DepEd: Liable personnel will face consequences

CEBU, Philippines - Apart from the alleged refusal of a teacher to sign clearances which led to the suicide of two high school students in Daanbantayan town, the Department of Education is also looking into other factors leading to the incident.

DepEd also assured that school officials proven liable in the two incidents will be dealt with accordingly.

“Initially, I was told that they are considering more than one factor that could have caused the suicide like peer pressure, family pressure. But rest assured, if found that the teacher or school official is directly involved, we will deal with it according to the policies and guidelines of the agency,” said Cebu Provincial Division Superintendent Arden Monisit.

Monisit has yet to receive the official report from the DepEd Cebu province legal team sent this week to Daanbantayan to investigate the matter.

“It (investigation report) is a public document. We will not hide it. We will show it to the public through our friends from the media. We just have not received it as of now. Hopefully, this is submitted soonest so that we can act on it,” he said.

Aside from DepEd, the Cebu provincial government has also intervened by sending the Provincial Social Welfare Development Office to conduct debriefing sessions.

“The debriefing is not limited to the students. Hopefully, the teachers were also included in the psychosocial intervention,” the provincial education chief said.

The principal of Daanbantayan National High School has also submitted an incident report, said Monisit, who stressed that the data is limited to already established facts like the time and date of the incident, the names of the students and those involved.

“We received the report through fax. It only contains the basic information on the incident like the names, date and time. Just an incident report like that of a police blotter. There was no other inquiry done, no fact-finding of that sort,” he said.

With regards to reports that “bad spirits” had something to do with the suicide, Monisit said they are not the proper institution to confirm.

“Our concern at the Department of Education is to ensure the welfare of the students and the teachers as well. We are not the proper agency to deal on that,” Monisit said.

Monisit said that he received verbal information that the teacher has filed for a leave of absence because she feared for her life.

“This is unofficial, though, I received word that he filed for leave of absence for security reasons. Allegedly, she has received death threats from those blaming her for the students’ death. I don’t know how long is the leave but we have mandated leave credits in one school year,” he said.

Monisit also requested that the names of students and the teacher be withheld until investigation is concluded to protect the individuals involved.

“There are media outfits that have mentioned the names of the students and teacher. We are not really saying that is wrong. Personally, I think it is not the proper time to release the names. When the investigation is done, then, I think that’s the right time to mention them,” Monisit said.