PH kindergarten class opens in Pag-asa

PHILIPPINE OFFICIALS have opened a small kindergarten on an island in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), which is also claimed by five other governments.

Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon of Kalayaan municipality in Palawan on Sunday said that the school was opened on June 15 without fanfare to help a poor Filipino community on the island in the Spratly archipelago and not antagonize rival claimants.

Five students were welcomed by their teacher in a classroom filled with crayons, pencils, coloring books and a blackboard, Bito-onon said.

A Philippine flag fluttered in the breeze on the schoolyard on the 37-hectare island, which the Philippines calls Pag-asa—or “hope” in Filipino.

Philippine troops guard Pag-asa, the largest of nine islands, sandbars and reefs held by the Philippines in the island chain of Kalayaan, a fifth-class municipality (annual income: P15 million-P25 million).

The Philippine government established the far-flung municipality in 1978 to reinforce its claim to parts of the Spratly archipelago.

“We’re trying to come up with as normal a community as possible and this is one important step,” Bito-onon said by telephone. “The kids were very excited. They grabbed their new schoolbags and prodded their parents to bring them to class early,” he added.

Free food, power

Bito-onon said older children could also be accommodated in the school if he could get more government funding.

Fifteen children from the island currently attend elementary school on the Palawan mainland and stay with relatives there, he said.

More than a dozen families have been encouraged by the government to live on the tadpole-shaped island 480 kilometers off southwestern Palawan province by offering them free food, shelter, electricity, water and now, education.

China, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also claim all or parts of the Spratlys, which are believed to be rich in oil and gas and are near one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.

A nonbinding 2002 accord discourages aggressive acts that could spark fighting.

Bito-onon said opening a kindergarten could not be seen in any way as having violated that pact.