Angel Locsin has rarely been out of the limelight recently, due to her consistent efforts to extend aid to impaired or marginalized communities. Yet, despite her charities, judgmental people only ever seem to notice her weight gain.
And it hasn’t ended — a teacher from Abra de Ilog National High School in Occidental Mindoro deactivated his social media accounts after netizens identified him as the author of a now-viral distance learning module which spoke ill of the actress’ weight.
(photos from Facebook: Color Pink)
“SITUATION: Angel Locsin is an obese person. She, together with Coco Martin, eats fatty and sweet food in Mang Inasal fast food restaurant most of the time. In her house, she [is] always watching television and does not have any physical activities,” a page from the MAPEH module read. It then asked, “What do you think will happen to Angel if she continues her lifestyle?”
Despite the post garnering over 20,000 shares and reaching various social media channels, the actress didn’t bother to react to the derogatory statement.
That is, until the Department of Education issued their statement.
In the statement issued on November 14, the Department of Education-Occidental Mindoro raised that “the said material is not contained in the self-learning module (SLM) developed and quality assured by DepEd Central Office” and that it is only “a teacher-made assessment for a Grade 10 MAPEH class.”
“We would like to express our sincerest apology to the concerned individuals who may have been offended or harmed by this incident. The Department of Education does not tolerate nor condone any act of body shaming, ad hominem, or any similar act of bullying both in the physical and virtual environments,” the department added.
Yet, Angel didn’t find the apology befitting of the misdeed. In her counter on November 15, the actress disapproved of the Department of Education’s seemingly “unaffected” stance on the matter. In an Instagram post, she shared a photo of the statement, along with a caption that called out the department’s indifference.
“What bothers me most is apart from teaching incorrect grammar to the students, DepEd seems unaffected that the said teacher is teaching bad conduct and sowing discrimination among the children. Anong mangyayare sa future kung ang mga kabataan ay tinuturuan ng pambabastos at pangungutya sa kapwa?” Angel’s caption read.
She also insisted that the teacher himself apologize not to her, but to his students and all the other students who have read the module.
While it may have been published as an observation, the module is an opportune example of why teachers should be careful about teaching children how to discriminate by default, regardless if an observation is true or not. The context may be crucial, but that’s Angel’s business and no one else — besides, kindness and respect are even easier values to impart.
