GOOD NEIGHBOR
LIMITED – THAT WAS HOW life was for the residents of Sitio Narra of San Ildefonso, Bulacan. Residents had to walk to get water from a well, or catch rainwater for extra supply. There were no stores, so people had to go to the town proper. Children walked several kilometers to reach the school in the next town.
When a cement factory arrived in the community in 2008, residents were not sure what to expect. But slowly, the landscape of Narra has changed. Eagle Cement Corporation (ECC) opened doors of opportunities for the residents by first offering jobs. It has also provided Narra and its neighboring Akle community with roads, as well as water and education, healthcare and livelihood.
According to Josie Quizon, a resident of Narra and also a barangay health worker, “water supply is what we need the most especially during the summer season because the well dries up. Thankfully, Eagle Cement delivers water to the school and to the residents.”
Since ECC put up its plant in the area, residents are able to enjoy more stable incomes. The plant has provided jobs within the community and has helped them progress. Student Marjorie Balmores shares that her mother was able to open a sari-sari store since residents now have the money to buy goods. Her father got a job as a driver of Eagle Cement’s trucks.
But perhaps the most significant and impactful contribution of ECC is the setting up of the Narra Elementary School. According to Aline Buizon, the company’s community relations representative, “Previously there was no school, but because of the plant, population in the area grew, since there are jobs available. When the population grew, Akle Elementary School could not accommodate all the children, so they decided to put up an extension.”
Education is a great equalizer, opening doors of opportunity and changing lives of individuals, families and even generations.
Believing in the power of education, ECC has helped Narra Elementary School by equipping students with the means to learn. Recently, it turned over two new typhoon-resistant classrooms, in partnership with Philam Foundation’s Philam Paaralan.
The two new classrooms are on top of the previous two that ECC built for the school. With ECC’s donation, Narra Elementary School now has 10 classrooms for its 317 students and 10 teachers.
The typhoon-resistant classrooms donated by ECC and Philam Foundation are furnished with desks, boards, teacher’s table and chair, fluorescent lights, fans and a fully functional restroom.
Kristine Fernandez, one of the teachers, said in Filipino, “The teachers are excited to get the new classrooms because they’re more conducive to learning; they are clean, well-lit, well-ventilated and the children would be more comfortable. Besides, the new rooms were designed to be typhoon-resistant, so the children would be safe.”
The parents also expressed their delight at the new classrooms. “We hope the other rooms could be as nice as these classrooms. The children will be very comfortable in the new ones because it won’t be hot and gloomy,” said Josie Quizon, the school’s parent-teacher association president.
ECC may be the youngest in the country’s cement industry, but its growth in just seven years has now positioned it as one of the dominant cement players in the country.
And as ECC reaps success, it continues to dedicate itself in making the community a better place by devoting resources and efforts to help its communities succeed as well.
“Together Eagle Cement and the whole community will grow better and stronger,” Paul Eugene Seranno, the company’s AVP for Operations said. “Narra and Akle are Eagle Cement’s neighbors, hence it is important to us that theß whole community grows and develops as Eagle Cement also grows.”