DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The public official who allegedly threatened a faculty member of Ateneo de Davao University over his son’s failing grade denied such allegation.
Remlani Tambuang, regional director of the Commission on Elections in Region XI held a press conference Friday to air his side on the incident. In his statement, he denied issuing the threats written by the university, nor did he drew a gun at the professor who gave his son a failing grade.
“I was prejudged and maligned by the people. No solid evidence was presented to support their allegations,” Tambuang said.
He said he went to Ateneo on March 15 to seek a meeting with this teacher, whom he identified as Mr. Pancho, but was made to wait for five hours from 3 pm to 8pm.
Tambuang said he went back to Ateneo on March 20 and sought School of Arts and Science Dean Reynante Pilapil and Assistant Dean Nelly Limbadan to help arrange a meeting with Mr. Pancho.
In his meeting with Mr. Pancho, Tambuang admitted to getting emotional after the professor could not present documents to prove why his son had a failing grade.
“At this point, I got emotional being a father. I imagine the pain my son was experiencing,” Tambuang said, pointing out his son studied all his life in Ateneo.
“(My son) told me comments about the teacher’s way of teaching and cannot explain why he failed. He informed me that he even passed the first and second grading but only failed in the third grading,” Tambuang added.
But the university reported that Tambuang made threats. The Ateneo security team filed a police blotter at Santa Ana Police Station saying Deans Pilapil and Limbadan confirmed threats were raised by Tambuang during the meeting.
The threats forced Ateneo de Davao Vice President Jeremy Eliab to issue a “Code Black” to alert security that an Ateneo personnel was under threat.
In the blotter, Tambuang was heard by Ateneo security saying: “Ano problema dito, bakit maraming guard? Hindi naman ako ganun ka criminal. Hindi niyo ba alam na ako ang director ng Comelec? Baka gusto niyo hindi bigyan ng firearms exemption ang Dasia?” the director was quoted saying to them. (Do we have a problem here? Why so many guards? I’m not a criminal. Don’t you know I’m the director of the Comelec? Do you want that I’ll refuse to give firearms exemption to DASIA?).”
The Comelec director was accompanied by his sister Walina Tambuang and a bodyguard.
The AdDU administration said they would pursue legal actions against Tambuang, pointing out that Tambuang also acted as “public official who is expected to be an exemplar for the rest of society.” (davaotoday.com)
