The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) in a recent statement denounced the profiling operations of the Manila government’s Department of Education (DepEd) against its members as clear violation of their rights and a direct attack meant to ‘silence their voices.’

ACT is a progressive and militant national democratic union of teachers, academics and other education workers in the Philippines established on 26 June 1982. As the the largest teachers’ union in the country campaigning for economic and political rights of teachers, it serves as the official collective bargaining unit of educators and other academic professionals in the Philippines.

“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 their consent is a direct attack on their privacy and security,” ACT Teachers Partylist Representative France Castro said.

Last 23 June, the Makabayan bloc (a group of progressive lawmakers in the Philippine House of Representatives) has filed House Resolution 1095 condemning the said profiling operations and stressed how the DepEd’s disclosure and processing of personal information of ACT members is in clear violation of the 1987 Constitution and Republic Act 10173 or the Data Privacy Act.

According to Castro, the profiling is “a clear attempt to silence their voices and intimidate them from exercising their right to peaceful assembly and free speech.”

Castro issued the statement in response to the DepEd’s recent memorandum issued 14 June directing all DepEd regional directors and schools’ division superintendents to submit a list of ACT-affiliated teachers under their respective jurisdictions. According to the memorandum, the consolidated list must be submitted to DepEd on or before 21 June.

“The ACT Philippines received three reports of profiling, one from Bohol and two from Region 10 (Northern Mindanao region). ACT vehemently condemns this profiling operations of the DepEd and appeals to nullify all existing directives,” said ACT Philippines in a statement.

Castro further criticized the Marcos II administration, particularly Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte alongside the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) to end the supposed profiling of unions and activists as well as red tagging. Duterte is also the co-vice chairperson of the NTF-Elcac.