ARMM guv orders probe into school fire, shutdown

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on Friday ordered an extensive probe on the burning of a school in Marawi City and the shutdown of another due to administrative squabbles by officials.

Three masked men reportedly set on fire last week a three-classroom building inside the campus of the Marawi Central Elementary School, where faculty members belonging to feudal Maranaw clans are locked in management disputes.

Hataman said he had also tasked regional education officials to look into the forced closure of the campus of the Sultan Cosain Naga Elementary School in Marawi City by another Maranaw clan after a member had been relieved as its principal.

“I want these people prosecuted to the fullest extent of law if results of investigation will warrant,” a visibly irked Hataman said.

Hataman described as “so alarming” the arson attack that razed a school building in Marawi City. He said he is expecting the ARMM’s Department of Education to report its findings before end of the month.

“Schools are very important in addressing the nagging illiteracy problems making Moro communities wallow in poverty and underdevelopment. We can’t take these incidents lightly,” Hataman said.

The Hataman administration had earlier delisted thousands of ghost teachers from old payrolls of the DepEd-ARMM, touted as the most corrupt agency in the region during the time of previous regional governors.

Hataman and his subordinate-education officials had also removed dozens of non-existent schools from the agency’s old list of academic institutions in the five ARMM provinces that regularly receive maintenance and operating funds from the regional coffer.