Can't add user into MySQL - php

Question

I have a 3 tables are employee , chief , technician.
So , Admin can add all the user to system but i can't add 'chief' into the table and this is my html.
<form name="form" method="post" action="add_user_db.php">
<div class="control-group">
<label>Type of User</label>
<div class="controls">
<select class="form-control" name="filter" id="filter">
<option value="employee">Employee</option>
<option value="technician">Technician</option>
<option value="chief">Chief</option>
</select>...some other code..</form>
This is my php to add user.
$filter = $_POST["filter"];
$id = $_POST["id"];
$password = md5($_POST["password"]);
$name = $_POST["name"];
$department = $_POST["department"];
$email = $_POST["email"];
$phone = $_POST["phone"];
$cellphone = $_POST["cellphone"];
if($filter =='chief'){
$sql = "INSERT into $filter (chief_id,password,chief_name,status,department,phone,cellphone,email) values ('$id', '$password', '$name', 'CHIEF', '$department', '$phone', '$cellphone', '$email')";
$dbquery = mysql_db_query("inform_db", $sql);
mysql_close();
header( "refresh:0.01;url=add_user.php" );
}
if($filter == 'employee'){
$sql = "INSERT into $filter (employee_id,password,name,status,department,phone,cellphone,email) values ('$id', '$password', '$name', 'USER', '$department', '$phone', '$cellphone', '$email')";
$dbquery = mysql_db_query("inform_db", $sql);
mysql_close();
header( "refresh:0.01;url=add_user.php" );
}
if($filter == 'technician'){
$sql = "INSERT into $filter (tech_id,password,tech_name,status,phone,cellphone,email) values ('$id', '$password', '$name', 'TECH', '$phone', '$cellphone', '$email')";
$dbquery = mysql_db_query("inform_db", $sql);
I can't understand why 'chief' especially.

Answer 1

status is MySQL KEYWORD. So I just added back tick (`) in query.
Change from
$sql = "INSERT into $filter (chief_id,password,chief_name,status,department,phone,cellphone,email) values ('$id', '$password', '$name', 'CHIEF', '$department', '$phone', '$cellphone', '$email')";
To
$sql = "INSERT into $filter (chief_id,password,chief_name,`status`,department,phone,cellphone,email) values ('$id', '$password', '$name', 'CHIEF', '$department', '$phone', '$cellphone', '$email')";