KARAPATAN scores attacks on teachers’ freedom of expression and association
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
28 November 2025
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
KARAPATAN scores attacks on teachers’ freedom of expression and association
KARAPATAN scored acting Schools Division Supt. Nerissa Lomeda for trying to foist puppet teachers’ associations to replace the Manila Public School Teachers’ Association (MPSTA) and threatening NCR teachers with administrative cases. The twin threats were attempts to derail in Manila a Metro Manila-wide teachers’ sit-down strike against corruption today, November 28, 2025. The sit-down strike is being conducted ahead of a gigantic anti-corruption protest rally on November 30th.
Lomeda had reportedly convened a meeting on November 27, 2025 to announce that financial assistance for all teaching and non-teaching personnel would be withheld until a new teachers’ association is formed to replace the MPSTA. The “economic blackmail” was issued reportedly at the behest of Manila Mayo Isko Moreno, who was enraged at the scheduled sit-down strike.
“Lomeda and Moreno’s attempt to replace a genuine teachers’ organization with what would amount to a “company union” is a blatant attack on the teachers’ right to self-organize. Their threats of administrative cases on teachers who will join the sit-down strike is likewise violative of the teachers’ right to free expression and petition government for redress of grievances,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay.
“The teachers’ sit-down strike is a living lesson for students to learn the importance of denouncing corruption and demanding honesty, integrity and sound governance from public officials. Massive bureaucratic corruption has long deprived them of schools, classrooms, books and other facilities and stymied the teachers’ longstanding demand for better pay,” added Palabay.
“The Metro Manila teachers are just as outraged at corruption as the broad public,” stressed Palabay, “and at how this has impacted their lives and those of their students. They have every right to vent their anger and demand accountability. Lomeda and Moreno have no right to suppress this right.”
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.