KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/26 June) – At least 140 public school teachers who fled Marawi City after fighting erupted there have remained unaccounted for, an education official said.
The Marawi City schools division has 1,413 teachers, and around 90 percent of them have already been accounted for, said Ana Zenaida Unte, assistant schools division superintendent of Marawi.
She said the remaining 10 percent might have gone to areas outside the Lanao provinces.
Since May 23 when the fighting started these teachers have not reported to them, she said in a radio interview on Monday.
Unte, however, clarified that none oftheir teachers were trapped in Marawi.
“No teacher is missing, none, so far, based on the reports. But we continue to track them,” she sai
d.
She said she has yet to confirm reports that at least 145 of their teachers are in Davao del Sur and Davao City.
She said she learned that Rosmia Pandapatan, one of their teachers, now teaches in a public school in Davao City.
“Aside from Ms Pandapatan, wala na akong alam (I know nothing more). That is why we have to verify the reports that some of our teachers have gone to Davao del Sur,” she added.
Unte said their teachers were still receiving their regular pay through their automated teller machine cards, she said.
She, however, suggested to DepEd in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that the teachers’ salaries should be paid in checks “so that we can confirm the warm bodies.”
Should DepEd agree to this, Unte said the teachers may get their checks at their temporary coordinating spaces at the Iligan City Central Elementary School and in Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)
