‘IRRELEVANT’ TEACHER OUTINGS NEED TO STOP! – MAYOR BELMONTE

November 9, 2022

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Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte warned and admonished all government educators in the city to halt engaging, ‘irrelevant’ and ‘immaterial’ school outings to avoid the recurrence of tragic accidents due to negligence.

Belmonte told the investigative reportage of BITAG Multimedia Network (BMN) that they have already initiated an investigation to determine who is responsible for the death of a female teacher of Payatas B Elementary School.

The teacher died while over 20 others were injured when the bus they were riding had a brake malfunction and fell into a cliff in Orani, Bataan, on Saturday, November 5.

“‘Yung ginamit na sasakyan hindi na-tune up yung bus so that is an act of negligence so dapat may managot,” Belmonte told BMN.

The School Division Office of Quezon City (SDO QC) confirmed that the group was part of the three busloads of public elementary and secondary school teachers that left the San Francisco High School Compound in Quezon City on Friday, November 4.

The teachers attended a Gender and Development activity at Sinagtala Resort in Orani, Bataan.

Belmonte wondered why the teachers had to go out of town when they could conduct team-building activities along the city.

“Ang unang reaksyon ko bakit kailangang pumunta pa sa Bataan para magbigay ng isang seminar tungkol sa GAD which is Gender and Development samantalang napakadaling topic ito at ito ay ginagawa nga lang dapat sa tanggapan, sa office o kaya kung kailangan sa malaking venue a local hotel will do,” the mayor said.

Mayor Belmonte said the Quezon City government and the city council, through the Committee on Education, have embarked on an investigation to look for deeper insights into the incident.

“This is a very serious accident and there should be somebody held accountable for that. So ang mangyayari ngayon is I have instructed the executive department through our city administrator’s office to embark on an investigation,” said Belmonte.

The city mayor promised to uphold justice to the victims, adding that unnecessary trips for teachers should be stopped and regulated.

“So tingin ko tama lang na mangyari yung (imbestigasyon). This is our way of showing that we have to show justice to the survivors and also to the victim na nawalan ng buhay na si Teacher Janice,” she noted.

Meanwhile, Belmonte vowed to assist the victims with any probable aid that was needed specially for their recovery.

“I will be helping them undergo a psychiatric debriefing or therapy para makatulong sa kanila na ma-get over nila yung trauma na kanilang naranasan so all of that is going to be shouldered by the local government,” Belmonte assured.