The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines has condemned and raised alarm on a new case of police profiling of ACT officers in Bataan, which the group said took on a “new and worse level” as the police memorandum not only identified teacher-unionists but also terrorist-tagged them

The order from the Provincial Intelligence Branch of the Bataan Police Provincial Office, dated February 13, 2020, bore the subject “Counterintelligence Periodic Status Report (CI PSR)” and identified four teachers for profiling who are allegedly “members of the CTG and supporters in the bureaucracy” and to find out “their level of involvement in the CTG.”

The CTG stands for “Communist Terror Groups.”  The profiles of their subjects were submitted on  February 14, 2020.

“We condemn the relentless and vicious attempts of the state through the PNP to conduct undue intelligence operations on teacher-unionists and to terror-tag us. These violate teachers’ rights and freedoms, and endanger their lives,” decried ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.

Basilio explained that profiling remains to be illegal, and violates the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

“This kind of rights infringement is precisely the reason why we should not allow the increasing presence and intervention of police in our schools. Teachers and students are not safe in the hands of these notorious rights violators and peddlers of life-endangering allegations,” said Basilio.

The group called on the Department of Education to protect its teacher-unionists and publicly call on the PNP to suspend their illegal intelligence operations on ACT and its members.

“DepEd shall exhaust measures to ensure the safety and protect the rights of teachers, and should denounce all forms of terrorist-tagging against our union with whom it officially bargains with in a number of regions,” urged Basilio.

Earlier, the  Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the military is monitoring if terrorist groups in the Philippines will express sympathy to Iran following the killing of its top general, Qassem Soleimani, by the United States.

The AFP said security officials had met with President Rodrigo Duterte to discuss their actions on the matter.

The AFP, at present, has not monitored any local terrorist group which already expressed sympathy to Iran./Stacy Ang