The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines hit Sara Duterte’s ‘peace and discipline’ vision for education as the late dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos, announced her possible appointment as Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd). The group said that such vision does not address the current crisis besetting the sector.
“What we need is a leadership that recognizes the learning crisis, the desperate quality of education, the chronically underpaid status of teachers, and the degeneration of the country’s sense of history and grasp of truth. Sara Duterte has no recognition of these problems, that also worsened under her father’s rule, and has no track record in addressing these. How then can she resolve these crises?” raised ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.
The group furthered that what Sara Duterte has in her sleeves is a history of repressive rule and propagation of fake news, which can be seen in her emphasis on the need for a “generation of Filipinos that advocate peace and discipline.” ACT argued that, if her father’s footsteps were any indication, this translates to the ‘bogus’ type of peace espoused by the NTF-ELCAC which attempted to silence dissent through a vicious smear campaign, and the push for militaristic education to instill ‘discipline’ through ROTC.
“Sara Duterte has proven herself to be a fascist ruler, with zero regard for education and the principles it upholds, just like her father. Under her rule, teachers-unionists suffered relentless red-tagging, schools for Lumad children were forcefully shut down, and the brutal and sham drug war prevailed. She supported and ran with a known liar, thief, and cheat. She cannot resolve but only exacerbate the grave crises education is under,” said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.
ACT expressed strong opposition to Duterte’s appointment and challenged DepEd officials and other freedom-loving individuals to stand for truth and justice, and likewise reject a Sara Duterte-led education agency.
“We will not allow another Duterte to further destroy the already crises-ridden education system by enforcing militaristic and repressive measures that will only make smaller this supposedly civilian, democratic space. Schools are meant to be safe spaces for the molding of free and critical minds, not for fascists to create docile citizens. Kaya nga hindi katanggap-tanggap ang posisyon ngayon ng DepEd na agad sumuporta sa posibleng pag-upo ni Sara Duterte bilang Kalihim ng Kagawaran. She embodies so much of what we stand against in the education sector!” criticized Basilio.
ACT urged the public to continue standing for truth, justice, accountability, and civil liberties and freedoms.
“As teachers, we will do our jobs, as we always have, to continue the fight for social justice especially amidst these dark times. This is crucial in resolving the crisis in education and in our society, of which we have been so harshly reminded during this election. But we also saw how the people—mostly the youth who will inherit our nation—fiercely stood and fought for better governance, for truth and accountability—we were there with them all throughout, and we will continue to march on. An iron fist will not snuff out the flame of the learning torch; if we learned one thing from history, a fascist rule will only reignite it,” concluded Basilio.
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