Abuse and intimidation inside DepEd

By Leonardo Micua

BEFORE our presswork on Friday, we received a hand-written letter dated November 18, 2019 mailed by those who call themselves “Group of DepEd Teachers.” They complained about an alleged illegal imposition, corruption, harassment and intimidation, being exerted against them by their newly assigned big boss, whose name we still do not want to divulge.   

They enumerated the six irritations against their boss. The first was requiring them to photocopy/xerox their test papers and other documents to only one photocopy shop. (Does she own it?). Then requires them to look/buy an attire with a blazer for their ID photo, which they find to be too costly; requiring them to buy a book of a certain author whom she invited to talk on financial analysis this December; requiring them to buy tumbler from her purportedly to raise money for charity; requiring them to contribute P400 each to a supposed DepEd project that was not approved by the teachers’ organization; and requiring other income-generating activities.

The complainants said the big boss reportedly said “teachers who do not follow my advice do not belong to my team”, a statement naturally was interpreted by them as “dangerous and threatening”.     

They want us to look into this matter and expose this so the people would know what kind of person their new boss is. But as journalists, we don’t poke our noses in every conflict internal to them, especially in the absence of any corroborating evidence against the party being complained of. 

My advice to them, – solidify your ranks and should iron these things out with your superior.

If this doesn’t work and the illegal imposition continues and worst, you are still harassed, you should bring your complaints directly to the regional director and Secretary Leonor Briones, if it would come to that.

Their last resort: Text the complaint to 8888, so President Duterte will know about it. It’s worth trying as many others did and it had good results.   

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The 30^th ASEAN Games will unfold on November 30, with 9,840 athletes from 11 nations participating. Although the opening ceremony will be held at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, the sports events will be staged in 23 venues.

As host, the Philippines will field the biggest number of athletes at 1,868, followed by Indonesia, 1,702; Singapore, 1,591; Thailand, 1,473; Malaysia, 1,076; Myanmar, 952; Cambodia, 510; Laos, 419; Brunei, 257; and East Timor, 221.

Unfortunately, even if we are the host, we are not among the heavy favorites to win in this ASEAN meet. Top nations to bring home the crown are Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and possibly Singapore. Ph is given only a Chinaman’s chance to nail down the championship.   

Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo was designated as torch bearer to light the cauldron located in front of the New Clark City sports complex, which will also be the venue of the closing ceremony on December 11. The cauldron, costing P50 million, towers above 50 feet, was the work of art and a source of pride for the Filipinos.

Most of the playing venues, as well as the billeting sites of athletes and their chaperons, were all state of the arts, only built by the country in this year’s ASEAN Games whose official motto is “We will end as one”.

Although we have the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen, the province of Pangasinan is not one of the venues of the ASEAN Games. The nearest province to us that will host an event—surfing– is La Union. Be that as it may, we Pangasinenses need not be in the game sites since we can watch the games on television live and through live streaming via internet.

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The fake news talks from a local radio: The donated land as site of an evacuation center in Pugaro was supposedly loaned by the donor for P8 million before donating the same to the city. Atty. Frank Angeles, lawyer of the Pablico family, the donor of the land, is going to the Sangguniang Panlungsod on Tuesday to belie the fake news being peddled by the radio station.

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