A PART-TIME teacher of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines decried her dismissal after speaking up against the university’s policies that “tarnishes its image.”

Leia Reyna Pasumbal said that she was dismissed as a faculty member of the College of Communication.

“I was a part-time instructor and they made it clear that if you are working part-time, there is no employer-employee relationship so you must not whine if your salary is delayed, and if your rights are trampled then you are not covered, and your contract can easily be terminated in just a snap of a finger,” she said.

“Then again, since I worked part-time, my principles, my social media posts, my personal life, are not something they should constantly check,” Pasumbal said.

She added that the university, through a Zoom meeting, informed her that she will not be given a teaching load for the 2nd semester of Academic Year 2020-2021.

“They want me to become an example to other employees that once you talk against them, they can just easily silence you and throw you out — the saddest, most painful truth. But honey, little did you know, the more I am being silenced, the louder I can be,” she said.

“They truly know no decency and could go miles for their personal and political agenda, targeting the supposedly least of their worries and ardently thumbing their nose at the real pressing issues in the university,” she added.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines also condemned the move of the university.

“CEGP slams PUP’s obvious attack on free speech specially to dissent as it undermined being critical as a criterion in laying off an employee who does not even violate any,” CEGP said in a statement.

“Speaking up against the atrocities that pester the nation is and will never be a valid reason for any employer to relieve someone of his/her position, but treachery to its vow to the students, teachers, employees, and the masses,” it added.

The group criticized PUP’s continuous contractualization of its part-time teachers.

“Teachers, employees, and other education sector workers are also Covid19 frontliners that sacrifice their personal spaces and lives; thus, it is only right and just to treat them better especially in a time of job loss, lack of opportunity, and basic commodity price hike,” it said.

The POST tried to get a statement from the PUP administration but was unsuccessful.