THE Department of Education yesterday said it has filed formal charges against five of the seven teachers of the Bacoor High School in Cavite facing accusations of sexual abuse of students.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Tan Poa said the charges were administrative in nature and does not preclude the filing of criminal complaints.
“Out of the seven, we issued formal charges against five only. Why only five? Because the schools division office and our legal department told us we lack evidence (on the other two),” Poa said in a press briefing at the DepEd Central Office in Pasig City.
Poa said the charges were for “grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, and violation of DepEd Order No. 40, Series of 2012, or the Child Protection Policy.”
He did not name the five teachers who were also slapped a 90-day suspension.
“We would like to encourage the victims to execute an affidavit to strengthen the evidence against them (teachers),” Poa said.
Poa had earlier said the teachers were put on “floating status” and were not given teaching loads while the probe was underway.
A Twitter user who uses the handle @eexpresso shared the alleged sexual advances made by the teachers on the students last month. The thread was originally posted on Facebook but was deleted for allegedly violating community standards.
On the Twitter thread, one of the teachers even posted photos of his students on his social media accounts while making sexual innuendos.
HANDLING COMPLAINTS
Poa also said the DepEd has opened an email address and hotline exclusively dedicated to addressing sexual abuse and harassment complaints against students.
He said this is part of the DepEd’s efforts to address the problem directly that would not jeopardize or embarrass the students, considering the sensitivity of the matter.
“We understand the plight of the victims. That is why we at DepEd are trying to strengthen our Child Protection Unit and we even set up an email address wherein they can email their complaints. It is directly under the Office of the Secretary,” he said.
“We understand that reporting experiences of sexual abuse and violence are often hampered by fear and feeling of embarrassment, but we urge kindergarten to Grade 12 victim-survivors to report these incidents directly to the Office of the Secretary,” he added.
Poa said complaints can be emailed at depedabusereport@gmail.com or complainants can call the hotline numbers 8633-1942, 8635-9817, and 0995-921-8461.
He said personal information and the nature of the complaints will be treated with utmost confidentiality.
ABUSIVE TEACHERS
Saying the DepEd has a zero tolerance policy against sexual abusers, Poa said the department is open to proposals to create a database for teachers who are involved in such incidents.
“We will take that suggestion on advisement especially now that we are strengthening our Child Protection Unit but having said that complainants should also come out para mabigyan ng sapat na sanction or penalty ang mga ganitong teachers,” Poa said.
Last Wednesday, National Bureau of Investigation Special Action Unit head Jerome Bomediano told the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality’s public hearing on the alleged culture of abuse, harassment, and violence at the Philippine High School of the Arts that it is about time for the DepEd to have such a database, similar to other countries where authorities maintain a data of sexual offenders.
SARA WEIGHS IN
Poa said Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte is willing to meet with students who are victims of sexual harassment and abuse by their mentors to hear their complaints personally and to check on their welfare.
However, Poa said the DepEd has yet to receive a formal communication from sexually abused students who formed a group called Enough Is Enough.
The group, assisted by the Commission on Human Rights, faced the media last Wednesday in Quezon City and launched a campaign to deter similar incidents.
They also said they would like to meet with Duterte to discuss ways on how to make schools a safe space for students.
The scandal at the Bacoor high school follows controversies that hounded other schools in the country whose teachers faced similar accusations of “grooming” their students or sexual harassment.
Last July, allegations of emotional, verbal and sexual at the PHSA in Los Banos, Laguna prompted Duterte to request the NBI to conduct an investigation.
