University condemns teacher’s killing, warns on educator safety and societal violence

COTABATO CITY – A premiere Catholic-owned university here on Saturday strongly condemned the brutal killing of one of its female teachers in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Maguindanao del Norte. The Notre Dame University (NDU), which is run by the missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), denounced the slaying of Evangeline Pantorilla Abdullah, of legal age and resident of Barangay Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte. Abdullah was a part-time faculty member at NDU’s College of Arts and Sciences and its Graduate School. She was gunned down on Thursday night, July 2, by a still unidentified suspect. “Her loss is felt profoundly by her colleagues and students alike,” the university said in a statement. “NDU stresses, most emphatically, that violence has no place in our society. Until we can guarantee the safety, security, and well-being of our teachers and students, we will continuously be challenged in moving toward a better education for the Bangsamoro,” it added. Abdullah, also a former teacher of Cotabato City National High School Main Campus, currently works at the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) of Shariff Saydona Mustapha in Maguindanao del Sur. Amid light rains, Abdullah was standing beside the highway in Sitio Curbada, Barangay Awang, waiting for a tricycle when attacked by the gunman at 7:45 p.m., Major Katherine Paydoen, municipal police chief, said. The motive of the attack and the identity of the attacker remained unclear, she added. The NDU, headed by Fr. Francis Zabala, OMI, stressed that “the killing of a teacher is an affront to the soul of our society and the sanctity of our formative institutions.” It added educators ought to be the most respected professionals, “for they are the ones who shape our future generation and, in doing so, define our fate as a people.” The university called on law enforcement authorities to act swiftly, thoroughly, and transparently in their investigation, and to hold the perpetrators to account. “We likewise call on both our national and local governments: the escalating pattern of school-related violence in our country can no longer be ignored,” the NDU said. “We are tired of the impunity that instills fear in our institutions of learning. We are angered by the growing helplessness that creeps into our collective consciousness every time killings like this occur and perpetrators roam free,” the NDU stressed, adding that it is hoping that teacher Abdullah would not become “another name in the list of unresolved killings.” /jpv