Gabaldons – Heritage Schools
What testimonies do these heritage school walls hold? “Many of them are trivial but wonderful stories to document because they give a certain humanity to an otherwise straightforward educational system,” wrote former Department of Education Secretary Armin A. Luistro in “A Thousand and One Stories,” an essay about the Gabaldon schools in the Philippines.
The late Isauro Gabaldon, an assemblyman and a senator, authored Act 1801, which allocated one million pesos for the construction of modern public schools. Also known as the Gabaldon Act of 1907, it stipulated that only on land owned by the municipality could schools be constructed. Because proposed sites had to be surveyed and registered with the Court of Land Registration, very few schools were erected in the first three years. As separate planning for each school was burdensome, the Bureau of Public Works and Bureau of Education soon came up with standardized designs. These were known as “Gabaldon School Buildings” or simply “Gabaldon,” long after the expiration of Act 1801.
Fifty-one Gabaldons were completed between 1911 and 1916; 400 more were added, a total number of classrooms more than 1,000. Three hundred twenty seven of these “Gabaldons” were concrete. In the Gabaldon-designed school, there was architectural harmony between the main building and other accessory structures. Thus, a well-planned layout of the school was instilled in both teachers and students that brought a certain pride and an appreciation for the finer things in life. Most of the school houses built during the Spanish colonial period were destroyed during the Philippine-American War from 1899 to 1911.
The Gabaldon design had developed its own structural principles such as height, accessibility, and interior management. In U or H shape, all buildings were only limited to either single or two stories. Elevation of the ground floor was emphasized along with two wide identical side stairwells for the two-level school. Classrooms were connected to the corridor. They had corrugated iron roof sheeting and large awning window with Capiz shell panels and wooden frame. Doors had two-swing out while tongue-and-groove wood planks were used as floor tiles. The central porch was the most prominent elements.
Such design is an example of the perfect marriage of aesthetic design and functionality suited to tropical weather conditions, as well as utilized the most advanced in American construction technology of the early 20th century. The architect who designed the Gabaldons, William Parsons, was the same architect who introduced modern architecture to the country. The heritage building ushered the start of the formal public education system of the Philippines during the American colonial era.
“As an instructor in a design subject, I would like a setting that encourages these students to openly discuss and exchange bright, unique ideas together to come up with a collective form of learning. I would want a classroom with furniture that can easily be moved or convertible ones that can make studying convenient. I think the Gabaldon design layout had an effective form and function,” said Sharon Bering, interior design instructor at the University of San Carlos and vicepresident of Philippine Institute of Interior Design Cebu Chapter.
Examples of Gabaldon schools in Cebu are the Upland Elementary School in Carcar City; Obong Elementary School and Balud Elementary School, both in Dalaguete and built in 1932; Asturias Elementary School in 1921; and Sumaguan Elementary School in 1939 and Jampang Elementary School in 1922, both in Argao. These and other Gabaldon schools in Cebu have been given second lives through the Gabaldon Restoration Project of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. five years ago.
“Heritage is simply the collection of physical and non-physical reminders our ancestors left behind that relate their story to us,” says premier heritage conservator of the Philippines, Augusto “Toti” Villalon. “When tangible and non-tangible are both present, heritage has meaning and life, and this is when we can say that the heritage has significance.”