DepEd-ARMM suspends services over complaints

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur: The Department of Education of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao ( DepEd- ARMM) temporarily suspended its services after visitors disrupted operations in its regional office in Cotabato City on Monday morning. Reports reaching The

ManilaTimes said walk- in visitors to the DepEdARMM regional office harassed agency officials as they questioned alleged irregularities in the appointment of teachers.

The complainants accused the officials of appointing “unqualified teachers” facilitated by “fixers.”

The DepEd-ARMM released about two weeks ago the appointments of new teachers.

Rasol Mitmug Jr., DepEdARMM regional secretary, said in a statement, “We would like to advise our clients to behave accordingly when doing transactions with our offices and personnel.” Mitmug said they were aware of the presence of “fixers” at their regional office. “We encourage our clients to transact directly with us — not through these fixers as this may invalidate their transactions, including applications with us,” he added.

He said, “should there be issues on your transactions with us, please file a report with the Action Center for Education.

“Lastly, we do not tolerate threats or harassments from our walk-in visitors. The Office of the Regional DepEd-ARMM Secretary is seriously looking into this incident. We will be working closely with proper authorities to address this issue and will take legal actions against the perpetrators,” Mitmug said.

He then apologized for any inconvenience that the incident had caused. “Please wait for further notice on the resumption of our services,” he said.