For the love of children

When Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency, a school-building program was immediately put into effect. The goal? To build schools in 1,617 remote, hazardous and depressed barangays in a span of three years. And along with these structures would come the teachers, desks, tables and chairs for the students. The plan would be independent of the Department of Education’s school-building projects.

Now, how was I supposed to do that? A Task Force was formed with the help of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Department of Education (DepEd) after which I wove my way to the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) and the Army Engineering Brigade. The undersecretaries of these departments, in turn, assigned people with specific duties to work with me.

At the DILG, we collected documents that its field offices from all over the country mailed to Manila as did PMS Engr. Andy Pelayo and his boss Mayet Tamundong. We sorted out deeds of donations of 500 to 1,000 sq.m. We were originally hoping to acquire 5,000 sq.m. of donated lots with dreams of expansion through the years. The unavailability of locations put an end to that. Photographs of these plots of land and maps of their locations were given out to agencies who would inspect the sites. If they meet the criteria set by DepEd, construction could commence. Eventually, Mildred Sayman and Bebot Nacario assigned to Director Lita Abcede from the DILG and DepEd’s Aida Bautista, Sally Santiago and Gracelyn Crisostomo have been traveling companions inspecting these sites with the approval of the DepEd Undersecretary Ramon Bacani.

From DepEd came the list of barangays all over the Philippines where school buildings were badly needed to accommodate children living in unserved clusters of barangays. The ever growing student population will continue to increase for as long as children are born at the rate of 2.33 percent in the Philippines. This brings us to another issue: the population boom as we try to catch up with every mode of education in the poorest barangays.

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The DPWH was very instrumental in saving the day for our Task Force to deliver the SONA pledge of the President before Congress on July 28, 2001. Rick Mobo and Richard Estanislao are the DPWH engineers I work with while Emil and Jojo record numerous land titles, maps, photographs, requests... then change of sites again! Weekly meetings under the aggressive leadership of Secretary Florante Soriquez strengthened our other construction team composed of the Army Engineering Brigade’s Col. Eddie Teopez, Major Roberto Daza and Major Conrado Sadsad, then later with Major Arnel Cervantes, Col. Mariano Veloria and Major Manuel Delgado. In the government service there are always some changes of duties and personnel.

And here I must mention Department of Budget and Management Secretary Emy Boncodin who scraped the barrel to forward the budget needed to the PMS for the DPWH and Army Engineering Brigade to construct the school buildings. The President wanted to save the government some money by allotting only P200,000 per school building. After reasoning out with her, she agreed to P250,000 with each classroom measuring 7 x 8 sq.m. She also had to initially contribute from her social fund to get this program started.

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Can you imagine going to far-flung barangays on the roughest of roads with nary a sign of sari-sari stores and bathrooms along the way, crossing streams, riding boats and bringing the materials on barges and delivering them on a precipice? The Army Infantry Division bulldozed and cleared the area of subversive elements. The DPWH had to equally make paths passable so the children could walk to their new school. So much sacrifice were loaded on the P250,000 for school and site development! Certainly, I was working on a very tight budget and so were the men on the field.

We met leaders – governors, congressmen, mayors and barangay captains – who contributed for teachers’ salaries. Great! Because on the part of the DepEd, they could only afford 519 teacher items for 2002. But this is where the local government and the parents’ Filipino spirit shone. They understood that the government could neither do the work alone nor all the time. In fact, it needs you too. The "tatays" made additional desks and chairs out of floating lumbers.

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Our work is continuous as we coordinate closely with DPWH’s Undersecretary Salvador Pleyto, his chief of staff Antonio Sta. Elena and assistant regional director Edilberto Tayao. The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce whose president is Robin Sy assigned Steven Samson and Jemar Pascual specifically to this GMA endeavor. This Federation pledged school buildings of the same specifications but not in remote, hazardous and depressed barangays as they prefer safe, secure and stable areas. Their budget comes from donations from sympathetic Filipino-Chinese who began a project in 2001 with Senator Franklin Drilon as partner in the construction of two classrooms in existing school buildings. One classroom is built with Drilon’s fund, the other from the FCCCI members’ donations. The FCCCI are also donating to the President two classrooms in existing school buildings of their choice to alleviate the plight of the ever increasing school population.

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Our group has worked harmoniously, without fanfare, meeting our deadlines and realizing there are many heroes on the field out to help the Filipino people meet their children’s educational needs with so tight a budget. And we succeed because we all want to be counted as public servants, that we can collaborate and achieve our goals without publicity or politics involved.

We built 563 school buildings in 2002 and 317 for Batch 2 will be finished by August; 283 will be completed by the end of August. Five hundred and fifty-four more schools to go for 2004 depending on the availability of the sites. Cheers for those small group of determined folks who have met GMA’s challenge. They have become true friends in the process and wouldn’t balk at performing such a big task.