Schools warned: Don’t violate class suspension order

Labella: Administration charges waiting for schools defying class suspension order

Mayor Edgardo Labella warns schools about the consequences of violating his order to suspend classes due to the Coronavirus Disease threat. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Schools, who will violate the suspension of classes mandated by Mayor Edgardo Labella in Cebu City, may face administrative charges. 

In a phone interview, Labella warned that the schools have to follow the executive order or they would face the consequences. 

He reminded the school administrators that the mandate was for the protection of public health. 

With the city under state of calamity and the nation under state of public health emergency, these directives must be followed for utmost public safety. 

Read more: Cebu City placed under state of calamity

Read more: BREAKING: Duterte declares state of public health emergency over coronavirus

“Even private schools have to bite the bullet for the welfare of the public,” said the mayor. 

He also instructed the Department of Education to set up the guidelines for the suspension immediately because many schools were still confused on how to go about the suspension. 

He clarified that teachers would still have to go to work because they would need to prepare programs for off-campus learning.

The suspension does not mean that the students will have to stop studying as they can be given projects to be done at home. 

Other forms of classes where students are held together in an enclosed space such as vocational classes in the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) are part of the suspension. 

Read more: Metro Cebu cities suspend classes amid COVID-19 threat

Erring schools to be probed

City Legal Officer Rey Gealon told CDN Digital in a text message that schools that would violate the suspension would be investigated. 

“Should they insist on holding classes, investigation will be conducted pursuant to due process and violation of RA 6713 otherwise known as the “Code of Conduct for Public Officials and Employees” will be subsequently filed, among other administrative and criminal charges if necessary,” he said. 

He said the mayor had the power to cancel or suspend classes as well as work in government.

This is in pursuant to Executive Order No. 66 series of 2012 in the mayor’s subsequent capacity as Chairman of the  Local Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council.

The order to suspend classes is a precautionary measure against the spread of the Covid-19 in particular, and the promotion and protection of public health.

Gealon said that the mayor invoked the “police power” of the state under the Constitution, which is delegated to the local government units through RA 7160 otherwise known as the “Local Government Code” 

“Make no mistake, the order of the mayor, being a lawyer himself, is clear and unequivocal. Do not put him to the test,” he said. /dbs