46 prison returnees walk out of Iwahig
Classes yet to resume in Cotabato capital due to heavy damage on classrooms
PUERTO PRINCESA City—forty-six former prisoners, who yielded to authorities when the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law was reviewed, walked out of the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm here last week, impatient over the progress of their cases. Prison officials said the Department of Justice had yet to act on the 185 GCTA cases since September.
KIDAPAWAN CITY—MORE than 40,000 students of public elementar yan d secondary schools in thi sea rthquake-hit cit yc otabato provincial capit ala r es till on “forced vacation” as many school buildings have ye tto be declared safe f oro ccupancy.
Mayor Joseph Evangelista said he was hoping tha tt he resumption of classes would help t hec ity return to normalcy and drive economic recover yf ollowing the devastatio nf rom the series o f ea rthquakes that h itt hep rovince last month.
As o fm onday, n ot o ne public schoo lha do pene dit s door sf or student sasa dministrator swe re awaiting occupancy clearance from t he l ocal government.
Evangelist aea rlie rd eclared that no schoo lw oul dr eopen until a clearance was obtained from t hec ity’s building official.
The series of temblors last month has damaged 65 of the city’s 83 schools.
Assessment
An assessment by engineers of the Departmen to f Education (Deped ) sh owe dt hat 93 classrooms were destroyed, 308 had maj ord amage while 312 had min ord amage.
Romelito Flores, Kidapawan schools divis ion superintendent , sa id t he Deped assessment neede d tobe c onfirmed by inspector sf rom the Office of the Building Official befor ea clearance could be issued.
He sa idt he assessment was done per classroo m,w ith engineers checking the school building’s locatio nan dit s immediat esu rroundings.
Six of the 83 schools in the cit y ha d tobe c ondemned as these wer ec onstructe do n“n obuild zones.”
The local government has received help from Association o fs tructural Engineers of the Philippines in the assessment o fc ommercial establishments damaged by the quake.
Not all classrooms in every schoo la r eg iven occupancy clearance, Flores said.
After an assessment, a classroom or facility is classified as follows: for clean up o fm inor debris to make it r ead yf oro ccupancy, for min orr etrofitting and rehabilitation, or d eclare do ff limits due tod ange ro fc ollapse.
At Kidapawan Cit yp il ote lementary School, which is just nea rt hec ity Hall, schoo lp rincipal Mauricia Daquio said mos t of their classrooms neede dr epairs.
“And so we decide dt ha ti nstea do fs tarting the classes today, we opte dto move it further until the roo msa re fully repaired and cleared for use, f ort he safety of the children,” Daquio tol dt he Inquire ro nm onday.
She sa id t hey wer ep reparing 16 makeshift classrooms, or temporary learning shelters (TLS) to be buil ti n an open field.
Sch ool administrators are looki ng a t building TLS as an option to hasten the resumption of classes, although they have to deal wit h bu dget constraints.
Daquio said her school needed 27 TLS bu tt hey have funds to buil do nly 16.
Gina Fe Patenio, Lanao Central Elementary School (LCES) principal, sa id t hey needed 14 TLS bu tt heir fund s we re enough f oro nly nine.
Flores sa id t he Deped had funde do nly 72 TLS ou to f the 439 needed byk idapawan.
‘Selective’ reopening
He sa idt hey would be f orced tor esort to a “selective” school reopening in t he c ity. “We are alread yl ooki ng a tt he l ikelihood o fs o mes tudents spending their summe rto complete their classes. This is really a possibility, we have no choice,” Flores said.
Other schools have to adjust class schedules following the earthquake.
INK idapawan Cit yna tional High School (KCNHS), which has close to 9,000 students, Grad e9 teacher Vence Encarnacio nsa idt hey ha dto allocate a ce rtain class d ay f or each year level because of the reduced numbe ro f classrooms.
Three of KCNHS’ buildings were heavily damaged an dd eclare do ffl imits.
“Starting next week, KCNHS student sw i llc ome to school on different assigne dd ays. For example, o nm onday, it will be t hef irst year, then on Tuesday it will be the second year and so on. Then f or t he res to f the days, they wi ll be g iven worksheet assignments to work on,” Encarnacio nsa id.