School supervisors back Angtud

CEBU, Philippines — Several public schools district supervisors have stood up to counter the request of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP)-Cebu chapter to oust the province's schools division superintendent Dr. Rhea Mar Angtud.

The supervisors drafted a written communication addressed to DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones appealing to her to let Angtud stay in her position.

"We are writing this letter to register or vehemently object the request of the municipal mayors' league of the province of Cebu," read part of the letter dated June 21.

The supervisors showed their solidarity by affixing voluntarily their signatures.

LMP-Cebu chapter earlier released a resolution seeking Briones' authority to transfer Angtud outside the province because of her bad relations with the mayors.

For the district supervisors, the strongly worded statements from the resolution are rather "deceptive" and "unmeritorious."

"Upon perusal of such resolution, we found out that such request is without any basis, very deceptive and unmeritorious," they wrote.

They cited there is no verified or formal complaint filed against Angtud from any of the 44 municipalities in Cebu.

"Such request is only being made due to the vested interests of the selected few," they said.

Angtud, in an earlier interview, believed that the resolution was brought about because of political motivations.

 She could only recall of one instance when a mayor got mad because her office did not heed the official's request as it was contrary to DepEd rules and guidelines.

Local school authorities from district supervisors to principals and teachers also pushed for a joint resolution countering point-by-point the statements made by the LMP so as to support their appeal to Briones to keep Angtud in her present position.

In the three page letter, they cited that the league's statements were only based on "malicious" grounds, questioning the "bias, animosity and the speculative, if not deceptive, or misleading" arguments from the league.

If Angtud has low morale and wanting of leadership, they said this allegation is without any basis, pure hearsay, mere "invention or hallucination" since Angtud is a superintendent eligible holding the rank of Career Executive Service Officer VI that could speak of her leadership competency and integrity.

LMP said Angtud failed to establish harmonious relationships with the mayors and lacks coordination with them regarding DepEd activities and infrastructure projects.

The letter cited that recommendations from mayors may not be accommodated because DepEd follows certain rules and policies. It added that local government units, through the municipal engineers, are also consulted on school building projects.

The league said Angtud is playing favorites and rejecting the requests of nursing mothers.

School authorities and teachers, on the other hand, consider this allegation as scandalous and is rather intended to malign Angtud's reputation.

They pointed out that certain criteria are observed of teachers' competitive ranking and not just follow recommendations of local officials that may be tainted with politics, accommodating only their supporters.

LMP said Angtud demonstrated lack of respect to the municipal mayors due to her failure to coordinate on DepEd's projects and programs.

School authorities said this statement is only an assumption since district supervisors, principals and teachers never received any complaint from the mayors questioning Angtud's performance or delivery of services.

They said personnel from DepEd Cebu province could attest the integrity and uprightness of Angtud.

"...since the assumption of Dr. Rhea Mar Angtud, she initiated or implemented the cleansing of the organization in correcting issues on squatting of positions, teachers with fake PRC license and transcript of records, strict observance on the submission of liquidation documents based on COA rules, and many others," they wrote.  —  MBG (FREEMAN)