ARMM caps off Teachers' Day with medical mission

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Health workers on Monday served dozens of patients, including infants in a medical outreach that capped off the observance of Teachers’ Day in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The event, dubbed People’s Day, was a regular activity of the office of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman. Monday’s conduct of the mission, however, jibed with ARMM’s commemoration of the World Teachers’ Day.

“We also have our regional version of the global teachers’ day, the ARMM teachers’ day, held along with the People’s Day free health services to all, regardless of religions and tribal identities,” said John Magno, regional education secretary.

Teachers from different ARMM schools helped facilitate the mission at the parade ground of the 32-hectare regional government compound in Cotabato City.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said he is thankful to the regional education department for supporting Monday’s People’s Day, where doctors treated dozens of sick adults and children from Maguindanao and Cotabato City.

Magno and other officials of the Department of Education in the autonomous region officiated on Sunday night the first ever “Gawad Parangal” for retired teachers who had served in far-flung areas in ARMM.

The grant of awards to model retirees, a joint project of Magno and Hataman, was the first ever since the ARMM’s creation in 1990.

At least 45 retired teachers, five from each of ARMM’s nine public schools divisions, were honored with special citations during the Gawad Parangal event at a hotel in Cotabato City.

“We ought to thank these model teachers for having served and dedicated many years of their lives working in far-flung areas despite many challenges like security issues,” Magno said.