Lea Salonga alarmed over tattoo question found in alleged DepEd module

On Tuesday, November 17, a dismayed Lea Salonga posted on Facebook a photo of a page of a learning module allegedly released by the Department of Education (DepEd). She pointed out and questioned a specific question by encircling it.

“Okay, someone would need to tell me if this thing is really ok'd by the DepEd. And if so, what kind of BS is this?” she wrote on her Timeline.

The said question asks, “Ang tattoo ay simbolo ng?” with choices being the following: A) pagiging kriminal, B) pagkaalipin, C) kagitingan at kagandahan, or D) pagiging mababa ng katayuan sa lipunan.

Lea also translated the question in English for her non-Filipino friends and fans.

According to the photo, the right answer indicated in the module was "A) pagiging kriminal.”

This led the international theater actress to add, “I am this close to getting a tattoo if only to prove a point.”

She also asked her fans and friends who have the module to send her or post the original page in order to get the full context of the statement in question.

“Can someone upload a photo of the full, unedited sheet? That whole letter A thing covers the rest of it, and we need some context.”

The post has so far received more than 8,000 reactions and shares on the social media site.

Based on history, tattoos are a very prominent feature among pre-colonial tribes in the Philippines because it acts as a corporal roadmap to where a person stands within the ethnic group.

It also acts as a protective charm or medal for warriors and a symbol of beauty and fertility for women.

The first documentation of Philippine tattoo art can be found in the Boxer Codex, also known as the Manila Manuscript, written in the 1590s by the Spaniards. It contains illustrations of the different ethnic tribes within the archipelago.

This is not the first time a celebrity criticized a self-learning module.

Previously, director Joey Reyes was irked to see a module asking students to identify hugot lines from different movies.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, schools, both public and private, have implemented the distance learning approach where teachers and students interact remotely during instruction.

The distance learning approach uses self-learning materials or printed learning modules, similar to the one that Lea Salonga posted on her Facebook account.