Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 19) — The Department of Education on Monday dismissed claims that it has been individually profiling teachers who are members of certain groups.
During a Malacañang briefing, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said it is a standard procedure for the department to acquire a list of all those part of legitimate teacher organizations, including the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC).
“Itong dalawang organisasyon na ‘to [These two organizations] constitute, as of our latest count, about 10% of 847,000 mga [of our] employees,” Briones said. “As open organizations, of course they are expected to submit the list of their members. It is standard.”
The ACT on Saturday said the department has been collecting data on its membership tally, as well as the TDC’s, in various localities.
The group called this “dubious,” saying it sees no good reason behind the move, as DepEd has “consistently and actively refused to recognize [its] standing as a legitimate teachers’ union on multiple occasions.”
Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan, meanwhile, said they are looking into the updated membership count, as this plays a part in any negotiation process with the department.
“We would like to assure organizations and teachers within DepEd na walang ginagawang individual profiling ang DepEd [that the DepEd is not conducting any individual profiling],” he said.
“We have a data protection officer in DepEd, and so any disclosure or sharing of this information comply with data protection,” he said. “So, there’s no individual profiling that the department is doing outside of the required submission of information.”
Briones also said such data gathering is needed since the department also collects certain fees from members of teachers’ groups.
“Everything, any action that we have undertaken is always covered by the law,” the education chief said. “We don’t discriminate.”
ACT has described DepEd’s current actions “eerily reminiscent” of the 2019 police profiling of its members, which it said preluded worse attacks on the organization, including the detention of two teachers over allegedly trumped-up charges. The group has earlier been accused by the anti-communist task force of being a legal front of communist rebels — an allegation it has vehemently denied.
“We call on DepEd to immediately halt their information-gathering on ACT and instead, face us in a dialogue, answer the pile of issues and challenges that confront your own frontliners,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said.
“That will be a more productive use of your time, and for once, you may actually be helpful to teachers,” Basilio added.
