For pushing Grade 6 pupil , principal in Cebu ordered suspended

CEBU CITY – A principal of a public school in Carcar City in southern Cebu has been ordered suspended for a month for pushing a Grade 6 pupil who came in late for a school activity in 2014.

The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas found Mary Jane Powao, principal of the Carcar Elementary School in Carcar City, about 40 kilometers south of here, guilty of simple misconduct.

The anti-graft office directed the regional director of the Department of Education in Central Visayas to implement the penalty against Powao.

In her counter-affidavit, Powao denied hitting the boy, although she admitted that she held him and another boy by the shoulder and hurled them to the side.

Her admission of pushing the two students, the Ombudsman said, was enough to hold her liable of simple misconduct.

“Assessing the factual antecedents, it is clear that respondent was actually inflicting corporal punishment on complainant for she hurled and/or pushed complainant after the latter arrived late,” said graft investigation and prosecution officer Mona Chica Cabanes-Gillamac in her decision dated Nov. 2, 2015. It was only approved by Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Paul Elmer Clemente on Feb. 4.