Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 27) — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Tuesday said it plans to it plans to take legal action against the Department of Education (DepEd) following the issuance of a memorandum for the alleged profiling of its members.
DepEd issued a memorandum on June 14 with a subject “Request for Submission of the List of ACT Union-Affiliated Teachers Who are Availing of the Automatic Payroll Deduction System.”
Members of the Makabayan bloc filed a resolution condemning it, saying it will be used to profile members of the teachers’ group, which the department already denied.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ The Source, ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said the group will see how it can “maximize the functions of the Ombudsman to look into this matter.”
“The very important one that we are going to study is how can we ask the court to direct the Department of Education to discard or to let go of the information that they got,” he said.
Basilio also said the group filed on Monday a complaint to the International Labor Organization’s Office of the Director General regarding the memorandum.
ACT is also eyeing a dialogue with the National Privacy Commission on the order’s possible violations of the Data Privacy Act, he added.
For ACT, the documents should not be officially recognized since the data were “illegally collected.”
The collection process was also worrisome for the group since it was only through an online excel document, Basilio said.
“This document can be used against us, na gamitin (it can be used) to go after our members,” he noted.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa maintained that the information the agency is gathering will be used to update the department’s Human Resource Systems.
Such data will only be used inside the organization, and will not be passed to a third party, he added.
