Return to the Bayambang Central School in Poblacion
COJUANGCO UPDATES
PARENTS’ PLEA
PARENTS of 1,200 pupils studying in Bayambang Central School who were temporarily relocated to another barangay have decided to ask the local government to heed their plea for the return of the school to its original site.
Filipinas Alcantara, president of the Parents Teachers Association, told local newsmen Thursday that the demand surfaced in a general assembly held recently where each parent was asked to cast his or her vote about their preference, whether to stay in the new temporary location or go back to the old school site in Barangay Bical, its home for already a century.
Alcantara said only four preferred to remain in the new temporary site which was reportedly built by a Chinese businessman in the hope of getting in return, through land swap, the old school site considered a prime property in the central business area of the town in Poblacion.
Local authorities and DepEd officials conducted an ocular inspection Thursday at the Bayambang Central School original site in Poblacion. Emotions remain high among stakeholders over the two-year dispute on the temporary transfer of the school to Barangay Bical.
Parents have been complaining about additional transportation expenses they incur in sending their kids to the new school site.
Alcantara said she has two children studying in Bayambang Central School and she spends P120 for their daily transportation expenses.
Most of the pupils of the school live in Zones 5, 6 and 7 in Poblacion and sending their school in the new site is an added burden on their limited finances.
The controversy about the temporary transfer of the school two years ago has reached the court.
An ocular inspection was made in the original school site Thursday by a group of Sanggunian Bayan members, as well as officials from said school, Engineering and Health offices of the local government, Bureau of Fire Protection, among others.
Alcantara asked, “What have they done to remedy the situations which they used as bases for the temporary transfer of the school, like flooding and dengue cases?”
“Nothing,” she lamented. “There are solutions. The problem here could not be answered by relocation of the school,” she added.
She said, on the contrary, it had been only she and some concerned PTA officials and parents who repairing the classrooms, cleaning the surroundings and others so that in case pupils return to their original school site, their classrooms would be ready for occupancy.
Alcantara thanked former Fifth District Rep. Mark Cojuangco, Engr. Rosendo So and the Samahang Industriyang Agrikultura and their businessman-friends, as well as Sen. Cynthia Villar for providing for the repair of classrooms and tables and chairs in the old school site.
Alcantara vowed her group will continue their fight until the school is returned to its original site in Poblacion.
She said she is grateful that Engr. So continues to help them in their advocacy and Cojuangco has been consistently providing both material and moral support. Cojuangco recently joined the parents in a public forum here about the plea of the parents for the return of the school to its old site.
Councilor Chato Junio, the only one who did not sign the resolution passed by the municipal council that paved the way for the temporary relocation of the school, said the problem can be easily solved that needs only the joint actions of the council and the office of the mayor.
“Two years (relocation) being temporary has been a long time. I challenge you all, there is a solution to any problem,” she added.
She said efforts must be made to ask the national government for the provision of additional classrooms for the school in its original site and a law prohibiting transfer or selling of school sites that host Gabaldon buildings.
Bayambang Central School has Gabaldon buildings but a mysterious fire destroyed it three years ago.
Corazon Cayabyab, principal of Bayambang Central School said their (school officials) hands are tied and would only vow on what the Department of Education would tell them to do (about the transfer).
Councilor Raymund Camacho, chairman of Committee on Education, under whose committee the hearing and inspection were made, said he would come up with a report that would be the basis for the reply to the resolution of the PTA about their call for the return to the original school site.
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