Army to tap villagers as teachers’ guards

MEMBERS of the Higaonon tribal community gather outside their school in Rogongon, a remote village in Iligan City where teachers refuse to report for work out of fear of being abducted by a group of bandits. RICHEL V. UMEL/INQUIRER MINDANAO

ILIGAN CITY—The Army is planning to recruit residents of a remote village here as militiamen to help secure teachers who have been traumatized by the abduction of two of their colleagues last March and are reluctant to return to their schools.

Fear of being abducted lingered in the village after two teachers were snatched last March by an armed group led by a certain Mangagao Elias, also known as Ayatullah.

The two teachers—Keno Sanchez and Rene Sumagang—had been released since but their ordeal has traumatized their colleagues, according to Deogenisa Abungan, principal of the Limunsudan Bayug Falls Elementary School in Rigongon, a village of mostly Higaonons and Maranaws.

Abungan said the opening of classes came a day late in the village because of security concerns. “We lack teachers. I myself now teach Grades 5 and 6,” said Abungan.

Sanchez and Sumaganga, the two teachers who had been snatched, refused to return to work. Other teachers, according to Abungan, are afraid, too, and are reluctant to accept assignment to the village.

Col. Ricardo Jalad, the local Army commander, said soldiers were deployed to Rigongon to secure teachers.

“This will go on until such time that we are able to train residents to become members of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu),” said Jalad.

Randolph Tortola, city schools division superintendent, said teachers who refuse to be assigned to Rigongon will be replaced with those willing to teach in the village.

“We have a lot of available new teachers, who are more than willing to teach in Rigongon,” Tortola said.

He said the Department of Education plans to hire new teachers from nearby areas such as Talakag in Bukidnon. Although Rigongon belongs to Iligan, it is geographically closer to Talakag.

Tortola said the threat posed by Ayatullah’s group should not discourage parents from sending their children to school. Richel Umel, Inquirer Mindanao