THE two public high school teachers arrested on Thursday, January 26, for allegedly selling illegal drugs have been found positive for drug use.
Police Station 8 chief Senior Inspector Dennis Ebsolo said the drug tests for the suspects Alex dela Vega and Velijun Perez, teachers of Carmen National High School and Canitoan National High School, respectively, yielded positive results.
Authorities seized about P30,000 worth of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or "shabu" from Dela Vega and Perez after their arrest on Thursday, at Macanhan, Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City.
Department of Education (DepEd)-Northern Mindanao regional director Allan Farnazo said they will not tolerate illegal activities involving teachers.
Farnazo said there have been reports that dela Vega has not been regularly attending his classes starting early this month.
"The moral demands of our job are higher than other position that's why we cannot tolerate this," Farnazo said.
Farnazo said DepEd immediately hired substitute teachers to handle the classes left by the two teachers while the case is being heard.
The DepEd-Northern Mindanao top official said apart from the criminal charges, the two teachers will also have to face administrative cases like grave misconduct which may result to dismissal from service.
"Pwede sila matangtang sa trabaho if all accusations are true (They can be fired from their jobs)," Farnazo said.
Farnazo said accessory penalties for the dismissal include forfeiture of eligibility, perpetual disqualification from re-employment in the government, among others.
He added the arrested teachers could still exhaust their remaining service credits of their salaries and file leaves of absence.
"Pwede sila mag-file og leave and ma-exhaust ilang sweldo but ang ilang leave without pay na. Ang atong concern nga ang ilang mga klase dili mapabayaan (They can file their leave and exhaust their salaries but it's without pay. Our concern is for their classes not to be neglected)," Farnazo said.
The DepEd-Northern Mindanao director calls on other teachers involved in the illegal drug activities to stop and abandon substance abuse.
"Katong dili moundang, unta madakpan pud (Those who don't stop will hopefully be arrested)," Farnazo said.