Cotabato school abandoned as landslide hits campus

AT RISK Officials of Bongolanon National High School in Magpet, Cotabato, will not risk the safety of students and school personnel as the hilltop campus has turned into a hazard zone due to continuous rains that triggered landslides. A section of a hillside on campus has collapsed, as shown in this photo taken on Thursday. —WILLIAMOR A. MAGBANUA

MAGPET, COTABATO — Officials of a secondary school that sits atop a hill of this town in Cotabato province have decided to abandon their campus after heavy rains last week spawned a landslide that posed a threat to the learners and its school personnel.

Rovelyn Isogon, principal of Bongolanon National High School, on Friday said the campus was no longer safe for learners and teachers as the landslide on July 8 has affected the area near the teachers’ quarters and damaged the foundation of the concrete stairs leading up to the school premises from the national highway.

Of the some 10 classrooms on campus, only four were assessed to be safe for use, while the rest were in danger of being damaged or of collapsing as the ground continues to soften due to torrential rains, according to Isogon.

At present, the teachers hold classes for the school’s 250 learners at a nearby junior high school building that adjoins barangay hall of Bongolanon.

Isogon said the July 11 commencement exercises for the 2023 graduating class was also held at the covered court of their temporary campus with school personnel hurriedly constructing a stage.

Abandoned project

The secondary school was established in 2015 within a 5,000-square-meter property purchased by the barangay government to realize the residents’ dream of having a public high school in their village.

Before 2015, learners from Bongolanon had to travel at least 30 minutes on a “habal-habal” (passenger motorcycle) to either Barangay Tagbac, also in Magpet, or Barangay Ginatilan in Kidapawan City.

Isogon said 86 percent of their learners belong to the Manobo tribe who come from communities at the foothills of Mt. Apo, the country’s highest peak.

She lamented at the abandonment by a government public works contractor of a P3-million slope protection project that could have averted the landslide.

Arnulfo Villaruz, Cotabato provincial disaster risk reduction and management officer, said he would investigate the abandonment of the project that was implemented last year.

Isogon said that while a permanent solution to their problem was being worked out, she would ask the Department of Education’s Cotabato division to allow them to establish temporary learning centers in the village’s elementary school campus to accommodate their learners in the next school year.

“We will find solutions to all these. With or without assistance from the government, we will ensure that our learners from among the indigenous peoples will not be deprived of their rights to education,” Isogon said.

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