New school building to rise from Yolanda ruins

MANILA, Philippines - Work on the two-story four-classroom school building of Pandan Central School in Antique will begin soon following the signing of memorandum of agreement between BDO Foundation (BDOF) and Washington-based US Philippines Society (USPS), a non-government organization that has been actively helping the victims of Typhoon Yolanda.

The partners chose Antique because it is one of the hardest hit provinces. Pandan Central School, being a center of excellence in the Division of Antique and Western Visayas with a special education curriculum, was one of the buildings levelled by the storm.

Pandan Central School also houses one of the heritage Gabaldon elementary schools, built by the Thomasites during the American colonial period, consisting of nine classrooms, a library, property room, principal’s office and an assembly hall.

The agreement was signed by USPS executive director Hank Hendrickson and BDO trustee Corazon de la Paz-Bernardo and BDO Foundation president Maureen Abelardo to signal the start of construction of the P3.5 -million school building.

The USPS held a fund-raising concert called “After the Storm” during the Philippine Independence Day celebration in Washington to help finance post-Yolanda rehabilitation activities in partnership with established local groups like BDOF, which has been assisting Yolanda victims in Western Visayas from relief to reconstruction.

The USPS, which counts four former US ambassadors to the Philippines as directors and former top Philippine officials as members, is a 1,000-strong membership NGO that works in the United States. Since it is a bi-national organization, there are Filipino directors based in the Philippines who are part of its board. “We don’t work outside the Philippines,” explained Hendrickson.

It has worked in Samar, Leyte and northern Cebu. The BDOF partnership was an opportunity that USPS picked because of the education component and because it enabled USPS to go to Antique to help in the under-served areas there, Hendrickson added.

Hendrickson said USPS may hold another fund-raising concert since “many of the Yolanda-devastated areas are still not getting any improvements from the destruction they have suffered and rehabilitation has been quite slow.”

He said USPS will hold a conference in Washington to raise awareness on the needs of Yolanda hit areas and accept donations.

The group has helped Cebu, Tacloban and Samar in the past through other foundations and NGOs It has worked with the Asia America Initiative, the Red Cross and other partner groups in health, livelihood, housing and education projects.

Abelardo said the school building will be constructed by a local contractor in accordance with the design of the Department of Education, but with typhoon-resistant features. She said the building would be finished in three months.

BDOF has been engaged in infrastructure projects in Yolanda areas such as school buildings in Northern Samar, a health center in Leyte and shelters and community centers in Northern Samar and Western Samar, Abelardo said. The projects cost P75 million.