AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR DEPED SECRETARY
Peter John Mendoza Rinchon
Dearest Madam,
Mabuhay!
How are you doing? I hope you are having a great week.
I would like to personally express my gratitude to you and your office for exerting many efforts in making learning still possible even during pandemic.
However, let me remind you also that sooner or later, all the plans you and your people in the department formulated and soon to be implemented will just become part of the archives.
But the way you made teachers feel during these trying times will be remembered by all the teachers from one generation to another as part of your legacy.
I will personally remember how you treated each and every one of us since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic.
You kept on organizing series of webinars and requiring tons of reports and yet no one from your office ever bothered to ask how we were doing and how we were surviving every day.
What we continuously received from your office are countless orders and commands, not a feeling of comfort and genuine concern.
You might have the noblest ever intention in the world today, but I feel sad about your failure to meet the bare minimum standard of being humane in your pursuit to continue studying amid this pandemic.
Nothing is wrong with your personal desire to continue with the education of our learners, in fact I admire your positive outlook in dealing with our current situation, but to forget the very essence of humanity in exchange of becoming a good-looking working cabinet secretary is totally unacceptable.
Just like other professionals, before we become teachers, we are humans first; we can also be infected with the virus and are also anxious with the situation.
While it is true that learning should not be stopped by any virus, the welfare of our teachers, more so of our students, should be the top priority.
I just wish that showing a little concern to your teachers, such as making us feel safe in the fulfillment of our duties and considering our difficulties, are included in the plans you keep on bragging about during your interviews.
I am not asking you to treat us like kings and queens, but I am appealing to your heart to at least treat us like family members with genuine love. We deserve nothing less than deep affection, care and support from the person who ought to give.
Know that most of us were already infected, some survived but many died.
Respectfully yours,
A Struggling Public School Teacher
Peter John Mendoza Rinchon, Faculty Member and School Paper Adviser of Manila Science High School
