PLDT Gabay Guro to donate 3 more classrooms in Bohol

BOHOL, Philippines – PLDT Gabay Guro (2G), the flagship project of PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF) and PLDT Managers’ Club Inc., will donate three classrooms to the Mocpoc Elementary School in this province.

These pre-fabricated classrooms, scheduled for installation this month, will bring to 11 the total number of 2G-donated classrooms in various towns in the area since 2013.

The elementary school is located in Mocpoc, one of the 67 barangays that comprise the municipality of Loon, which hosts PLDT’s Domestic Fiber Optic Network (DFON) beach manhole which connects the wet and the dry portions of the fiber optic link and anchors the fiber safely.

DFON links Bohol with the major network centers in the Visayas and Mindanao to provide economic boost to the earthquake-ravaged province. It will support Bohol’s thriving tourism industry and business process outsourcing hubs, and its small and medium enterprise sector.

Equipped with furniture, fixtures, and comfort rooms, the new classrooms in Mocpoc will be built with collapsible partitions so they can be transformed into a multi-purpose hall when the need arises.

2G was one of the first responders after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol in October 2013, having built six classrooms in less than two months.

Last December, PLDT first vice president and comptroller and 2G founder Chaye Cabal-Revilla with 2G volunteers turned over two classrooms each to the Hinawanan National High School in Laoay, Loreto Elementary School in Cortes, and Dr. Cecilio Putong National High School in Tagbilaran City.

“We are glad to have been able to build the Bohol classrooms in record time, in order to help students and teachers go back to school and hold classes in proper classrooms. We were the first ones to put up permanent structures in these areas with the cooperation of the Department of Education and the local government units,” said Cabal-Revilla.

Last February, two other classrooms were turned over by 2G, this time to the Sto. Niño-De La Paz Elementary School, one of the biggest barangay schools in Loon South District in terms of population.

Of the school’s eight school buildings, six were totally damaged by the earthquake, that school officials had to conduct half-day classes for one month after the quake because of lack of classrooms, according to school principal Esterlito Cantones.

“All these classrooms are sturdily built by our partner construction company – MyHouse Solid Group Inc. With roofs made of corrugated steel and walls of foam with metal sheets, they are designed to withstand 250-kph typhoon winds and Intensity 7 earthquakes,” said 2G chairman for educational facilities and PLDT head of cost planning and settlement Bong Padiz.

2G has also conducted livelihood seminars for teachers and their family members, as well as a teachers’ training program, and a tribute concert dubbed “Pahalipay sa Bohol, A Special Tribute for Ma’am and Sir.”

As part of the PLDT Group of Companies’ commitment to help the typhoon-damaged areas in their recovery efforts, in partnership with the local government units, 2G has also donated a total of 10 classrooms and provided scholarship grants for future teachers in Leyte and Capiz.