DepEd to tutors: Teach about 44 heroes, keep them alive

Education Secretary Armin Luistro: DepEd also mourns. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday paid tribute to the 44 fallen Special Action Force (SAF) commandos, asking teachers nationwide to integrate the lives of each elite policeman into their lessons.

At Monday’s commemoration held at the DepEd head office in Pasig City—where 45 seconds of silence were offered in memory of the SAF men—Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the men who died in Mamasapano should not just be numbers in fatality statistics.

Most of the 44 men, Luistro noted, had studied in public elementary and high schools and had siblings, parents and wives who were public school teachers, and some had kids in the public schools.

“Not just the Philippine National Police, but the DepEd also lost people,” he said.

“We have the responsibility to take care of their widows and their orphans,” Lusitro said, adding that President Aquino had ordered scholarships from elementary school through college given to the children and siblings of the slain policemen.

Luistro said most of the SAF men had been supporting financially the education of siblings and the President wanted them provided for.

Keep in memory

The secretary encouraged teachers to integrate the lives of the slain SAF men into the classroom so they would not be forgotten.

“In lessons, numbers do not have an impact. But if we discuss the life of each SAF man killed in Mamasapano, we can learn from them and keep them to memory,” Luistro said.

At Monday’s ceremony, 44 students, each representing a slain commando, from Oranbo Elementary School in Pasig City wore black armbands and planted the names of each elite policeman killed in the Mamasapano operation on the DepEd grounds.

Teachers and personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection and the PNP joined in the commemoration.