Alliance of Concerned Teachers photo
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Teachers panicked when the Department of Education (DepEd) requested a list of those who use an automatic salary deduction system due to past profiling incidents targeting them, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) claimed on Monday.
In a press briefing, ACT secretary-general Raymond Basilio said teachers feared the DepEd鈥檚 list would be used similarly to previous incidents of harassment, which happened during the term of former president Rodrigo Duterte, father of Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte.
Basilio added that they got wind of the DepEd鈥檚 memorandum asking for the names of ACT Union teachers who availed themselves of the automatic payroll deduction system (APDS) as early as June 16, after regional offices informed them about it.
鈥淭here was panic in schools because we have received a lot of complaints, that鈥檚 why we immediately issued an alert by June 17, detailing the initial information that we received.听 It is not unknown to us that after the widespread profiling in the past, many ACT members have been harassed and intimidated since 2018,鈥� he said in Filipino.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why when the memo came out, teachers felt troubled as they asked if what happened in 2018 would be repeated if they would still hide or worry about their security,鈥� he added.
The memo in question, Memorandum OUOPS 2023-01-5591, was dated June 14 and was issued by the DepEd鈥檚 operations office.
READ: DepEd hit for profiling militant teachers听
Basilio said the supposed rush to get the names of ACT member-teachers and the alleged lack of consent, contrary to the Data Privacy Act, only stoked fears of profiling.
鈥淲hat is the particular scenario?听 The principal called a faculty club president to tell him to list all the names here.听 When the teacher asked who ordered it, the principal said there was a need to submit a report to the division office; there was a deadline we needed to beat.听 So if that鈥檚 the case, the immediate reaction of teachers is, why would there be a list again?鈥� he relayed.
鈥淪econd, it is clear from the provisions of the Data Privacy Act that there should be a consent of an individual before we give out sensitive information that includes your affiliations.听 None of this happened; they didn鈥檛 discuss the provision of the Data Privacy Act, they didn鈥檛 ask the consent of each individual teacher,鈥� he added.
ACT National Capital Region Union president Ruby Bernardo said they could not help feeling this way 鈥� associating the memo with red-tagging 鈥� since it happened in the past.
鈥淚t is really impossible to refrain from associating this to profiling and red-tagging because this is not the first time 鈥� it is actually the third time that this happened to our teachers,鈥� Bernardo noted.
DepEd has previously assured ACT member-teachers that no profiling is being done against the group and the union, saying that similar lists of teachers using the APDS were requested for other faculty groups and organizations.
The department also said that the request for lists was only made after employees complained about wrong salary deductions while using the APDS.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa explained that the APDS memo was not intended for profiling, saying that such allegations were 鈥減atently absurd, distorted, and followed no logic.鈥�
READ: DepEd defends memo listing unionist teachers听
However, ACT said such a request violates their members鈥� right to privacy.
READ: ACT hits back at DepEd: 鈥楽top justifying profiling鈥� of our teachers听
ACT and DepEd had clashed over policies before: just this March 2023, ACT called for hiring 30,000 teachers yearly to ensure that the ideal teacher-to-student ratio would be attained.听 Vice President Duterte replied that ACT is a fake representative of teachers, claiming it is a front of the communist armed group New People鈥檚 Army.
READ: VP Duterte: ACT Teachers a fake representative of education sector in Congress听
ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro claimed that Duterte was only diverting the people from discussing legitimate education-related issues.
READ: Rep. Castro fires back at Sara Duterte: It鈥檚 DepEd diverting us from education issues听