The Mindanao Cross | October 10, 2020 by The Mindanao Cross

SECOND FRONT PAGE

MILG-BARMM hires 1,148 contact tracers/P2

CHURCH TAPATAN

Fr. Edwin Infante Degracia, DCC dies at 52/P4

Janus C. Paniango/P8

LOW PALAY, CORN PRICES EVERYWHERE FARMERS now feel the brunt of the wanton importation of rice and corn, for them the cause of the continuing downslide in domestic prices of both cereal grains.

Some big firms in Mindanao producing animal feeds and cornstarch have long been importing corn from abroad. There are corn farmers in Upi and South Upi towns in Maguindanao now thinking of suspending their

October-December cropping activities, apprehensive of bigger losses. “Our latest earnings were just enough for the seeds and fertilizers we loaned from traders and for paying laborers essential to propagation of corn in our farms,”

said an enlisted soldier in a battalion under the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, who has a farm in Upi. As of Friday, the price of dried corn in the two municipalities is only P9.70 per kilo, for farmers too low, their proceeds not enough to cover

TEACHERS ONLY. For the first time, teachers of Notre Dame Village National High School in Cotabato City commenced school year with a flag raising ceremony minus their pupils on Monday, October 5, the start of SY 2020-2021. It coincided with the World Teacher’s Day but no students around to greet them under the new normal learning system as a result of the pandemic. Valerie Ann P. Lambo

Laptop shortage a DepEd-SoCot saddened global phenomenon by alleged pupil’s suicide SHORTAGE in supply of laptop units is becoming an international phenomenon as schools brace for leaps of changes in education systems and students shift to blended learning. Najir Ismael, an information technology (IT) computer expert based in Cotabato City, said President Rodrigo Duterte had to literally beg the country’s computer firms executives to “double” their production of laptops, electronic chips and processors for the sake of Philippine teachers and students notched into

correspondence education and the blended learning mode. Students in all parts of the world are shifting to blended learning amid global covid19 pandemic, hitting hard School Year 2020-2021. Ismael, owner of the Intelware Store in the city, said computer firms could not just nod to the President’s request, although some have considered coming out with increased discount rates on retail displays. Indeed, Lenovo initially loaded the Philippine market

KORONADAL CITY – The Department of Education in South Cotabato and in Region 12 have expressed “shock and sadness” over the death of a Grade 11 pupil in Tupi town due to the child’s alleged failure to meet the standards in modular learning. Dr. Ruth Estacio, South Cotabato assistant schools division superintendent,

said the schools division was “shocked and saddened to learn about the tragic death of one of our students, Danz Suerte Vistal Jr” in Tupi, South Cotabato. Estacio said the schools division and education officials are coordinating with the police and the student’s family “for speedy and impartial investigation on the

RELATIVES want a closure to the reported suicide of 19-year-old male Teduray in a coronavirus isolation facility in South Upi, Maguindanao early this week. South Upi Mayor Reynalbert Insular said Wednesday Benjie Udasan hanged himself inside the

isolation facility. Insular said Udasan, whose family is in South Upi, was required to undergo 14-day isolation for having been in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province where there COVID-19 cases. “We are still trying to get a clear picture

A DOZEN houses and a four-door apartment were destroyed by separate fires that hit two adjoining residential areas in Cotabato City Thursday. Fire Officer 3 (FO3) Hexter Jan Cadavero, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP-Cotabato) arson investigator said the first

fire hit residential areas at about noon in Barangay Bagua 1. “Our initial investigation showed the fire started at the house owned by a certain Mrs. Nora Amil,” Cadavero said, referring to the first conflagration. While the firefighters were to finish their

Suicide incident in isolation facility

Teaching in time of COVID-19 pandemic

THE coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic may have brought new challenges to the teaching profession but public teacher Martina Cabilbigan said nothing will change her love for the profession. The 40-year-old Grade 10 teacher said her daily routine has not changed, such as waking up early and prepare her learning materials. Cabilbigan, who teaches at the Datu Arnel Datukon National High School (DADNHS) in Barangay Taviran, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, has to endure an hour-long,

thrice-a-week trip from the city to the school to deliver and retrieve the learning modules of her 70 pupils. The teachers do not meet their students faceto-face. Parents instead drop by the school to get the modules of their children, she said. “It’s difficult, but we have a vow fulfill our job as one under the visionmission of the Department of Education (DepEd),” she told the Philippine News Agency. Cabilbigan said she travels with other teachers through commuter vans.

2 fires hit Cotabato City in a day

MORNING CONFLAGRATION. A fire of still unknown origin razes to the ground six houses in a residential area in Purok Manisan, Barangay Bagua 1, Cotabato City Thursday morning. Valerie Ann P. Lambo

PLASTIC PANDEMIC. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has called on local government units anew to ramp up efforts in handling and disposal of medical waste to ensure health and environmental safety amid the coronavirus pandemic. Photo Courtesy of DENR