THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday said it has created a special team to look into the alleged emotional, verbal and sexual abuses committed at the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) located at the National Arts Center in Mount Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna.
“I have given an order to form a special team of investigators and to act with dispatch,” NBI OIC Medardo de Lemos said, adding the group is expected to submit a progress report “with seven days.”
On Tuesday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla promised to look into the abuse claims following a request made by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio.
Remulla said he has directed the NBI to prioritize the investigation so he can immediately comply with Duterte-Carpio’s directive that the agency “provide a comprehensive report on the issue as soon as possible.”
The DepEd has also tapped its Child Protection Unit and Child Rights in Education Desk to conduct a similar investigation.
Alumni of the PHSA have come out and exposed the alleged “culture of abuse, harassment, and violence” at the state-run high school. The students have claimed that they reportedly experienced sexual harassment, emotional abuse and other forms of violence committed by non-teaching staff, teachers, and fellow students while staying at the government-run boarding school.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros has filed a resolution urging the appropriate panel to conduct an investigation, in aid of legislation, into the allegations, stressing that it is “imperative” that the Senate exercise its oversight powers over the school.
Hontiveros said the latest victim of alleged abuse was a minor who formally filed a complaint against a non-teaching staff member who supposedly catcalled the victim inside the campus in November 2019.
“Just this month, a PHSA student, who incidentally is still a minor, has formally filed a complaint against a PHSA non-teaching staff after being catcalled in November 2019 in campus — a clear violation of Sec. 11 of Republic Act No. 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act,” she said in the resolution.
She said there were also reports that a number of victims have filed complaints against erring staff members but were allegedly “downplayed by the PHSA administration, brushed off as hearsay and were not entertained for failing to comply with the ‘format required under existing Civil Service rules.’”
Worse, she added, victims of abuse claimed to have been “victim-blamed, silenced, and neglected” by PHSA administrators.
She said that under the Safe Spaces Act, schools are required to provide gender-sensitive environment and confidential mechanism for the reporting and redress of grievances on matters of sexual and gender-based harassment.
“If the accounts are accurate, the repeated failure of PHSA administration to address the violence and abuses is a blatant violation of the Safe Spaces Act and a flagrant disregard of the interests of PHSA students — interests they are duty bound to protect and promote as persons reposed with special parental authority,” Hontiveros said in the resolution.
Hontiveros also called for an urgent review of reporting protocols and procedures of the committee on decorum and investigation of educational institutions tasked to investigate and address complaints of abuse and harassment.
She said the inquiry also seeks to “determine the lapses and to propose corresponding reforms to improve implementation of the Safe Spaces Act and other child protection policies.” — With Raymond Africa
