In Paknaan, Mandaue City: 42-classroom building worth nearly P1B soon to rise - Lolypop

CEBU, Philippines — A 12-storey, 42-classroom building will soon rise in Barangay Paknaan, Mandaue City to help address the problem of the lack of classrooms in the barangay and neighboring areas.

Mandaue City Lone District Representative Emmarie “Lolypop” Ouano-Dizon, in an interview, said that the construction of the building is getting closer to reality after their recent meeting with the officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways and representatives from the central office of the Department of Education, together with her husband Opao Barangay Captain Nixon “Jojo” Dizon.

According to Congresswoman Ouano Dizon, the proposal has passed the initial assessment, including the soil testing.

“Kay ang DepEd nagkinahanglan gyud na sila nga makapasar gyud sa ilang standard ang soil test. Basin within this year ma prioritize sa DepEd ang pagtukod sa building here in Mandaue kay naa unta to sa Luzon but wala nakapasar sa soil test,” said Ouano-Dizon.

However, she said they have yet to finalize the documents needed for the donation of the lot to DepEd for the project to be included in the priority list for funding by the national government.

“Pasado na sa initial assessment a proposal, including the soil test. Our next stage is to finalize the documentation for donation of the lot which is located in barangay Paknaan to DepEd aron maapil nani siya sa priority list for funding in the national government," Ouano-Dizon explained.

The husband of the congresswoman said that a businessman and the lot owner, who is a good friend of his and the Ouano family, will donate a 2,000 square meter lot.

“Ang 2,000 square meter lot part ra ni sa iyang (businessman) share sa reclaimed lot. The businessman will donate this to DepEd,” says Dizon, adding the school building would probably cost between P800 million to P1 billion.

If materialized, the building will have libraries, laboratories, audio visual rooms, clinic, home economics rooms and other facilities.

Barangay Paknaan, considered the biggest barangay in Mandaue, has a population of over 30,000 as indicated in the Philippine Statistics Authority census in 2020.

The congresswoman hopes that this project will help solve the perennial problem of the lack of classrooms in the city.

Ouano-Dizon said that school officials in the past years have utilized their libraries, computer laboratories, home economics buildings and other facilities as classrooms to accommodate all students.

There are even schools that divide their classrooms into two, she said.

With this problem, she said that she pushed the national government to consider constructing a school building in barangay Paknaan to at least help minimize the problem of the lack of classrooms.

Ouano-Dizon added that high school students in barangay Paknaan are currently using the existing Paknaan Elementary School classrooms. while neighboring barangays Umapad and Alang-Alang do not have a school building.