DepEd, CHEd policies shield sexual predators, victims group claims

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Accusers of alleged sexual abuse cases from different schools on Wednesday launched a campaign to press the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education to act on the widespread cases of sexual harassment in schools.

“Despite the public outrage of students from prominent schools and universities in the past, the procedures and protocols in place have failed to stamp out predators from our schools,” said Sophia Beatriz Reyes.

Reyes is the lead convener of the campaign “Enough is Enough” (EIE) and current president of the Philippine High School for the Arts student government.

“We remain unprotected and disempowered,” she added.

According to the DepEd, seven teachers were being investigated. But the accusers claimed a total of 11 teachers sexually harassed students.

“The problem is the system itself and the policy [because] it’s more centered on protecting the authorities and the teachers,” Reyes said in a press briefing, pointing out that in other schools, the alleged predators were “simply made to resign” and transferred to another school.

Moreover, according to her, there was also no psychosocial support offered to victims.

Lawyer Aaron Pedrosa of Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan said that because there was no psychosocial intervention provided, “there’s a hesitation on the part of the victim to even deal with the police.”

Proceed with caution

Pedrosa, who is helping the youth group consolidate the rising complaints of students from 11 schools, appealed to the Philippine National Police to “proceed with caution” in conducting their own investigation, adding that police officers have conducted house-to-house visitations to the supposed victims of sexual harassment.

“It adds to the pressure on the victim, especially since they mentioned that they are still finding time to process what they experienced,” he said.

According to Pedrosa, the group is hoping the DepEd will conduct a “high-level mechanism” of investigation considering that many students are speaking out about their experience of alleged abuses.

Reyes urged Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte to conduct a closed-door meeting with them to discuss how the policies could be changed to help in reporting abuse cases.

EIE is calling for the revocation of the accused teachers’ professional licenses through the help of the Professional Regulation Commission, as well as the blacklisting of the predators to prevent them from committing the same acts to more students.

The group further demands the establishment of a national registry of sex offenders.

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