Graduation rites for Iligan City school suspended due to teachers’ kidnapping

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines – The city school board has decided to put on hold the graduation rites for 20 elementary pupils of the Limonsodan Bayug Falls Elementary School in Barangay (village) Rogongon here due to the unresolved kidnapping of two of the school’s five teachers.

Councilor Ariel Anghay, chair of the committee on education and member of the city school board, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the school might eventually be shut down as teachers have been fearing for their lives.

The elementary school is being financed by the city school board and the school board decides on some of its affairs.

Already, a plan to put up a high school there had been scrapped due to Monday’s kidnapping of teachers Keno Sanchez, 24, and Rene Sumagang, 27, he said.

Anghay said the graduation rites, originally scheduled for March 30, would still be held but the date was still uncertain as of Wednesday.

Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city government would not pay ransom to the kidnappers, who demanded P4 million for the release of the teachers.

He instead urged them to release the victims, “who were only trying to serve the community.”

Superintendent Celso Regencia, city police director, said a rescue operation was ongoing, as of Wednesday.

He said security forces tasked to rescue the victims have been working in the towns of Pantar, Kapai and Tagoloan II in Lanao del Sur where the victims were believed to have been brought.

These are the same areas where Managao Malana Elias, also known as Commander Ayatollah, operates, according to Regencia.

Elias, a former Moro rebel, has been into illegal logging but the logging ban in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Sendong resulted in the loss of his livelihood, he said.

“He is financially problematic,” Anghay agreed.