At least 15 DepEd employees killed by ‘Yolanda’

Philippine military personnel unload relief goods to be distributed to those affected by Typhoon Haiyan at the airport in Tacloban. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Although many schools have yet to be assessed nearly three weeks after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” ravaged the central Philippines, field reports reaching the Department of Education show that at least 15 of its personnel were killed and nearly 5,000 others were displaced.

At least 5,300 classrooms were destroyed as nearly all the more than 3,000 schools in the heavily hit Visayas islands and Palawan sustained major damage, DepEd reported.

Reporting of casualties and damage is still going on, according to the assistant secretary for legal and legislative affairs, Tonisito Umali.

He said at least 929 teachers lost their homes while 4,237 other DepEd personnel reported major damage to their houses.

Umali said at least 5,297 classrooms that needed to be replaced, of which more than half or 2,217 are in the Eastern Visayas region. Of the 3,171 affected schools, about a third or 2,298 schools are also in Eastern Visayas.

DepEd reported having 3,232 public schools with 34,104 teachers and personnel serving 1,031,824 elementary and high school students in the affected areas in Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas, Central Visayas and three municipalities of Palawan.

Classes remain suspended in most of Eastern Visayas, but have mostly resumed in the three other regions that were also affected by the typhoon to a lesser extent.

Despite the destruction left by Yolanda, DepEd has urged school officials and teachers to resume classes as soon as possible even in makeshift classrooms to give their traumatized pupils a venue for recovery.

Umali said classes are still out in Leyte province, except in one district, as well as in Tacloban City and Ormoc City.

Schools have also not reopened in Basey and Marabut municpalities in Samar province, as well as in the municipalities of Guiuan, Mercedes, Balangkayan and Salcedo in Eastern Samar.

“They are really devastated,” Umali said.

But schools in Ormoc City target to resume classes on December 2, he said.

Classes have resumed since last week in the three affected towns in Palawan and in Cebu province and Bago City in the Central Visayas region.

Except for five municipalities in Antique province—Tibiao, Barbaza, Culasi, Libertad and Laua-an—classes have also resumed in most of the Western Visayas region.

Schools reopened last week in Iloilo and Aklan provinces, while those in Capiz province and in Roxas City reopened on Monday, November 25.

In Roxas City and the rest of Capiz province, Umali said, classes are still held in damaged classrooms. Since power supply has not returned, shortened classes are held in two shifts in the morning and in the early afternoon.

“Slowly we are getting there. Many schools have resumed classes, and only those that were hardest hit have not resumed classes. But even the likes of Roxas City and Capiz province that were seriously hit have already resumed classes,” Umali said.

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