MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education apologized in a statement issued on Friday for a Facebook post showing part of a physical education module that body-shamed actress Angel Locsin by calling her “an obese person.”
The statement was signed by Roger F. Capa, superintendent of the Schools Division of Occidental Mindoro, since this office has jurisdiction over the teacher involved in the post, which had been taken down.
According to a Bandera report, the teacher belongs to the Abra de Ilog National High School in Occidental Mindoro.
“We would like to express our sincerest apology to the concerned individuals who may have been offended or harmed by this incident,” Capa said. “The Department of Education does not tolerate nor condone any act of body shaming, ad hominem or any similar act of bullying both in the physical and virtual environments.”
Capa appealed to the public, however, to stop attacking the teacher.
“This Office had already communicated with the concerned teacher and gathered facts from him. Rest assured that this matter will be given serious attention. Meanwhile, we appeal to the public to spare him from any ad hominem attacks as this single mistake will not define him as a person,” he said.
Capa also clarified that the module that contained the body-shaming post was not developed and evaluated in the DepEd central office.
“The said material is a teacher-made assessment for a Grade 10 MAPEH class purposely to measure specific competencies of the learning area,” he said.
MAPEH is an abbreviation for Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health.
“Assessment of the learning outcomes in a particular subject is a primordial responsibility of a teacher. Development of tools for such assessments is an academic freedom every teacher enjoys. This is without prejudice to the fundamental principles of test construction which involves social content in which one of our teachers may not have met the standard,” Capa added.
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