DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 23 March) – “I never made any wrongdoing, I was there only to protect the interest of my son.”
So said Commission on Elections (COMELEC) 11 regional director Remlane M. Tambuang in a statement Friday, denying the allegation that he threatened a professor of the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) for giving his son, a graduating student, a failing mark.
“I am now speaking against the false accusations against me. This fake news has deeply affected my reputation and also of my children,” he said of the news report who accused him of threatening the teacher with a gun.
He said they subjected themselves to the security protocol when he and his companions entered the campus.
Fr. Joel S. Tabora, ADDU president, also denied in a statement Thursday that Tambuang and his companions brought a firearm inside the school campus upon reviewing the CCTV and conducted interviews.
Tambuang said that last March 14, he immediately went home from receiving a call from his crying son who told him that he could not graduate this semester due to his failing mark and complained of the professor’s way of teaching.
“He told me comments about the teacher’s way of teaching, and he himself did not see and cannot explain why he failed. He informed me that he even passed the first and second grading but only failed the third grading,” he said.
The following day, March 15, Tambuang said he went to the university to clarify his child’s grade with the teacher in a conference. He claimed he waited five hours but the teacher allegedly did not show up.
He said that he returned to the school five days later and sought help from the dean’s office “having the fear that the teacher will continue to evade me.”
Tambuang said he g
ot emotional as a father when the professor could not present the test papers and attendance sheets that he requested him to show to justify the failing mark his son received.
“I could not imagine the pain of my son was experiencing at the moment. Since grade school up to now, my son is a true-blooded Atenean. He was looking forward to this graduation day,” he said.
Tambuang said he did not threaten the teacher even if he denied him of his request.
“I categorically deny that I said, ‘We are a family of lawyers and family of killers!’ I cannot possibly say that to the prestigious institution whom I trusted to mold my children,” he said.
On Thursday, ADDU president Tabora said his remarks were reprehensible and intimidating for a lawyer and a public official, that the university takes seriously about.
He said the parent appeared in the school accompanied with relatives and body guards, “brandishing statements like ‘we are a family of lawyers and killers!’ or ‘we can take down the school.”
“The incident, however, was nonetheless reprehensible insofar as statements were made that were clearly intended to intimidate and where no actual gun at hand was necessary to be intimidating. These statements have legal consequences the party/ies affected are currently looking into,” Tabora said.
Tambuang, however, apologized to the parties who may have been hurt “because of this unfortunate incident especially to my children.
“I am in public service for 21 years. Not a single criminal case, administrative case, or civil case was filed against me. My record will speak for itself,” he added. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
