Most teachers who were pulled out were Christians although some of their replacements were Christians, too.

Among those who sought transfer was Cecilia Sosas, an elementary school principal in the Basilan town of Lamitan, who was kidnapped on Nov. 15 and released several weeks later.

Sosas quoted her captors as saying she was kidnapped to deliver a message to other Christian teachers that they were not welcome in Basilan.

Baratucal Caudang, education secretary in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said officials couldn’t pull out every non-Muslim teacher from Basilan.

Community acceptance

Christian teachers, he said, would be removed from “areas where teachers are not acceptable to the community” or where their safety could not be guaranteed.

Education officials, he said, were told to avoid a vacuum in teaching posts in Basilan and other provinces in the autonomous region.

“If there’s a need to reshuffle teachers in other areas … an assessment should be conducted,” he said.

Caudang said, however, that kidnappings would continue despite the pullout of the Christian teachers unless communities helped protect the teachers.

“We need the community’s support,” Caudang said.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said teacher safety in the entire ARMM has been tagged as a security issue in the autonomous region.

Everyone’s job

Luistro said protecting teachers can’t be done by the Department of Education alone. He said DepEd needed the help of at least two other agencies—Department of Interior and Local Government and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

Luistro said the reign of crime and terror in ARMM was not just a security issue, but one of “sustainable development.”

In Cotabato City, a Muslim religious leader based in Maguindanao has appealed to the kidnappers of a 56-year-old Chinese-Filipino trader to free the victim.

Ustadz Jaafar Ali, spokesperson of the National Ulama Council of the Philippines, also condemned the kidnapping of hardware store owner Eulogio Adin Yu on Saturday.

“Kidnapping is haram (forbidden) among Muslims,” Ali said in a radio interview, describing kidnappings as “un-Islamic and the handiwork of evil.”

Fatwa unnecessary

Yu, owner of Yu Kian Gian Hardware, was heading home from a hotel here with his wife when four men grabbed him and forced him into a waiting car.

His wife managed to escape unhurt. Yu’s kidnappers are demanding a P50-million ransom.

Reacting to Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani’s call for Islamic leaders to issue a fatwa on kidnapping, Ali said he would not do it.

He said kidnapping is already prohibited by Islam and a new fatwa might be unnecessary.

Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad criticized government incompetence against crimes in Basilan, saying the people of the province are virtually living in fear because of lawlessness there. Julie S. Alipala and Edwin O. Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao