The government should prohibit repeat sexual offenders from teaching in any school in the Philippines, Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Wednesday, September 7.

Hontiveros said she is concerned that teachers who were removed or resigned after committing abuse and harassment on students can still transfer and teach in other schools.

“Wala tayong nalutas na problema kung hinahayaan nating palipat-lipat lang ang mga abuser (We can’t solve the problem if we allow abusers to just relocate). Sexual predators should never be allowed to be around children,” said Hontiveros, principal author of the Safe Spaces Act.

“Schools should show their students that abusers will be made accountable. This also tells our young people that they will be heard, not dismissed, nor silenced,” she stressed.

Hontiveros cited a 2021 article describing how a teacher-predator in St. Theresa’s College Quezon City (STCQC), who had resigned in 2016, was found to have been teaching at Angeles University Foundation (AUF) in the school year 2019-2020.

The same report, as of February last year, said the teacher was employed in yet another school. The victim-survivors in both STCQC and AUF confirmed grooming and sexual advances from the same teacher.

“Ilan pa ang mga guro na may mga kaso na pala ng pang-aabuso at karahasan pero imbes na tunay na managot ay nag-iiba lang ng eskwelahan? Ilang mga estudyante na ang nabiktima dahil dito (How many more teachers are facing abuse and violence cases but instead of making them accountable for their actions are just going to other schools? How many students have been victimized because of this)? Predators should get more than a slap on the wrist,” Hontiveros said.

At the same time, the senator commended the STCQC for fixing their system in resolving sexual harassment cases. In 2020, she noted that when a student filed an administrative complaint against one teacher-predator, the school created a Student Care Council that processed this case.

A month later, the abuser’s employment was terminated. “Ganitong proactivity sana ang inaasahan natin sa lahat ng paaralan (I hope we can have this kind of proactivity among our schools),” Hontiveros said.

At the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality hearing on Tuesday, September 6, Hontiveros lamented that there is currently no policy that bars someone, who resigned or who was dismissed due to sexual abuse, from applying in another educational institution.

She also said the government should look into Australia’s “Working with Children Check," an additional layer of screening for adults whose work involves being in the regular company of children.

“With the rampant cases of sexual abuse and harassment that we receive and we hear about year after year, it seems necessary to have a similar mechanism in our country,” the senator said.

“Our children have been calling on all of us to do better. Hindi sila maayos na pinakinggan kaya’t kinailangan pang ipa-trend sa social media ang hashtag na (Their pleas are not heard that’s why they had to trend on social media the hashtag) #DoBetter. Let’s listen to them this time,” she reiterated.