Blast rocks house of DepEd exec

COTABATO CITY — A grenade explosion rocked the house here of the officer-in-charge of the Department of Education (DepEd) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) before dawn yesterday.

No one was hurt but the blast damaged the red Nissan Frontier of regional DepEd officer-in-charge Leovigilda Cinches.

Cinches’ husband, Silvino, is the Central Mindanao director of the National Bureau of Investigation.

The attack occurred about a month after the ARMM Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) asked Cinches to shed light, during a legislative inquiry, on the unremitted contributions of thousands of teachers to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

In a report, the police said a motorcycle-riding man was seen in the vicinity of Cinches’ residence, located near the city engineer’s office, before the blast.

The regional DepEd has long been the subject of controversies because of teachers’ complaints about the non-remittance of their GSIS contributions and the non-payment of their salaries and fringe benefits.

ARMM Gov. Parouk Hussin, who is helping oversee the operations of the regional DepEd, earlier said his administration merely inherited the problem from past regional administrations.

Last month, the 24-member RLA, in an inquiry, revealed that GSIS contributions of ARMM teachers amounting to some P60 million have not been remitted.