Sen. Risa Hontiveros, during a hearing int he Senate. Senate PRIB / Albert Calvelo
MANILA, Philippines — Repeat sexual offenders should be prohibited from teaching in schools again, Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Wednesday.
Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, made the statement in light of the series of sexual harassment in schools, with some teachers still finding work in other schools despite their record of sexual abuse in their previous employment.
“Nakakabahala na yung mga tinanggal o nag-resign na guro dahil sa pang-aabuso at harassment sa isang school, ay pwede lang magturo ulit sa ibang paaralan. Wala tayong nalutas na problema kung hinahayaan nating palipat-lipat lang ang mga abuser,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
(It is alarming that those teachers who have been dismissed or resigned due to abuse and harassment in a school can just transfer and teach at another school. We don’t solve a problem if we let abusers move from one school to another.)
“Sexual predators should never be allowed to be around children,” she added.
Hontiveros was referring to an incident where a teacher accused of being a sexual predator was found teaching again in Angeles University Foundation after resigning in St. Theresa’s College Quezon City last 2016.
“Ilan pa ang mga guro na may mga kaso na pala ng pang-aabuso at karahasan pero imbes na tunay na managot ay nag-iiba lang ng eskwelahan? Ilang mga estudyante na ang nabiktima dahil dito?” asked the senator.
(How many teachers have had cases of abuse and violence that, rather than being genuinely accountable, just changed school? How many students have been victimized?)
She also emphasized that predators should get more than a slap on the wrist.
“Our children have been calling on all of us to do better. Let’s listen to them this time,” she said.
The stories of sexual abuse against students recently hogged the headlines after the story about the sexual abuse of students in Philippine High School for the Arts broke out.—Lyka Farillon, INQUIRER.net intern