THE head of the biggest public elementary school in Cagayan de Oro has questioned the motives of those who accused him, as more individuals showed-up to file additional complaints against him.
As new accusations have emerged, City Central School (CCS) principal Dr. Arnold Tejero said he remains unfazed and maintains his innocence over these allegations.
Just recently, a teacher has filed a complaint for sexual harassment against Tejero.
“I deny all the allegations. I will answer them all,” Tejero said in vernacular, adding he will submit his counter-affidavit once his accusers will hand in their complaints to the Office of the Ombudsman.
He said some teachers at CCS who have been affected by the reforms he had introduced were allegedly the ones behind the complaint filed by a parent of a fifth-grader who accused Tejero of acts of lasciviousness.
The parent, “Nikki” (not her real name), alleged that Tejero brought him to a motel and made sexual advances last May.
Tejero countered that nothing had happened and he and Nikki were not in a relationship, and he only agreed to accompany her to the motel because she wanted to share information regarding the anomalous transactions taking place at CCS.
But Tejero said there is a bigger group who are out to destroy his and other teachers’ credibility not just at CCS but also at the Department of Education’s city division office.
He added his accusers at CCS are said to be in connivance with some officials at the city division office and are now on the offensive after he uncovered several anomalies the biggest of which was the unaccounted earnings of the school’s canteen, run by a teachers’ cooperative, amounting to about P30 million.
When he assumed as the CCS principal last year, Tejero said the school administration took control of the canteen operations and in the process, discovered the cooperative has yet to liquidate the said amount.
He said this group of teachers and a few city division officials want to get back at him and even city division head, Dr. Elena Borcillo and her assistant, Dr. Reynaldo Manuel Jr., were not spared from intrigues as they were accused of having an affair.
Despite the allegations, Tejero said the morale among teachers and parents at CCS has remained high.
“We have no problem [here at CCS],” he said, adding of the 200 teachers at CCS, only about 10 have been going against him.
“There are more teachers who are happy with the developments and improvements we have made,” Tejero said.
He added the teachers and staff at CCS are even happier now that the alleged “syndicate” who used to operate the school canteen was dismantled.
