Bangsamoro forms team to probe bribery charges

Cotabato City—Bangsamoro Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal said he has created a special committee to look into allegations of pay-offs in the appointments of newly-hired and promoted teachers in the region’s five provinces and three cities.

Iqbal, who heads the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said such accusation on social media, if proven true, violates the tenets of Islam and the principles of moral governance of the Bangsamoro.

The BARMM education chief announced the creation of the probe team when he spoke online to more than 900 newly-hired teachers and promoted principals.

He said he found it strange that stories of alleged bribery would mar a very rigid process in the selection of candidate-applicants.

Iqbal described the payoff claim as “an allegation that has kept recurring.”

He said applicants would have to go through at least seven steps — from filing of one’ application to the evaluation, review of academic credentials, experience, and training programs.

“I do not know the applicants — 99 percent of them are not known to me,” Iqbal said.