Lea Salonga reacts to DepEd’s stereotyping tattoos as a sign of violence

With the errors being discovered in DepEd’s learning modules, many have been reacting to the Department of Education’s missteps.

Recently, a specific question in a learning module made rounds on the internet. Reason? Because of how demeaning the answer for the controversial question was.

Lea Salonga posted on her Facebook page questioning the reason the DepEd module had a question asking if a tattoo symbolizes either being a criminal, a slave, or having a low status in society.

In her post she said: “Okay, someone would need to tell me if this thing is really ok’d by the DepEd. And if so, WHAT KIND OF BS IS THIS???”

She was infuriated by the author of the module who denigrated tattoos as being for criminals only. As a result, she considered getting a tattoo just to prove her point—having tattoos doesn’t make someone a lawbreaker.

“I am THISCLOSE to getting a tattoo, if only to prove a point,” she added. “Can someone upload a photo of the full, unedited sheet? That whole LETTER A thing covers the rest of it, and we need some context,” she said.

Having Tattoos Do Not Make Someone A Criminal

Tattoos in the Philippines are a part of history. Tattooed men called “Pintados” defeated and drove away the Spaniards who were trying to invade their land. The tattoos they wore were not mere decorations. They symbolized bravery, meant to intimidate and strike fear in the enemies.

Hardened mountain men from the tribes of Kalinga, Bontoc, and Ifugao also practice tattoo rituals or “pagbabatuk”. Like the Pintados, the tattoos that men from these tribes acquire meant bravery. For women, they were also allowed to get a tattoo which is believed to increase their beauty as well as their fertility.

Tattooing holds such an established value that survived for about 400 years under one of the largest and most oppressive colonial empires in history.

DepEd’s Continuous bloopers

The recent mistake of DepEd has been one in a series of errors.

Here, the owl was mistakenly identified as an ostrich.

The rabbit is spelled with the letter “L”.

Even a module which was printed in black and white asked students to identify the different colors.

Recently, Angel Locsin was also involved in the department’s number of bloopers. In a physical education module, Locsin was called ‘obese’.

Department’s lack of sympathy

With Rolly and Ulysses’ onslaught, it is understood that most children, especially in the affected areas would rather save their lives than their learning modules. Unfortunately, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones doesn’t know the word sympathy.

In her recent statement, she encouraged officials from schools affected by the two typhoons to find a way to save damaged modules. She suggested that the wet modules be ironed out or dried under the sun.

“Siguro hindi naman susulat ang superintendent na, ‘Basa ang module namin.’ Maghanap sila ng paraan. Siguro ibilad nila, ‘yong iba pinaplantsa,” Briones said.