The Filipino people’s intensifying poverty
and other social injustices drive students to activism, a teachers group said
in response to accusations they encourage their students to join rallies.
Replying to accusations by Senator Bato dela Rosa
and police chief Oscar Albayalde that teachers encourage “anti-government”
sentiments among students and the youth, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers
said it is not the teachers’ fault but poverty, corruption and human rights
violations under the Rodrigo Duterte government.
The two officials separately blamed the teachers following
a Senate hearing where dela Rosa presented parents who complained that their
children have left home and joined activist organizations.
Dela
Rosa and Albayalde said teachers should “just do their jobs and not make students turn against the government.”
Dela Rosa went as
far as ask that teachers who encourage students to join rallies must be fired.
“They should
be removed. Parents enter [sic] their students there [in schools] to become
professionals, not to fight the government,” Dela Rosa said.
Albalyalde, for his part accused the teachers of
brainwashing their students.
“What they
should stop [doing] is brainwash[ing] the students. You are a teacher, you act
like a teacher,” Albayalde said.
Their statement did not sit well with the teachers.
What
the teachers are doing
“The two officials are
not in the position to lecture us on our jobs. Their stances show that they
have very little appreciation of the objectives of education,” ACT national chairperson
Joselyn Martinez retorted in a statement Friday, August 16.
Martinez said
teachers are teaching their students patriotism, love of humanity, human
rights, heroism, history, rights and duties of citizens, ethical and spiritual
values, moral character and personal discipline, critical and creative
thinking, scientific and technological knowledge and vocational efficiency as
mandated by the Philippine Constitution.
“It is not the teachers’ fault if the government
leadership acts in contrast to the values upheld by education. They should not
blame us if the youth calls out the government for the ills that they see in
society. We are only doing our job,” she explained.
Martinez said that the government should not find
fault in teachers encouraging students to attend rallies as these are
“real-life events that hold many learnings for the students.”
“It exposes our students to people from different
walks of life who have grievances that are worth hearing. It helps broaden the
youth’s view of our society and offers education that cannot be learned inside
the classroom and from textbooks,” Martinez said.
It is the two officials who should show respect
instead of preventing the youth from exercising their rights, the teacher said.
Part
of democracy
Martinez hit dela Rosa and Albayalde for “demonizing
activism and rallies which are basic constitutional rights of the people,
including students and teachers.”
“In the guise of attempting to curb armed rebellion,
dela Rosa and Albayalde are in effect discrediting the fundamental rights of
the people to free expression, self-organization and to protest. It is them who
are not doing their jobs as being government officials, their constitutional
duty is to respect and uphold such rights,” Martinez said.
“Rallying is not a crime. It appears that dela
Rosa’s and Albayalde’s rants all boil down to this administration’s intolerance
of dissent. They should stop in their desperate bid to silence critics. We’re
in a democracy after all,” Martinez said. # (Raymund
B. Villanueva)
