Fence sought to stem tide off Mandaue school

While they cannot expect to transfer anytime soon, students and officials of the Cesar M. Cabahug Elementary School said they need a concrete fence and filling materials to stem the seawater that floods their area during high tide.

“The local government’s plan to relocate the school may be realized later, but now it’s impossible to do that since the school is already established,” school principal Zenaida Sucalit said.

She said the flooding is a seasonal problem for them since they don’t encounter this problem after August.

Sucalit said the students are safe in school but they wade in knee high seawater whenever the high tide comes in.

“A transfer plan will take years. It’s difficult enough to build a classroom, how much more building a new school,” Sucalit said.

Seawater level was at its highest last June 24 and 25 when it reached the knees of students.

Sucalit said flooding will be experienced next month and August but doubts if it will be as high as last June 25.

She blames the presence of informal settlers under the Mandaue-Mactan bridge as causing the rise in seawater level.

She said these settlers from sitio Paradise and Bohol need to be relocated to avoid aggravating the problem.

“The danger here is not caused by the school but by these communities,” Sucalit said.

For now, Sucalit said she will advise parents in next week’s Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) meeting to have their children bring lunch boxes so classes won’t be shortened.

“The students should take their lunch inside the classrooms so they won’t have to wade through the seawater and classes won’t have to be shortened for them,” Sucalit told Cebu Daily News.