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MANILA,
Sept. 6 (PNA)--A classroom teacher at a public high school in the
strife-torn town of Midsayap, North Cotabato in Mindanao, who is also
the municipality's First Lady, is one of this year's Ten Outstanding
Teachers of the Philippines (TOTP).
The
victory of science teacher Ermie Rabara is the second time for the
Dilangalen National High School--which was named to honor the ancestors
of former Maguindanao district Rep. Didagen Dilangalen.
Midsayap hogged the national headlines recently because of fresh atrocities sparked by a clash of two lifestyles.
In
1995, English teacher Delilah Denila of the same high school was also a
recipient of the coveted award. It is sponsored by the Metrobank
Foundation in cooperation with, among others, the Department of
Education (DepEd).
The
high school is the only DepEd institution in the poblacion of the
5th-class municipality and is situated in an area known as Dilangalen.
But Christian settlers in the site tend to call it "Baryo Dos"--which
is how it's referred to in barangay language.
Rabara
said there used to be Muslim students at Dilangalen, but they all have
moved to other high schools where Muslims were the dominant students.
Metrobank Foundation writes of teacher Ermie:
"It
is not Erm's academic preparation as an engineering graduate that makes
her such an efficient teacher, but her sense of commitment to make
learning fun and worthwhile.
"In
addition, her ability to emphathize and deal with her student's
difficulties--and exert extra effort to look after their own
welfare--is what makes her truly outstanding."
Parts
of what has become Dilangalen's Maguindanao constituency were former
villages of Midsayap, which, even as late as the 1960s, was a
municipality showing potentials of becoming North Cotabato's capital.
Alas,
the strife shook Midsayap's personality to the core and, eventually,
the then sleepy but upstart town of Kidapawan--where no Moros hardly
resided--came to be the capital town.
TOTP
winners receive their plaques and P100,000 cash prize directly from the
Chief Executive--this time President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo--in
ceremonies at Malacanang.
The
Dilangalen clan belongs to Central Mindanao's ruling Muslim families,
who wove friendships in blood compacts with Christian settlers in its
townships. In those early days, Moro homesteads could be purchased by
enterprising settlers, mostly degree-holders such as teachers, for a
ganta (about 1.3 killos) of coffee beans per hectare.
Teacher
Ermie's own husband, Mayor Manuel Rabara, is heir to a rich non-Muslim
tradition infused into such townships as Midsayap, Libungan,
Pigcawayan, Mlang, Aleosan, Pikit and Kidapawan by early settlers from
Ilocanos, Negros, Cebu, Batangas.
These
North Cotabato townships became famous recently particularly when
another Midsayap settler, Gov. Jesus Sacdalan, joined the immigrant
from Pangasinan and Mlang-based Vice Gov. Emmanuel Pinol, acted to
torpedo renewed moves to annex some Christian-dominated barangays to
some of the towns into a now-fizzled out Bangsmoro Juridical Entity.
Mayor
Rabara's father, a lawyer who began government service as municipal
secretary of Midsayap in the 1960s, was a prosecutor of another
municipality when he was ambushed on his way to work and died in the
hands of alleged Muslim assassins.
It
was the height of the conflict between Muslims and Christians, when
so-called "Ilagas (rat corps)" and gunmen of the incipient Muslim
Independence Movement both believe they were born to kill.
Teacher
Ermie never met her father-in-law, but she is proud that Dilangalen
National High School forms part of the legacy that forever intertwines
the good intentions of Muslims and Christians in her little corner of
the world. (PNA)
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