KUDOS to Education Secretary Sonny Angara for leading the Department of Education to enter a partnership with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to provide free legal aid and assistance to its public school teachers and administrative personnel. This is aligned with the right to free legal service guaranteed by the Education Act, or Batas Pambansa Bilang 232, to public-school personnel when charged in an administrative, civil or criminal proceeding by parties other than the department itself for actions committed directly in the lawful discharge of professional duties or in defense of school policies. The importance of the role of teachers in the lives of learners cannot be overemphasized and hence the need for its preservation. In fact, teachers and school personnel are deemed by law as persons in authority while in the discharge of lawful duties and responsibilities, and shall, therefore, be accorded due respect and protection. Any person or persons who shall employ force or intimidation or shall attack, or seriously intimidate school personnel while engaged in the performance of official duties, or on occasion of such performance, shall be liable for the crime of direct assault under the Revised Penal Code. This was further strengthened in People v. Balbar, where the Supreme Court held that teachers as persons in authority is a matter of law and not of fact, thus, ignorance whereof could not absolve one of the crime of direct assault. That's how important teachers are!

The legal aid accessible to more or less 800,000 public school teachers would greatly boost their morale, especially where the promotion of child protection has been unduly weaponized by some parents in filing unfounded child abuse charges, on not a few occasions, against helpless public-school teachers, whose role on child discipline has always been unpopular. Certainly, the legal aid from the IBP would create more awareness for both teachers and parents on the extent of their authority in loco parentis over the discipline of child-learners as well as their limitations and culpabilities under various laws.