ARMM tutors seek GMA help on ‘missing’ GSIS contributions

COTABATO CITY — Thousands of public school teachers in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao abandoned their classes and took to the streets yesterday, urging President Arroyo to help them account for their "missing" P396-million contributions to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Officials of the Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DepEd-ARMM), refused to say anything about the controversy.

It was the DepEd-ARMM which deducted the GSIS contributions from the teachers’ salaries. However, the deductions have not been remitted to the GSIS, prompting the agency to suspend the release of the ARMM teachers’ benefits for two years now.

One of the rally organizers, Datu Tucao Mastura, mayor of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, said he himself is virtually confused why, until now, the national government has been silent on the issue.

"We have submitted to concerned national agencies very valid documents (on) the massive irregularities that could have led to the mysterious disappearance of the (GSIS) premiums deducted from the salaries of the teachers in the past years, but until now, we have not seen any action from these agencies," Mastura told reporters.

In a statement last week, ARMM teachers urged Mrs. Arroyo to order an investigation into their missing P396-million GSIS contributions before the scheduled Aug. 8 regional elections.

Members of the Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) confirmed to The STAR that the region’s public school teachers would not perform election duties if the central offices of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Commission on Audit and Malacañang would not intervene immediately.

In a caucus last week, members of the RLA’s minority bloc, led by Tawi-Tawi Assemblyman Ismael Abubakar Jr., vowed support for the thousands of affected teachers.

As of March 18 last year, the DepEd-ARMM’s obligation to the GSIS had reached P970 million. This prompted ARMM Gov. Parouk Hussin to sign a memorandum of agreement with the DBM and the GSIS, allowing the national government to immediately deduct contributions before funds for salaries are released to the regional government.

Under this scheme, the DepEd-ARMM’s total obligation to the GSIS has been reduced by P396 million.

"Where has the P396 million gone? Who is to be blamed for the problem now besetting the regional education department?" asked members of the RLA’s minority bloc in a statement.

But Hussin, in a paid statement published last Saturday in the Mindanao Cross, a local weekly Catholic newspaper, said his administration merely inherited the DepEd-ARMM’s problems.

"This problem already existed when we assumed governance of the ARMM. We are victims of the failure of our predecessors to do their duties," Hussin said.