PNP: No cover-up in cops’ fatal shooting of Navotas teenager

By Vince Lopez

THE National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) on Thursday assured that there will be no cover-up in the investigation into the killing of a teenager in a police operation in Navotas City, noting that the involved policemen have already admitted their mistake.

In an interview, NCRPO director Brig. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. assured that there is no other motive in the death of 17-year-old Jerhode Jemboy Baltazar and that the fatal shooting was purely a mistake on the part of the police.

The six policemen are already behind bars and are already facing crimi-

P55m earmarked for science school in Bangsamoro

COTABATO CITY—The Ministry of Science and Technology in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MOST-BARMM) said it will earmark P55 million in parliamentary appropriation in 2024 for the development of a Bangsamoro Science High School.

MOST Minister Aida Silongan said on Wednesday that the initial development budget has been approved at the level of the Bangsamoro Transitional Authority (BTA) Parliament’s Committees on Finance and Budget, and of Science and Technology.

Silongan said the approval followed the BTA Parliament’s Science and Technology committee’s consultative meeting with experts in Manila on how to develop a science high school for the region’s potential science learners.

The proposed funding provision has been approved by the Parliament’s Finance Committee under Minister Eduard Uy Guerra, and the Committee on Science and Technology, chaired by Member of the Parliament Suharto Esmael.

At the Manila public hearing, essential concerns were raised and discussed, including drafting of science high school curriculum, structural (building) component, laboratory facilities and equipment, identifying a “suitable location,” faculty development, scholarship programs for students, and collaboration between the Department of Science and Technology and MOST.

Experience educators in the Bangsamoro region, including Cotabato City and Marawi City, have noted that the most challenging part in establishing a specialized college department or institution is the faculty development, particularly, on having to gather people with “utmost determination and institutional commitment” to advancement in specific fields of discipline in natural science for young learners.

It was not clear, however, as to whether MOST might consider starting a separate “development nucleus” for a science high school, or to develop it alongside existing Bangsamoro learning institutions.

The latter option may provide easier way through development of teaching staff via a faculty outreach development program in areas close in terms of geographic proximity to any proposed site of proposed science high school in BARMM, according to another educator-observer.

Nash B. Maulana