87 days after PENINSULA MONITOR wrote Camarines Sur Schools Division Supt. Emma I. Cornejo on September 11, 2007 inquiring on the result of the investigation she had ordered to be conducted in the case of a married schoolteacher who allegedly impregnated a student the office of the Schools Superintendent finally responded on December 7, 2007.
But the clumsy answer could lead to much bigger trouble not only for the erring teacher but Division DepEd officials themselves who could he charged criminally and administratively for glaringly suppressing the truth and covering up for the schoolteacher who created a scandal that has rocked the whole community and reached even Education Secretary Jesli Lapus.
PENINSULA MONITOR lawyers are studying the possible filing of criminal and administrative cases before the Ombudsman against all DepEd officials who exerted effort to cover up the misdeed.
The answer signed by Eufrosina P. Sabando, assistant schools division superintendent, virtually cleared schoolteacher Gener Versoza of any wrongdoing and described the scandal as “hearsay”.
It was accompanied by an affidavit of Catherine Huit, a student of Guijalo High School who graduated last March reportedly already pregnant, who claimed Gener Versoza is not the father of her child.
‘If Versoza is not the father and Catherine, would not tell who, did the child just come out by itself?”, teachers sarcastically asked.
Versoza had reportedly earlier entered into a private agreement with the girl and her mother witnessed by a town official that he would provide support for her and the child in the amount of P1,500 a month, and the impoverished family obviously thinking it was better than getting nothing at all agreed.
The affidavit of Catherine Huit was thus anticipated as a ploy by Versoza. But the investigating team had not at all interrogated Versoza even as he blamed fellow teachers for talking about a “personal matter” about him and reporting his case to the superintendent.
A copy of the minutes of the meeting showed that investigating team led by one, Luz Prades, said to be area supervisor, did not at all do anything to ferret out the truth but instead suppress it to the detriment of the school system in the province which now appears to tolerate and even encourage misconduct and immorality among schoolteachers.
The investigating team did not actually investigate but held a meeting with the Guijalo High School faculty on September 5, 2007 which Prades started with the statement that they group was there “to settle the problem in Guijalo High School”, referring to the Versoza scandal, “not to add fire but to extinguish it”.
The minutes of the meeting also showed that Guijalo High School principal Candida Breis and PTCA president Francisco Purisima had written Supt. Cornejo regarding the scandal and that even the parish priest showed deep concern over the incident after some faculty members had informed him of what happened. Breis was even summoned to the Division Office before Prades’ group went to Caramoan.
No affidavits by the complaining teachers or even the PTCA president were produced by the investigators.
The minutes also showed that some teachers directly texted several times the PENINSULA
MONITOR, a matter which the investigating team deplored.
“We have to protect each other as professionals”, a portion of the minutes read indicating that misdeeds and wrongdoings including immorality should be concealed from the public.
In the same meeting Versoza also expressed dismay that teachers were talking about his case which he said is a “personal matter” indicating that he did not seem to realize the damage done to the school.
The scandal blew up all the more after another teacher in the same school was reported
also involved in a similar case with a student at almost the same time as Versoza. The other teacher who happened to be a widower, however, married the girl but the relationship started while the girl was still student and a minor at the time.
The DepEd response to the PENINSULA MONITOR query came just as broadcast media reported charges were being readied against the DepEd superintendent for failure
to answer a legitimate inquiry which is punishable under Republic Act 6713 which mandates government offices to answer within 15 days queries
from the public.
The DepEd Division Office had apparently deliberately ignored the PENINSULA MONITOR in order to try to hide its glaring tolerance of the scandal, it was observed.
DepEd Regional Director Celedonio Layon, Jr. had endorsed two PENINSULA MONITOR letters to Supt. Cornejo three times on September 24, 2007, October 2, 2007 and on October 10, 2007.
On October 9, 2007, OIC Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs Macur D. Marohombsar endorsed to Director Layon the second letter of the PENINSULA MONITOR but still Supt. Cornejo did not respond until several radio stations took turns in warning the Division Office of the impending case.
With the new development indicating a serious lapse on the part of DepEd officials in the province, the Guijalo High School scandal has blown up to difficult proportions, PENINSULA MONITOR lawyers said.
