Teachers seek to nullify PNP profiling order

LEFTIST group Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has asked the Court of Appeals to nullify Philippine National Police (PNP) directives on the profiling of its members.

The petition for prohibition with urgent prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order was filed on Thursday, January 17 by the officials of the group, among them ACT national chairperson Joselyn Martinez and ACT secretary general Raymond Basilio.

The petition cited first-hand accounts of ACT leaders and members victmized by illegal profiling, person-specific surveillance and harassments allegedly perpetrated by the police and the military in the Cordillera Administrative Region, National Capital Region, Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions.

It also contained testimonies from the leaders of the group who had received death threats allegedly from members of the state forces.

The group specifically assailed the memorandum from the Director of Intelligence dated December 10, 2018 on the midterm elections and the inventory of all public and private school teachers affiliated with ACT Teachers Party-list; memorandum from “C, RID PRO3” with the same subject matter as above; and other memoranda from various PNP units ordering the profiling of the members of the group.

The petitioners stated that the assailed PNP memoranda are “illegal” and “unconstitutional” as these are violative of the rights of the teachers to association, right to assemble, and to petition the government of redress of grievances, right to privacy and freedom of expression, among others.

Among the respondents in the petition are PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde, Police Intelligence Director Gregorio Pimentel and Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año.

Just this week, representatives of the ACT Techers Party-list in the House of Representatives, along with the other members of the Makabayan bloc, asked Congress to look into the alleged memoranda ordering the profiling of the members of ACT Teachers.

“The said memo instills the wrong and dangerous militarist mindset of treating advocating change, those who join rallies and basically exercising their constitutional rights and freedom of expression and assembly, as enemies of the state,” the resolution read.

The profiling of the members of the party-list group came after Presidential Daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio branded the members of the ACT Teachers as “liars” and “terrorists” after the group claimed that the Davao City government refused to give teachers in Davao City their monthly allowance amounting to P2,000.

The accusation has since been refuted by Duterte-Carpio.

The Davao City police recently filed a child abuse case against Tinio and another Makabayan bloc lawmaker Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao after Duterte-Carpio criticized the two on social media for allegedly forcing minors to join a rally they led in Davao City in October last year.

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, meanwhile, was arrested last November in Talaingod, Davao del Norte along with former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo for alleged human trafficking and kidnapping after they conducted a supposed humanitarian mission in the town.

The other members of the Makabayan bloc are Gabriela Party-list Reps. Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate and Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago. (SunStar Philippines)