MIMAROPA

Coastal village public school receives support from Malampaya Foundation

Monday 11th of June 2012

CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro, June 11 (PIA) -- A remote coastal village’s public school has been chosen to become this year’s recipient of Malapaya Foundation’s ‘Brigada Eskwela’ activity.

Silonay Elementary School was chosen after a thorough assessment of its condition and needs and is the first in Calapan City, according to Melchor Aguilera, external affairs advisor of Shell-Pilipinas Exploration (SPEX), representing Malampaya Joint Venture Partners.

The local barangay officials led by Barangay Chairman Benecio B. Vergara and Margarita F. Buedo, president of the said school’s Parent-Teacher Association, warmly welcomed the group of Aguilera and Teddy Bolivar of Malampaya Foundation Inc., whose presence in the said activity showed the symbolic gesture of strong support of the private sector to public education.

Aguilera said Malampaya has been regularly supporting the Department of Education’s (DepEd) undertakings, similar to what it did in Oriental Mindoro towns of Baco in 2010 and San Teodoro in 2011, where it contributed painting and repair materials, which the residents claim that it really resulted to vast improvements of the beneficiary schools in those towns.

The activity coincides with the National Schools Maintenance Week or ‘Brigada Eskwela’ of the DepEd. ‘Brigada Eskwela’ is a nationwide clean-up and repair program to enhance the value of cooperation and volunteerism in the community.

Isagani S. Abraham, the DepEd-Calapan-East supervisor was elated when he saw parents and residents of barangay Silonay flock the school’s grounds and volunteered to do manual labor to prepare the school for the opening two weeks ago.

Agnes T. Santiago, the school principal, said this year’s brigada is focused on school sanitation or improvement of toilet and wash facilities as mandated in DepEd Memorandum Order No. 56 issued by DepEd secretary Armin Luistro.

Under Luistro’s directive, partners were encouraged to prioritize school sanitation to strengthen awareness on the importance of hygiene and sanitation among students.

Brigada officially started on May 21 and ended on May 26 after which, a school could be declared a winner in a contest among schools in district and provincial levels where they would be judged according to a set of guidelines released by the department.

The school also invited in the opening ceremony School Government Council President Rosita Marcos and PO2 Gener A. Adeva, who represented Calapan City Philippine National Police (PNP) station. (J.R. Mahusay/TBO/LTC-PIA4B Calapan City)