Assistant Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro on Tuesday assailed the plan of the Philippine National Police to deploy its forces in the vicinity of colleges and universities to supposedly secure stakeholders as more schools resume face-to-face classes in January 2022.
Castro said the schools and colleges are capable of reopening without the presence of police forces.
“The Duterte administration is once again giving priority to military solutions to the pandemic over medical solutions by preparing to deploy police forces in the vicinity of colleges and universities to supposedly secure stakeholders as more schools resume face-to-face classes in January 2022,” Castro said.
“What the schools need are more nurses and adequate facilities to provide isolation areas, hand washing facilities, and classrooms with adequate ventilation. Cops do not help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. They may even be carriers of the virus that would bring it inside schools.”
She added the DepEd already reiterated its policy against the presence of armed persons in schools after the incident in Pangasinan when armed policemen were photographed distributing modules in the classroom.
“If their concern is ensuring minimum health protocols are followed, teachers and non-teaching personnel can be health marshals inside the schools. The school can even seek help from the community or the parents if they need additional personnel or volunteers to ensure health protocols are followed,”
Castro stressed, “Schools should be safe spaces for learning and free-thinking. The presence of armed police and military personnel inside schools and in the vicinity cause trauma to the students, teachers and the personnel especially with the bloody record of our state forces and their many accounts of human rights violations.”
