DAVAO CITY — A failing grade. An angry parent. A school scandalized. An election official brandishing his position.

The Jesuit-run Ateneo de Davao University (Addu) confirmed alleged threats made by the director of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Southern Mindanao in connection with the failing grade that one teacher gave his son.

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But lawyer Remlane Tambuang, Comelec Southern Mindanao director, denied making any threat.

Addu security guards made a report on the incident. The Inquirer got hold of a copy.

Looking for teacher

The guards’ report said Tambuang went to Addu looking for his son’s teacher, who gave the failing grade that would exclude the son from graduation.

Accompanied by his sister, Walina, and a bodyguard, Tambuang made more threatening remarks as he left the School of Arts and Sciences after failing to find the subject of his ire, the teacher, said the guards’ report. The teacher had not been identified.

It said Tambuang was pissed when he saw at least 10 security guards responding to “Code Black,” which meant a personal threat made against a member of Addu’s faculty.

“What’s your problem here?” the report quoted Tambuang as saying. “Why are there so many guards?”

Comelec powers

“I am not a criminal. Don’t you know that I am the director of Comelec?” Tambuang was quoted by the report as saying.

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“Do you want me not to give Dasia any firearms exemption?” Tambuang added, according to the guards’ report. Dasia referred to the security agency serving Addu. Carrying of firearms during election periods needs Comelec exemption.

Two deans also reported hearing Tambuang make another threat.

“Don’t you know that we are a family of lawyers and we are also a family of killers?” Tambuang was quoted as saying.

In a statement read on his behalf by lawyer Allan Kadon, Tambuang denied threatening anybody.

Unusual

“To make things clear, I would just like to say that I went to Addu as a parent, who has a son, and not as a lawyer or a public official for that matter,” he said.

Tambuang said his son had told him about getting a failing mark that would prevent him from graduating.

The Comelec official said he went to Addu to clarify things because it was the first time his son got a failing grade.

But the teacher who gave his son a failing mark would not face him.

Tambuang insisted he did not threaten anyone.

“I would like to reiterate there was no threat committed to (sic) anyone. It was a false media statement that blew (sic) out of proportion. Still, with all honesty and sincerity, I apologize to anyone who may have been hurt because of this unfortunate incident especially to my children. I never made (sic) any wrongdoing, I was there only to ensure and protect the interest of my son,” he said.

Fr. Joel Tabora, Addu president, said Tambuang’s remarks were “reprehensible” and “clearly intended to intimidate.”

Common, but…

He said complaints against grades were not unusual, though. “This is all too common during this time of the year,” said Tabora.

But Tabora said Addu had procedures through which complaints against grades may be coursed and a body that tackles this type of complaints.

Parents, said Tabora, were discouraged from intervening on behalf of their children because it would “only detract from the objective of teaching a child how to stand on his or her own feet.”

But when a parent makes threatening remarks, the school “takes it seriously,” said Tabora.

“All the more so when said parent is a public official,” he said.

“Especially when said public official is also a member of the Philippine Bar where public displays of arrogant intimidation such as this one rightfully deserve sanctions,” said Tabora, referring to Tambuang.

Tabora said the university was “taking necessary steps and coordinating with appropriate officials” to file charges against Tambuang.

“Parental bullying based on public office or on one’s legal profession has no place at Addu nor in any school, public or private, in the Philippines,” he added. —Reports from Allan Nawal and Joselle Badilla

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