VICE President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte decried the week-long transport strike staged by some groups, saying that its organizers failed to consider the plight of the students and teachers.

Duterte said that the organizers failed to consider the teachers and the learners.

“This time, among the casualties are our learners and teachers. Kawawa ang mga estudyante at mga guro,” Duterte said.

The protests, she added, interfere with the Department of Education’s efforts to address the learning gaps and other problems of the education system.

“We oppose it because it is problematic, it will hurt our learners, and the inconvenience that it may cause comes with an enormous price deleterious to learning recovery efforts — and this is a price that learners will have to pay,” she said.

“If you cannot understand our position, or refuse to understand our position, or even pretend not to understand our position, this is only because of your unbelievable propensity to push a hardline agenda that punishes the general public,” the vice president added.

Also, Duterte described transport group Piston as “an organization with leaders and some members poisoned by the ideologies of the bankrupt Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the New People’s Army.”

The Vice President also slammed the Alliance of Concerned Teachers who earlier criticized her agency for not canceling the conduct of face-to-face classes despite warning of massive protests nationwide.