THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers prodded Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte and the National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict to review their notion of truth as “their distorted concept of the word can prove to be harmful amid the prevalence of disinformation.”

It issued the statement in reaction to NTF-ELCAC official Angie Miranda’s defense of the red-tagging of ACT members.

“Ms. Miranda parrots Secretary Duterte’s pronouncements that the latter’s claims against ACT is not red-tagging but truth-telling. May we remind them that truth is based on verifiable facts, which their claims simply lack,” the group said.

“For years, we have been challenging the red-taggers to present hard pieces of evidence and bring them to court to test the veracity of their claims but they cannot do so because their accusations do not hold water. In truth, what they are doing is plain red-tagging and serving as agents of disinformation, a great shame for public officials, especially for education leaders,” Vladimer Quetua, the group’s chairperson, said.

The group asked officials not to worsen the situation.

“Let us not dull our people further by peddling disinformation. Amid the prevalence of historical distortion and disinformation, especially on social media, it is our shared duty to speak only of truths based on facts, correct the erroneous information fed to various audiences and help shape critical thinking among our people,” Quetua said.