Clearing Claire Castro

By Herbert Vego

WHY did the ACT Teachers Party-list denounce Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro?

It’s for her “illogical, disrespectful, and reckless tirade” against teachers, according to Rep. Antonio Tinio.

Here’s what Atty. Castro had said in her press briefing at Malacañang Palace on Aug. 18, 2026:

“Minsan na po nating nakita, mismong ang ibang mga guro, ay lumalabag sa ganitong klase ng moralidad. Sila minsan ang nagtuturo sa kanilang mga estudyante kung paano maging walang modo, lalong-lalo na sa mga nakatatanda o sa ibang mga tao.”

To translate it into English, “There have already been instances where some teachers themselves violate this kind of morality, where at times they themselves teach their students disrespect, especially toward elders or other people.”

The ACT leadership found that statement offensive to teachers in the wake of a shooting incident that killed two students at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Junior High School.

The shooting took place Tuesday morning after a Grade 9 student fired at a teacher inside a classroom but missed. He then shot and killed a Grade 10 student on the fourth floor of the building before moving to the fifth floor, where he took his own life.

This writer thinks Atty. Castro was even sympathetic to the missed target, a teacher. She was just expressing a general sentiment on the failure of parents to heed Christian instruction on child-rearing as written in the Bible (Proverbs 22:6), which says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, so that when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Teachers are considered “second parents” of their students.

In fairness, it is no joke transforming our children into responsible adults. Telling them what to do differs from showing them how.

I remember that in our childhood, my late brother Efren and I were the favorite errand boys of our dad, who would often ask us to buy him cigarettes. Ironically, he would also advise us not to take up the same vice.

Alas, it only aroused our curiosity to try smoking when our father was not looking. While I managed to resist addiction, Efren got hooked and kept on smoking for the rest of his 62-year life.

The transition to adulthood inspires a mix of excitement and anxiety. There is excitement in taking steps to realize emerging dreams, aspirations, and possibilities. Yet there is anxiety in making result-oriented moves.

Most of us who are now parents have lived through those anxieties and are now in a position to convince our kids that they, too, will survive the same transition. For the privileged youth of this country, things may end up well. They graduate, find employment, or go into business to chart a destiny.

Nevertheless, that transition is never an automatic or uncomplicated process. Kids, no matter their background and family financial status, need a set of basic connections to help them navigate adolescence. They need the guidance, time, and often the financial help of a stable, secure family.

Unfortunately, many young people lack the resources and support they need. Most children of the poor enroll in grade school, but very few enter and finish college, thus missing the skills, experience, education, and confidence needed for a successful transition to adulthood.

Meanwhile, their chances of becoming decent adolescents grow smaller, while their chances of turning to crime for survival grow bigger.

Most of them will continue living in high-poverty, low-resourced communities. Perhaps most discouraging, with diminished opportunities to build economic security, they will be considerably less likely to become stable providers for their own kids.

Gone are the days when a high school diploma was sufficient to obtain a job that could support a family. Today, high school completion is the minimum entry credential for employment as a “gasoline boy” or gas-station attendant.

Were our own parents better educated in their time?

In the 1950s, our colleges offered a two-year ETC course (Elementary Teachers’ Certificate), which enabled graduates to teach in elementary schools. My late mother Alicia, one of the course’s successful graduates, spent all her working life teaching in our public elementary school.

In contrast, while I was taking up a four-year journalism course, I noticed that most of my classmates could not write a simple news story. I knew they would end up as nonjournalists after graduation.

The clarion call of the moment is to review our “Good Manners and Right Conduct,” or GMRC, which has returned to our basic K-12 curriculum under Republic Act No. 11476.