Ten Marawi DepEd employees sanctioned for absence from work

MARAWI CITY -- The education department dismissed on Tuesday as illegal the salary claims without daily time records of ten employees here loyal to the city’s ousted schools division superintendent.The group, identified with retired Marawi City schools superintendent Mona Macatanong, has complained to different forums early on about the non-payment of their wages by the Department of Education-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DepEd-ARMM).John Magno, regional secretary of DepEd-ARMM, on Tuesday told reporters the ten employees could not submit valid daily time records (DTRs) as proof of monthly service owing to their non-recognition of Pharida Sansarona, who replaced Macatanong in 2013.Macatanong hogged the news when she refused to vacate her post after reaching on October 18, 2013 the mandatory retirement age for government education officials.She defiantly held on, along with the ten employees ranting on the non-payment of their salaries, until the Supreme Court ordered her to step down last year.Officials of the Civil Service Commission-ARMM said the DTRs of the ten complaining employees, among them relatives of Macatanong, ought to be signed by Sansarona, not by a supervisor, Haron Abato, who is merely a subordinate of the new superintendent. We are just following rules. We cannot simply facilitate the payment of their salaries without their DTRs, Magno said.Marawi City education officials said the ten employees - Zoraida Abato, Almaira Macatanong, Asmerah Macatanong, Potri Sarah Macatanong, Asleah Macatanong, Jalilah Abduljalil, Sittienor Dipatuan, Nasseb Macabato, Hadji Ali Disoma and Gafur Ampuan -- have not been reporting for work at Sansarona’s office.Sansarona said they have not been responding to written directives for them to report for work at the division office.One from the recalcitrant group, Bedaria Corot, has complied with the initial report-to-work order and has since been receiving her monthly pay regularly.Worse, according to Sansarona, they are being attacked on social media for the non-payment of the salaries of the ten employees. We are being unduly projected as the culprits here. We are just abiding with civil service rules, Sansarona said.