ACT welcomes DepEd clarification not to prevent alliance members from poll duties 

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MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) welcomed on Saturday the Department of Education’s (DepEd) statement clarifying that it has not issued any order to disqualify ACT members from election duties.

“We hope that DepEd will circulate their statement to the last school head in the country so that their officials will be amply informed,” the partylist group said in a statement.

On Friday, DepEd clarified that there was no order to bar members of ACT partylist from serving as election inspections for the upcoming midterm elections.

READ: DepEd: No order barring teachers’ unions from election duty

The DepEd issued this clarification after the teacher’s union said that certain local offices of the DepEd had declared the “ineligibility” of its members to be part of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI)

READ: Members of teachers’ union banned from election duty

The teachers’ alliance enumerated in its statement various incidents that “compelled us to speak up about the issue”:

1. A speaker in SIPAG-DepEd’s seminar in Tarlac said that ACT members are not qualified to serve as BEIs;

2. A principal in Davao said that ACT members are prohibited to serve as poll workers;

3. An unsigned document on the qualifications of BEI members made the rounds in Siniloan Laguna, stating as part of the requirements to become eligible to serve as BEI “has no connections with any political/sectoral party/group (not a contributor or donor, or supporter) for instance ACT.”

4. A DepEd official in Eastern Samar told ACT leaders that members would have to resign from the organization in order to be qualified to serve as BEIs.

Despite this, ACT expressed its expectations that DepEd would comply to their request in having a discussion regarding the issue.

“It is good that DepEd seems to finally open up on our request for a dialogue with its statement that we only have to ‘come forward’ which is exactly what we did a few weeks ago,” ACT said.

“We expect that the Department will finally oblige for a dialogue so that we can present the documentations regarding the reported cases,” it added. /jpv