ACT Davao Region called on the government to adhere to the theme for this year’s National Teachers’ Month: “Teacher, ikaw naman.”

A public school teachers’ alliance decried a red-tagging incident before the start of the group’s assembly in Davao City.

Reynaldo Pardillo, president of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Davao Region, highlighted the negative impact of red-tagging not just on teachers but also on people who exercise their rights. He made the remark after red-tagging posters and a pamphlet were recovered during ACT Davao’s 4th Representatives’ General Assembly on October 10.

“We cannot avoid people having doubts and fears about us,” Pardillo, a public school teacher at Sta. Ana National High School, told Bulatlat. “Even for myself, I am afraid that there might be an instance where I get arrested.”

Prior to the start of their activity, which aimed to gather organization members, discuss their campaigns, and elect their new leaders, the venue’s caretaker saw a red-tagging poster and pamphlet outside the gate at around 8 a.m., while another red-tagging poster was seen placed on the roof of a parked vehicle inside the venue.

Pardillo said they still do not have evidence as to who was responsible, but they do not rule out the possibility that it might be state-perpetrated, saying that this was the second time that this happened.

ACT has been repeatedly red-tagged by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), a state task force established in 2018 that uses a “whole-of-nation approach” to end the communist insurgency in the country led by the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

In 2021, ACT National Capital Region was reportedly tagged by the same government task force as one of the front organizations of the CPP during a “sponsored orientation” for Pasig City public school teachers.

The teachers’ alliance was also reportedly red-tagged by NTF-ELCAC members during the Quezon City schools division’s third quarter management committee meeting in August 2023.

The ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, then education secretary and NTF-ELCAC co-vice chairperson, also exposed the use of confidential funds in schools under the Department of Education (DepEd) to prevent NPA recruitment and other communist and leftist groups and to intensify the background investigation of DepEd personnel and learners involved in terrorist organizations.

Read: State surveillance in schools angers teachers

The late CPP founder, Joma Sison, earlier denied allegations that he identified ACT as a communist front.

ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, who attended the same event in Davao City, condemned the recent red-tagging incident, as well as the continuing repression against teachers, especially those members of the alliance, citing cases of alleged harassment and red-tagging they documented from other parts of the country.

“We vow to continue to fight for teachers’ right to organize and free expression,” he said in Filipino in a video message posted online.

On October 12, Tinio and party-list representatives Sarah Jane Elago of Gabriela Women’s Party and Renee Co of Kabataan Partylist introduced two House resolutions condemning the alleged profiling, harassment, and red-tagging of public school teachers and members of ACT-Region V Union reportedly perpetrated by the Philippine National Police before, during, and after a leadership training and seminar on August 2026, as well as the alleged red-tagging of the University of the Philippines (UP) Rural High School, the Department of Humanities of UP Los Baños, and their faculties and students.

Read: State surveillance adds to teachers’ multiple burden

Pardillo called on the government to adhere to the theme for this year’s National Teachers’ Month: “Teacher, ikaw naman.” He urged the government to look at the teachers what has happened to them, how they have been handled, and what lies ahead for them. (RTS)