The Department of Education in Negros Occidental is recommending the filing of administrative charges against the Fifth District schools supervisor, a principal and a teacher in Hinigaran town for their alleged involvement in the fielding of an ineligible player in the 2006 Palarong Panlalawigan.

Eva Belicina, the Negros Occidental schools division superintendent, yesterday said they have found district supervisor Corazon Mohametano along with Pahilanga Elementary School principal Nenita Caballero and PES teacher Julio Ferreros, who served as head coach of the team, liable for the age-cheating incident in the elementary boys' volleyball competitions.

Belicina said the three violated Palaro rules and regulations and committed actions prejudicial to the best interest of the service which is considered a grave offense under the DepEd.

The findings on the case and the recommendations made by a provincial DepEd committee assigned to probe the incident will be forwarded to Victoriano Tirol, director of the Western Visayas DepEd, who will decide on the sanctions to be imposed on Mohametano, Caballero and Ferreros.

Among the possible sanctions is suspension from six months to a year without pay, depending on the gravity of the offense.

"We want to show that we are not taking this case for granted. We want to change the system," Belicina said after a meeting with the committee at the DepEd Division Office in Bacolod City yesterday.

"We don't want to issue warnings anymore because this is not the first time that this has happened".

The Palaro Jury of Appeals stripped Area V, represented by Pahilanga Elementary School from Hinigaran, of the boys' volleyball crown, for fielding the over-aged player, whose name is being withheld by the DAILY STAR because he is a minor.

Losing finalist Area III, composed of Silay City players, was awarded the crown and will represent the province in the Western Visayas Regional Palaro next week.

The discrepancy was actually discovered by a member of the Area III coaching staff during the December 2006 Palaro but the DepEd only upheld the protest filed against Area III a few weeks ago, after verifying the real age of the player with his school records in Hinigaran.

Belicina said the player's age in his Palaro entry form and his school records were "inconsistent". The birth-date listed in the registration form of the over-aged player indicated that he was only a month older than his younger brother, Belicina said.

"The player was nearly two years overage for the competition," she added.

The incident is the second in less than a year, after Narciso Jayme, then coach of the Negros Occidental secondary baseball team in the WVRAA Meet, was discovered to have fielded an over-aged player in the Regional Palaro held in Roxas City in March.

Jayme, a teacher at Dr. Antonio Lizares Memorial High School, was slapped a lifetime coaching ban by the Region VI Department of Education for his action. *CPT

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