GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines – The Army deployed soldiers to the streets in Pikit town in Cotabato province to secure public school teachers as they go out to work as an offshoot of the area’s recurring problem of violence and the recent gun attacks on teachers.

The soldiers will provide security for teachers during their commutes from home to school and back, announced Lieutenant Colonel Rowel Gavilanes, the commander of the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion in Pikit, on Wednesday, May 31.

A similar security arrangement was done in 2018, when police officers acted as security escorts of teachers in Pikit because of the threats of violence.

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Gavilanes said the fully armed soldiers will be on motorcycles to ensure security coverage for public school teachers as they travel to and from their respective schools.

Department of Education (DepEd) officials in Cotabato province have called on the police and military to collaborate in putting in place long-term measures to ensure the safety of public school teachers and students who are currently living in fear amid a string of gun attacks in the town.

Over the past year, the police have documented more than 30 incidents of gun attacks in the town, resulting in casualties among both students and teachers.

Romelito Flores, the superintendent of Cotabato schools division, said the escalating violence in Pikit poses an ongoing threat to the lives of teachers and students, requiring immediate action. 

He said this as he met with 36 school heads in Pikit on Tuesday, May 30, in response to a recent upsurge in violence, which claimed the life of one teacher and left another injured.

During the meeting, Flores said there was a need to understand the teachers’ sentiments regarding their safety and the situation in their respective areas, to develop immediate and long-term solutions that will hopefully put an end to the violence.

On DepEd’s part, one of the potential solutions being considered is the transfer of some teaching personnel and adjustments to class schedules in certain schools, Flores said.

On May 26, gunmen on a motorcycle shot at two teachers who were also on a motorcycle, resulting in the death of Joel Reformado, a 37-year-old head teacher at Damalasak Elementary School in Pikit. 

Reformado’s colleague, Elton John Lapinid, 36, suffered wounds as a result of the attack, according to the police.

The killing occurred in front of Manaulanan Elementary School in Barangay Manaulanan, a village located within the Special Geographic Area of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (SGA-BARMM).

In February, the town mayor ordered the suspension of classes at all levels following the killing of a 13-year-old student and the injuring of two others.

Several days later, another minor was shot dead, followed by another killing on the same day. – Rappler.com