MANILA - A teacher who supposedly ordered his grade school students to campaign for presidential candidates has apologized for his actions, the Department of Education said.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the teacher at Majayjay Elementary School already apologized, following an assignment to Grade 5 students to make a video campaigning for presidential bets.

This is against a 2018 department order which prohibits electioneering and partisan political activity among its employees.

"No officer or employee in the civil service shall engage, directly or indirectly, in any electioneering or partisan political campaigning," the Department Order said.

Article II of DepEd's Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers also says that a teacher "shall not use his position or facial authority or influence to coerce any other person to follow any political course of action."

"He submitted a written explanation and apology," Briones told ABS-CBN News in a text message.

ABS-CBN News also sought the teacher's comment but was yet to receive a reply, as of writing.

At least one of the posts said the videos were made for the students' Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan or Home and Livelihood Education subject. It was however unclear whether the students were instructed to make videos to specifically promote Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos.

The original posts have since been hidden or deleted.

Majayjay Elementary School also said it immediately acted upon the incident and that such incident would not happen again.

"Nagkaroon na rin po ng pagsangguni sa nakatataas sa ating departamento. Umasa po kayo na hindi na mauulit ang bagay na ito," the school told ABS-CBN News in a Facebook message.

"Sinisiguro po na magiging maingat na po sa pagbibigay ng mga activities sa bata ang ating mga guro."

(We already had discussions and consultations with higher departments. Rest assured that this incident would not happen again. We will ensure that all activities for learners would be appropriate.)

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