Firm keeps vow to give classrooms

TWO SCHOOL buildings donated to New Ormoc City National High School by Lopez Group of Companies are designed to withstand wind velocity of up to 250 kilometers per hour. JOEY GABIETA/INQUIRER VISAYAS

Twelve-year-old Chary Reales was all smiles as she entered her classroom on June 1.

“This is the most beautiful classroom that I have ever seen,” said Reales, Grade 8 student of New Ormoc City National High School (NOCNHS) here.

The classroom is one of eight housed in two buildings donated by the Lopez Group of Companies for NOCNHS, one of the biggest secondary public schools in Ormoc that suffered heavy damage during the onslaught of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” on Nov. 8, 2013.

The two school buildings were formally turned over on June 3 although Grades 7 and 8 students had already started using these since the opening of classes on June 1.

Reales, a resident of Barangay Tambulilid in Ormoc, said she liked the new classrooms.

“I feel comfortable attending classes. This (new classroom) will make us study better,” she said.

She said the new classrooms have high ceilings with better ventilation, unlike the students’ old classrooms.

Comfortable

Since their classroom now is not humid inside, she added she and her 44 classmates can pay attention to their teachers and their lessons.

Each classroom has its own toilet.

School principal Imelda Amodia said the donation helped ease the shortage of classrooms in the school, which now has 153 classrooms for 5,702 students.

Amodia said teachers and students feel safer in the new classrooms because the two buildings that housed them had been designed to withstand wind velocity of up to 250 kilometers per hour.

Yolanda damaged at least 10 classrooms of NOCNHS.

Several nongovernment organizations and private groups donated classrooms to the school after Yolanda.

One of them is the Lopez Group of Companies which has committed to build 122 classrooms in 41 schools in the provinces of Leyte, Capiz, Iloilo and Eastern Samar, benefiting more than 6,000 students.

So far, 77 classrooms had been turned over in Ormoc City and the towns of Kananga, Merida, Isabel, Albuera and Palo, all in Leyte and Passi City in Iloilo.

The rest of the 45 classrooms will be constructed this year.

These are in Ormoc, Kananga, Carigara, Burauen, Barugo, Jaro and Pastrana in Leyte; Sulat town in Eastern Samar; and Dumarao town in Capiz.

Firm commitment

A groundbreaking rite was held on June 3 at the Milagro administrative complex office of the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) in Kananga that signaled the start of the construction of 45 classrooms.

Among those who attended were principals of the schools that would receive the school buildings.

Leonardo Ablaza, EDC project manager, said that before the start of next school year, the 45 classrooms would be delivered and used by students and teachers.

Aside from EDC, also involved in the projects were other Lopez-owned companies—First Gen Corp., First Balfour Inc. and First Philippine Electric Corp.

Ablaza said the project, which cost more than P237 million, was part of the companies’ commitment to help the government rebuild areas hit by Yolanda.

Ablaza said the beneficiary-schools were chosen because these suffered extensive damage during Yolanda and were in areas that host operations of Lopez companies.

The EDC operates geothermal plants in Ormoc and adjacent Kananga town. Two schools in Kananga and another in Ormoc are beneficiaries of the project.

Ablaza said the companies also accommodated requests for school buildings from local government units like in the case of Sulat town in Eastern Samar.

Lone request

Ablaza said they hope that with better classrooms, students can focus on their studies.

Each classroom has a floor area of 63 square meters and are fully furnished with chairs, tables and blackboards.

“If the classrooms are nice, the children will be enticed to study well. That is normal human requirement,” Ablaza said.

“Our only request is for them (school officials) to take good care of the school buildings,” he added.

Ronilo Al Fermo, Leyte schools division superintendent, admitted that without help from the private sector like the Lopez Group of Companies, the classrooms that were either destroyed or damaged by Yolanda would never be rebuilt or repaired.

Yolanda, the strongest typhoon to make landfall, destroyed more than 2,000 schools in Leyte and damaged more than 5,000 others.

Fermo said the private sector contributed about 60 to 70 percent of the needs for the repair and rehabilitation of schools in Leyte.

“We are deeply thankful to them (private sector),” he said.