The militant teachers’ union Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) downplayed on Wednesday the supposed breakaway of some 3,000 public school teachers in the National Capital Region (NCR) who formed a new union and challenged ACT’s right to represent the teachers and workers of the Department of Education (DepEd). Benjamin Valbuena, ACT national chair, called the creation of DepEd Teachers Union-National Capital Region-National Labor Union (DTU-NCR-NLU) as “premature,” noting that they still needed a huge number of supporters to be able to replace ACT. The militant group serves as the exclusive collective bargaining agent of teachers and academic personnel of DepEd in NCR. “[It] appears that [the new union] was formed with the backing of government officials to neutralize or arrest the growing militancy of teachers,” Valbuena said. ADVERTISEMENTMembers of the DTU-NCR-NLU claimed that ACT failed to properly represent public school teachers and to fight for their rights.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer May 02, 2018 23:03 UTC