MANILA, Philippines — A teachers' group called on the Department of Education to investigate all angles of the recent maternity leave scam one of the agency's regional officials discovered.
This comes after an official of the department's Taguig-Pateros school division exposed the supposed scam, alleging that it found some teachers filed maternity leaves up to 11 times in the span of three years.
In a statement, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers Philippines hit those behind the scam as it questioned how such a scheme could have happened if it were truly an isolated incident.
"If ever there is truth to this, it is impossible for a teacher to do it single-handedly as many responsible personnel, including officials, need to be involved to successfully claim maternity leave benefits," the group said in its statement.
"We should get to the bottom of the matter and find the brains behind this scam and bring before the law all those who benefitted from this."
ACT also noted that it is "is unimaginable for a regular public school teacher to have masterminded and executed such a racketeering act."
"It is practically gambling his/her job, reputation and whole future, which no one would dare lose, especially amid the severe economic crisis," the group added.
DepEd launches fact-finding probe
Speaking in an interview aired over ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo, DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa said that the agency's investigation was still in its fact-finding phase but vowed a thorough investigation into the matter.
"We're really trying to verify the statements of whistleblowers in the media. We'll look at the situation to see if we can confirm what they said, but right now, the regional office is taking the investigation so we can maintain impartiality," he said in mixed Filipino and English.
"We want to know if this is an isolated case or if it is widespread."
Poa also urged the whistleblower to come forward to the DepEd.
"It seems this happened from 2016 to 2019. I think the first thing we will do here is check the records because those leaves should have documentation to see if they were approved," Poa also said. — Franco Luna