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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
Claim: The ACT Teachers party list is disturbed by a Department of Education (DepEd) memo asking for a list of ACT-affiliated teachers because the group is a legal front of the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army, and National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The video was posted on July 3 by a YouTube channel with 738,000 subscribers. It has garnered about 127,000 views, 4,600 likes, and 490 comments as of writing.
The bottom line: The ACT Teachers party list is not a member of the NDF. The party list raised concerns about the DepEd memorandum because of its potential impact on teachers’ privacy and safety, and not because the group is a legal front of the communist movement.
Part of the Makabayan bloc: Rappler has previously fact-checked a claim that the party list is a member of the NDF, the CPP’s political arm.
ACT Teachers party list is a member of the Makabayan bloc, a political coalition of progressive party-list groups accredited by the Commission on Elections. The bloc and its member organizations have been participating in elections since they meet the criteria of Republic Act 7491 or the Party-List System Act. Under Section 6.2 of the law, any organization that “advocates violence or unlawful means to seek its goal” are excluded from registration.
The party list, formed in 2009, is the representation in Congress of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, the country’s largest teachers’ group formed in 1982.
Privacy, safety concerns: House deputy minority leader and ACT Teachers Representative France Castro condemned the DepEd memo as part of the agency’s profiling operations against ACT members, adding that it also violates the Data Privacy Act.
“DepEd’s profiling operations against ACT and their members are highly alarming and a clear violation of their basic rights. The disclosure and processing of their personal information and sensitive personal information without lawful reason and their consent is a direct attack on their privacy and security,” Castro said.
The Makabayan bloc filed House Resolution 1095 demanding an end to the alleged profiling operations.
DepEd memo: On June 14, the education department issued a memorandum asking all regional offices for the names of teachers affiliated with ACT Teachers who were availing of the Automatic Payroll Deduction System (APDS). The system is used for salary deductions in relation to statutory contributions, loan remittances, and membership dues, according to DepEd.
The department said it asked for the list to improve its human resource systems, and not to profile members of ACT, which has been previously linked to the communist movement.
In response to the DepEd memo, the teachers’ alliance said that there was no need for the department to collect the names of ACT members because accredited regional unions that have APDS “religiously update” the status of their members monthly.
“There is no need for DepEd to collect the list of ACT members as it is DepEd which approves and implements the APDS every month. Such acts and measures seek to stigmatize ACT’s work, repress its advocacies, and restrict civic space from teachers and education workers who are critical of the government,” ACT said in a statement.
The group also reported the profiling of teachers in two different regions following the issuance of the memorandum.
Record of red-tagging: Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte has long accused ACT of being affiliated with the CPP-NPA-NDF, even calling Castro a fake representative of the education sector in Congress.
False claim: Rappler previously published a fact-check article debunking a claim that the memo was issued because the teachers’ alliance has been making illegal deductions from teachers’ salaries and transferring the supposed funds to the CPP-NPA-NDF. – Miraflor Anacio/Rappler.com
Miraflor Anacio is a graduating student currently volunteering under Rappler’s Research Unit.
Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. You may also report dubious claims to #FactsFirstPH tipline by messaging Rappler on Facebook or Newsbreak via Twitter direct message. You may also report through our Viber fact check chatbot. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.
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