ACT condemns police surveillance

MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers has condemned the alleged surveillance operations conducted by the Quezon City police at the ACT national office over the weekend.

In a statement, ACT said members of police station 15 were seen monitoring the party’s headquarters “under the guise of checking a mobilization.”

However, the group said a number of public school teachers were in the middle of a training program.

“This incident is a clear case of harassment and intimidation targeting education workers exercising constitutional rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly. Such police operations create an atmosphere of fear and violate teachers’ basic trade union rights that are protected by both domestic and international law,” ACT said in a statement.

“This latest incident adds to the growing list of documented violations against teachers and education workers, including profiling, red-tagging and various forms of intimidation. These attacks form part of the systematic suppression of legitimate union activities and democratic rights of teachers and education workers,” it added.

ACT called police and interior officials to hold the law enforcers accountable for authorizing “these operations that violate civil liberties and trade union rights.”