Mandaue mulls relocating low-lying Looc school to higher ground

Mandaue City is seriously considering to relocate an elementary school in barangay Looc as a permanent solution to the persistent problem of teachers and schoolchildren who had to brave knee-high water when they go to school during high tide.

Officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) yesterday visited the Cesar Cabahug Elementary School to assess the situation and find ways to ease the problem.

Class hours were shortened since Monday due to the high tide. The school in the low-lying Sitio Paradise is located in an area which residents said was once a saltbed and is thereby prone to flooding.

Engineer Cielo Jamora, physical facilities coordinator of the DepEd who inspected the school yesterday, said the water level within the school’s wall is just the same as outside.

“We can backfill the school’s grounds to elevate and make it higher than outside so that water will no longer seep in,” she said in Cebuano.

However she added that the local DepEd has not allocated a budget to undertake this project.

City Hall’s help

DepEd administrative officer, Benjamin Tiongson earlier told Cebu Daily News the school will need help from City Hall as the education department only allocates funds for the building of new classrooms and to fund the acquisition of books.

“Ang kinahanglan ana kay rip-rap ug butangan ug filling materials nga i-compact jud before na siya i-semento (What we need here is to backfill the area and construct a rip-rap wall),” he said.

Tiongson said they may have to ask the Local School Board to help look for a way to fund the back-filling work while the Special Education Fund could be tapped for the construction of a rip-rap wall.

While DepEd and school officials say that additional engineering intervention is needed to keep the water out, City Hall is looking into solving the problem permanently.

“There’s a sense of urgency for a new school in barangay Looc,” lawyer Jamaal James Calipayan, executive secretary of Mayor Jonas Cortes, told reporters yesterday.

“The school is relatively safe as the water level does not reach the waist, but it is no longer conducive to learning),” he added in Cebuano.

He said the city government is eyeing a private-owned property for the school, but the plan will need the approval of the Local School Board.

Should the relocation plan pushes through, City Hall will use the existing school for other purposes.

School principal Zenaida Sucalit said this week’s high tide is the highest she experienced when she moved to Cesar Cabahug Elementary School in 2009.

She said she has instructed the teachers to keep an eye on their students to prevent any untoward incidents, but what worries her is the safety of the children when they go out in the streets. The school has 1,680 students under the care of 35 teachers.

Parental discretion

During meetings, Sucalit said they have been telling parents not to send their children to school when they find it risky and dangerous.

“Kabalo man jud ni ang mga parents when dili safe para sa ilang mga anak so prerogative na nila (The parents would know if it’s not safe for their children to go out so it’s also their prerogative),” she said.

Sucalit who also grew up in barangay Looc, recalls that visitors from Cebu City and other neighboring places would go to sitio Paradise to enjoy the white sand. The area is also teeming with different kinds of fish and marine life. But when illegal settlers started to build their houses along sitio Paradise, the seawater became polluted.

“Hangtod karon akoa pang pagadamgohan jud to nako ang lugar sa una dinhi (Until now, I still dream of this place the way it was before),” Sucalit said. /Jucell Marie P. Cuyos, Reporter