Iloilo schools receive 63 classrooms from Pagcor
SAN DIONISIO, Iloilo – Grade 8 student Rhea Salbivia of Nicomedes Tubar Sr. National High School (NTSNHS) still recalls how she and her classmates attended classes under a tree after Super Typhoon Yolanda destroyed many of their classrooms in November 2013.
Whenever it rained, their classes were either suspended or they had to move to a covered area, disrupting their ongoing lessons. They endured this situation for six months until the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) donated a two-story, eight-classroom building to their school.
NTSNHS is one of the four public schools in the province of Iloilo which received new classrooms from Pagcor. A total of 63 classrooms were completed and turned over by the state-run gaming firm to Iloilo recently.
Among other school building project recipients were the 115-year-old Iloilo National High School (INHS), which received two four-story-20 classroom buildings (40 classrooms); the Canas Elementary School (three classrooms) and the Iloilo River Plains Integrated School (12 classrooms).
The turnover of classrooms in all four schools was graced by Pagcor assistant vice president for community relations Arnell Ignacio.
Ignacio said the school building program is just one of Pagcor’s many commitments to the country, as more than half of the agency’s revenues go to the government and other mandated contributions.
“One of the main reasons why Pagcor was established was to help generate funds for nation-building. That is the reason why we are here with you today,” he said.
The buildings were structurally designed to withstand super typhoons similar to Yolanda.
One of the biggest recipients of Pagcor’s school building project is the 115-year-old INHS, which received a total of 40 classrooms.
Pete Gabriel Ledesma, Grade 11 student and president of the supreme student government, said he and his fellow senior high school students are privileged to study in the Pagcor school building.
“Without the new Pagcor classrooms, we might be attending classes under a tree. One way to attain quality education is to have a good learning environment. That’s why we are very thankful to Pagcor that we have been blessed with this school building,” Ledesma said.
In the province of Iloilo alone, Pagcor already donated a total of 484 classrooms. Of this number, 313 classrooms in 47 sites were completed while 171 classrooms in 21 sites are awaiting completion.