The Department of Education will immediately form a fact-finding committee to focus on the case of a slapping incident at Pe&ntilde;afrancia Elementary School in Antipolo City, involving a subject teacher, which led to the 14-year-old fifth-grade pupil&rsquo;s death.
In a report by RH 05 Val Gonzales, Child Protection Specialists of the Antipolo Schools Division Atty. Kelvin Matib made the statement alongside the investigation conducted into the incident that happened on September 20.
According to Matib, the fact-finding investigation will be composed of a three- to five-man team that comes from the central office, and as part of the investigation, the DepEd-Antipolo officials visited the school earlier.
The child protection specialist refused to provide more information on what was discussed during the meeting, and the DepEd officials of Antipolo halted giving information if their office would impose a preventive suspension on the involved teacher, Marisol Sison, due to the matter of confidentiality in the sensitive case.
As of the moment, the Antipolo City Police is preparing to file charges against Sison, such as homicide and violation of Republic Act 7610, or the Anti-Child Abuse Law.
In the initial investigation, the police reported that the 14-year-old victim, named Francis Jay Gumikib, was slapped after reporting his noisy classmates.
According to the victim&rsquo;s mother, Elena Minggoy, her son told her that Sison held his collar, pulled his hair, and delivered a slap on his face.
Gumikib was able to attend his classes for three days and was immediately rushed to the hospital as soon as he felt dizziness, headaches, and earaches.
After 11 days of being admitted to the hospital, he died due to a brain hemorrhage.

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DepEd to form fact-finding committee on pupil slapping case in Antipolo