VICE President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte called the Alliance of Concerned Teachers party-list a fake representative of learners and teachers in Congress.

“If ACT Teachers stands for the education sector, it would not have ignored the NPA terrorism in Masbate that resulted in the suspension of classes in six towns of the province, affecting more than 55,000 learners and 2,815 personnel — which they claim to represent,” Duterte said in a statement.

“ACT Teachers would have publicly and strongly condemned this act of NPA terrorism, given its blistering impact on the efforts of DepEd and our partners to remedy the education problems,” she added.

She accused the group of redirecting public attention from Masbate to its outrageous suggestions for DepEd.

“Part of its deceptive tactic when stripped down of its intentions — with its real political agenda exposed to the public — is to conveniently hide under the blanket of red-tagging,” she said.

“We should only take ACT Teachers seriously if it publicly condemns NPA atrocities in Masbate and all other NPA terroristic activities that hampered the learning of children across the country,” the DepEd chief added.

Duterte said the department is doing its best to resolve problems besetting the Education sector.

“The real victims here are the learners, and the Department of Education is pouring in all our efforts to solve the problem,” she added.

Duterte said the DepEd will not surrender or fall for the “mad ruse” of a party-list group that has mastered the art of duplicity.

“May I reiterate that ACT Teachers’ suggestions were both unrealistic and impossible — presented to shame the government and deceive the public into believing that the hiring of teachers and increasing the education budget were their ideas,” she added.