Aussie envoy gets hands dirty in Taguig school cleanup

The ongoing public school cleanup drive leading the resumption of classes in June found a VIP volunteer in Taguig City Wednesday.

Australian Ambassador Bill Tweddell took part in Wednesday’s Brigada Eskwela campaign at Silangan Elementary School.

Tweddell painted and cleaned classrooms along with Mayor Laarni Cayetano and other Brigada volunteers, mostly members of the community and city hall employees.

Staff members of the Australian Embassy will participate in the cleanup of five more schools in Taguig till Friday. The mission is also giving each school about P60,000 worth of materials for minor repairs, according to the mayor’s office.

“We are honored that Ambassador Tweddell decided to personally help us in providing our school children with clean classrooms when they go back to school on June 4,” Cayetano said in a statement.

The mayor also announced that the city government would be raising its education budget this year to P200 million, double the P100 million allotted last year.

Tweddell reiterated the embassy’s support to the city government not only in the Brigada program but also in disaster risk management under a project with Taguig dubbed BRACE (Building the Resilience and Awareness of Metro Manila Communities to Natural Disasters and Climate Change Impacts).

“Our support to Brigada Eskwela complements what we aim to do through the BRACE program—to support Filipinos to take action in their local communities to protect and preserve their environment to help reduce vulnerability to natural disasters,” Tweddell said. Miko Morelos