Vultures at DepEd

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The sights in Alaminos City, as seen on TV lately, were heart wrenching.
An older brother Lyndon Milan mowed with his M-16 assault rifle and a single shot from his .45 caliber pistol a younger brother police Supt. Lloyd Milan and his wife Cherryl.
Then the remains of the victims were seen being shipped to the southern province of the country Surigao, the home province of Cherryl.
The dead Milans’ 13 year-old eldest son told the TV reporter that his father’s mother, sisters, and brothers conspired to kill his father.
Lyndon used to be my co-faculty in college. We had some warm chit-chat at the City Hall of Alaminos, where he worked, a week before the carnage without me knowing the gruesome incidents that await a week later.
The kin of his father did not show-up during the entire wake.
A “distressed” Mayor Nani Braganza quipped how Alaminos City lost a first potential general in Colonel Milan.
The slain police officer was a graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy.
His and his wife’s death, according to my source, started when his parents’ fishpond was mortgaged to him.
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If you enter the office of Assistant Superintendent Dr. Shiela Marie Sison-Primicias , you will see three columns of pictures on a long bond paper posted at the glass window of her office for all to see.
Column 1 is about two dirty comfort rooms in her division office called Pangasinan-1 in Lingayen, Pangasinan.
Column 2 is a photo of a refurbished well-tiled spic –and-span comfort rooms after the old comfort rooms in Column 1 were renovated by Dr. Primicias in her 36-day brief stint as OIC superintendent of Pangasinan-1.
This after Dr. Aurora Domingo, Superintendent of the Division, went for a two-month vacation in the U.S.
What infuriated Dr. Primicias and those who dropped at her office were the photos at Column 3.
All of those tens of thousands of pesos worth of renovated comfort rooms in Column 2 were in rubbles as if they were bombed by the NATO forces in Libya.
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The person responsible for this demolition should be sued with criminal acts. This is not only Malicious Mischief. This is taxpayers’ money that went down the drain because of stupidity.
As you know there is internal “squabbling” among Dr. Domingo, Dr. Danny Sison, Dr. Primicias.
Kung sino man sa inyo ang nag-utos na ipa-demolish iyan dahil mi mga away kayo diyan, sana naman iniisip niyo na ang dinamay niyo ay government funded project.
Managot kayo!
I am calling the attention of DepEd. Secretary Ermin Luistro, Governor Amado T. Espino, and chairman of Education Committee (and the saving grace of the provincial board) Board Member Ming Rosario to investigate and mete penalties on those who were involved on the outrageous acts there.
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The names for new positions for teachers given by Sec. Luistro to Dep Ed ­are now mostly coursed through congressmen instead of the division offices of the education department.
This new policy is to avoid corrupt division superintendents who sell these new items to willing teacher applicants.
According to my source, Dep Ed central office finds it safe against corruption- hold your breath -to give these quotas to congressmen.
My other source told me that a school superintendent could sell each item up to P135 thousand to P150 thousand for an applicant.
But if it is given to a solon, the lawmakers would just give it to the son or daughter of his supporter who are board passer and who are included on the rank’s lists of principals.
He said that bigwigs at DepEd central office know that these applicant- protégée of the solons are not fleeced — even if they are listed at the bottom part of the ranking of their application.
Under the” Matuwid na Daan (Straight Path)” of President Benigno Aquino, Jr., a congressman is given up to 50 quota while a superintendent is given only a measly ten quota for new positions.
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A division that covers up to four congressional districts is given up to 200 new positions through the lawmakers.
A lowest rank public school teacher now receives P19 thousand a month pay.
With a bill now being deliberated in congress, this amount would balloon to P32 thousand a month, according to a high ranking education official.
With a handsome sums dangled to would be applicant in the public school, vultures like these superintendents and principals proliferate.
(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).