DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte replies to ACT and PISTON

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

"May I reiterate — the transport strike is a painful interference in our efforts to address the learning gaps and other woes in our education system.

We oppose it because it is problematic, it will hurt our learners, and the inconvenience that it may cause comes with an enormous price deleterious to learning recovery efforts — and this is a price that learners will have to pay.

If you cannot understand our position, or refuse to understand our position, or even pretend not to understand our position, this is only because of your unbelievable propensity to push a hardline agenda that punishes the general public.

This time, among the casualties are our learners and teachers.

Kawawa ang mga estudyante at mga guro.

The first failure of this transport strike is the failure to consider our learners and our teachers.

This does not come as a surprise anymore — a tactic clearly taken from a playbook familiar to many Filipinos.

Piston is an organization with leaders and some members poisoned by the ideologies of the bankrupt Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the New People’s Army.

And happily cavorting with Piston and other militant organizations is ACT, a group that is diametrically nowhere near in the service of the interest of the learners and the education sector.

This is not red-tagging. This is a statement of fact.

Meanwhile, the progress and future of our learners cannot be left to the whims of organizations acting on bare selfish motives.

Magkaroon man ng tigil pasada, walang tigil sa pag-aaral ang mga kabataan.

Salamat po."



SARA Z. DUTERTE

Vice President of the Philippines and Education Secretary

Statement by DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte on ACT Teachers Support to the Transport Strike

Wazzup Pilipinas!?




Learning recovery is foremost on the agenda of the Department of Education today. It does not include the pointless weeklong transport strike supported by ACT.

The transport strike is a painful interference in our efforts to provide solutions to the problems besetting our education system and will only exacerbate the learning hardships of our students.

ACT supporting this transport strike, and shamelessly harping twisted justifications for it, only betrays its true colors — that it is a group that does not really serve the interest of students and teachers.

ACT should know that a weeklong transport strike, at this critical point in our efforts to remedy learning losses, is a learning disruption.

But ACT couldn’t care less if our efforts are hampered or if we fail because — as a lover of the useless ideologies espoused by the New People’s Army, the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines — ACT’s dream is for our children to remain uneducated and poor.

I maintain that during this communist-inspired weeklong strike, both in-person and alternative delivery modes of learning shall be implemented, whichever is convenient to the learners.

I challenge ACT to show its sincerity to the sector it is supposed to serve — the students, the teachers, and the entire Philippine education system — by working with Local Government Units and other government agencies to ensure the convenience of learners during the transport strike instead of supporting it.

Thank you.



Sara Z. Duterte
Vice President of the Philippines
Secretary of the Department of Education

Storytelling session, K-Pop dance close Shark Conservation Week celebration

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A storytelling session and K-Pop random play dance were staged today in Manila City and Taguig City to officially close the 4th Shark Conservation Week celebration.

The Baby Shark Interactive Storytelling Session was attended by 30 children aged 9-12 in Museo Pambata in partnership with Kids4Kids. The activity was a learning exercise for children to learn about Philippine sharks and current conservation efforts.

In the afternoon, K-Pop Stans 4 Good Governance did a colorful and fun random play dance in partnership with Ayala Malls Market! Market! in Bonifacio Global City, where they danced to a continuous mix of K-Pop hits, including “Baby Shark” to entertain onlookers and at the same time, increase awareness about the importance of shark conservation.

“We organized the storytelling session and random dance play to engage a wider audience, especially children and youth, about the various threats to our marine life,” said Anna Oposa, Executive Director and Chief Mermaid of Save Philippine Seas.

The 4th Shark Conservation Week was observed to call for the passage of a legal framework that is science-based, enforceable, and socially just, taking into consideration the state of the marine environment and the communities that depend on these ecosystems.

Previous Shark Conservation Weeks were held in Cebu City, Cebu in 2014; Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental in 2016; and Panglao and Tagbilaran City, Bohol in 2018. One of the objectives of Shark Conservation Week is to build a constituency among various stakeholders, including line government agencies, legislators, the private sector, youth and academic institutions, fishers, traders, and other sectors such as tourism.

The Shark Conservation Week is organized by Save Shark Network Philippines through Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines, a conservation organization that aims to develop a better appreciation of the marine environment and its ecological processes.