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MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday night that he would want to “punish” and “slap” those responsible for a teaching module that used “obscene names,” especially after the content went viral on Facebook.
“About a good percentage of our students really depend on Facebook and whatever learning they can get from there. But you know, democracy has a price, ”Duterte said in a televised address.
Claiming that the module comes from a private school, he said there must be some “punishment for its creator.”
“I was asking earlier, we were talking about what kind of punishment. If it is a minor, we will have to take care of a minor. But if he’s an adult, send that person to Manila and I’ll slap him, ”he said.
The Secretary of the Interior, Eduardo Año, informed Duterte that the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Philippine National Police were investigating the incident.
Sexual innuendo
Last week, a Facebook user posted a photo of the module and asked why it was using names with sexual innuendo as possible answers to a question.
The module dates back to a Catholic school in Palauig, Zambales province, and the teacher who wrote the material was asked to resign when the local diocese began investigating the matter.
Father Raymann Catindig, superintendent of the Association of Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Iba (ACSDI), said the teacher’s case will be submitted to due process.
A priest has taken over the teacher’s place and the learning module has been removed for review.
Distance education
Catindig said that other members of the school staff were asked to explain the extent of their involvement in the production of the module, which was intended for high school students under the DepEd distance learning program.
Previously, the Secretary of Education, Leonor Briones, had described the learning material as “dirty” and “it was not appropriate at all”.
“It is really a sabotage of our programs. It put us in a bad position, ”Briones said during a Senate budget hearing last week.
—Julie Aurelio and Joanna Rose Aglibot
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