The Commission on Human Rights has criticized a university in Baguio City for its mandatory pregnancy test.
Jacqueline de Guia, CHR lawyer-spokesperson, said the dismissal of an unmarried female student, who was found to be pregnant, was a violation of the Magna Carta of Women or Republic Act 9710.
“The prohibition against dismissing students on the basis of pregnancy does not distinguish between public or private educational institutions,” she added.
According to De Guia, “the CHR is alarmed with the documents circulating in the Internet showing Pines City Colleges policy of mandatory pregnancy testing not only as to possible Magna Carta Women violation but also of other women’s rights particularly on the rights to privacy and bodily autonomy.”
She said the CHR’s Cordillera Administrative Region office is now conducting a motu propio investigation in accordance to the institution’s due process.
“In the past, the CHR has not refused to hold an educational institution in violation of the Magna Carta for Women for dismissing a teacher on the basis of pregnancy,” she said.
“Women and girls should not be denied exercise and full enjoyment of basic rights, they should not suffer negative consequences in educational and work spaces, simply because they are pregnant,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers Philippines slammed CHED and the Philippine National Police to bring the anti-drug war to universities and colleges.
“After terrorizing communities and killing thousands in the guise of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, PNP now plans to take its bloody and evidently failing ‘Oplan Tokhang’ into colleges and universities, with no less than CHEd holding the doors open for them,” ACT Philippines secretary general Raymond Basilio said.
“We cannot allow the PNP, who are notorious human rights violators, to come into our schools. We cannot accept the government’s treatment of schools as a breeding ground for criminals. Schools are safe havens for learning!” he added.
