With 50,000 members, the Department of Education National Employees' Union (DepEd-NEU) defended Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones, who is being pressured by some critics to resign.

“Secretary Briones should not be criticized because she and her management team are doing the best that they can to deliver education to learners in public elementary and high schools nationwide given the prevailing circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Johnny Balawag, chairperson of the National Board of Trustees (NBOT) of the DepEd-NEU,

For his part, lawyer Domingo B. Alidon, President of the DepEd-NEU said there is no leader or government that was prepared for this pandemic, which "caught all of us by surprise, even the education sector was caught flat footed.”

“Be that as it may, DepEd prepared as fast as it could what is called modular or virtual/online learning. Self-learning modules are carefully being studied by DepEd to be able to deliver learning to schoolchildren. The department has not stopped delivering basic education,” Alidon added.

“The public should not expect that the delivery of education could be perfect and smooth during this period. If that is what they are expecting, then, they are asking for the impossible,” he further said.

“We are amidst a crisis. Every one of us must contribute. We can not expect 100 percent performance from anyone,” Alidon stressed, “Even during normal times, we were not able to attain perfection. There will always loopholes and room for errors.”

The official lamented that even before the pandemic, there were "errata in books that had to be corrected.”

“While some self-learning modules may have imperfections, these are inadvertent and are corrected as soon as spotted,” he said.

"We can be free to criticize pero with the purpose of helping,” he added.