget slowed construction of classrooms, hiring of teachers, DepEd says
‘Propaganda’
Days before the opening of classes, Maricel Herrera, the faculty association president of Bacoor National High School, uploaded on Facebook photos of an old restroom converted into a faculty room.
In an earlier statement, DepEd stressed the 11 teachers using the old restroom as a faculty room chose to stay there, noting the educators were offered the library, guidance center and advisory classrooms to serve as temporary faculty rooms.
“ACT launched a media blitz and flooded social media with posts, reports, tweets, retweets, interviews and press releases one after another… So the propaganda eventually drowned the truth,” DepEd’s Pascua said.
He added: “Eleven out of 236 [teachers], or a mere 4.66% of that school’s teaching force and 1 out of 47,000 schools or just 0.002% of all schools nationwide were affected, but their concerted efforts made it appear that the entire DepEd teaching force and schools were suffering from such dismal condition.”
READ: ‘There are proper procedures in addressing welfare woes,’ DepEd tells teachers
According to an ABS-CBN report, Herrera said the alternative locations offered to teachers are not close to classrooms and do not have enough space to accommodate the educators of the school.
DepEd assured it has taken “concrete steps” to address the welfare concerns of teachers in the said school.
It also said that construction of administration buildings has been included in the agency’s 2020 budget request. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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