By JIGGER J. JERUSALEM,
Correspondent
THE Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has accused authorities of preventing its members from visiting a public school teacher who was shot by armed men in Valencia City, Bukidnon on Oct. 15.
Grade school teacher Zhydee Cabeñelez sustained wounds in the shoulder and legs when four still unidentified men shot her several times while inside the classroom at Dalit Elementary School in Barangay Lumbayao, Valencia.
The attackers also fired at Cabeñelez’s husband-teacher Ramil, but he was able to take cover.
During a visit at a private hospital where Cabeñelez was confined on Oct. 23, ACT said, police and soldiers “held hostage” the couple. It said the group’s fact-finding team was prohibited from seeing and talking to the teachers.
Prior to the visit, ACT said it secured consent from the Department of Education, hospital authorities, and by Cabeñelez’s husband, “with who ACT’s advance team was able to coordinate a day before the solidarity visit.”
“The police’s denial of access to the victims also prevented the much-needed moral, financial, and legal assistance from reaching them,” ACT said in a statement released Friday.
The Valencia police said it was only doing its job to ensure the privacy of the Cabeñelezes based on their request to authorities.
“Our presence in the hospital premises, particularly within the confinement area of Mrs. Cabeñelez, is not of our own liking,” said Valencia police chief Lt. Col. Surki Sereñas.
Sereñas said they were requested by the couple to secure them while Cabeñelez is recovering from gunshot wounds.
Brig. Gen. Rafael Santiago, police regional director, said, “It is our mandate to safeguard the people particularly the oppressed and this particular situation is one of them.”
Earlier, ACT claimed that Cabeñelez is its member, but the state-run Philippine Information Agency quoted her as saying that she is not affiliated with the teachers progressive group. This claim could not be independently validated at presstime.
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