MANILA, Philippines – Some schools in the country are precariously located on faultlines, according to the Department of Education (DepEd).
Architect Felix Villanueva Jr. of DepEd's Physical Facilities Schools and Engineering Division (PFSED) said most of these schools have been donated by private entities.
“We have no choice but to accept them because they are merely donated to us 30 or 50 years ago,” Villanueva said.
He cited the disaster that struck a public school in St. Bernard in Guinsaugon town in Southern Leyte, where several structures were buried in mud during heavy rains.
As this developed, Deped building inspectors are now verifying with the Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology (Phivolcs) the locations of active faultlines where schools might have been built.
For his part, PFSED officer in charge Oliver Hernandez said there is a continuous assessment of the school buildings nationwide due to the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan recently.
He said among the schools they have inspected and found to have structural defects are located in Cordillera Administrative Region, Caraga Region, Western Visayas Regiond, and Davao Region.
The defects have been attributed to old age, poor construction, and those battered frequently by typhoons, especially schools in the eastern seaboard, Hernandez said.
He said old school buildings or the Gabaldon type have been reinforced and retrofitted while others have been replaced by new ones built to withstand a magnitude 9 quake.