US-PHL engineering brigade turns over two-classroom school building in Puerto Princesa

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 16): US-PHL engineering brigade turns over two-classroom school building in Puerto Princesa

For everyone involved in its construction, the two-classroom school building built by the joint engineering brigade of the US and Philippine armed forces in the coastal community of Barangay Tagburos in this city was not merely a school building; it is also a “demonstration of what can be achieved when everyone cooperates and no one cares who gets the credit.”

The newly-constructed school buildings were formally turned-over by the military to the school administration of Aplaya Elementary School in Tagburos on Tuesday in a ceremony held at the school campus.

“With the construction of this school building, we have demonstrated that nothing is impossible when we work together,” said Chief Master Edwin Gonzales, Officer-in-Charge of the US Naval Mobile Construction Brigade (NMCB) Five.

Members of the US mobile construction brigade worked with their Philippine Navy (PN) counterparts for 65 days to complete the project that costs P2.4 million.

The materials used for the construction of the school building came from the excesses of the engineering projects made during the Balikatan exercises, a bilateral military training between the US and Philippine military, last year.

According to Western Command (Wescom) chief Major Generl Rustico Guerrero, the project is part of their US counterpart’s commitment to make education in developing countries like the Philippines more accessible to the children.

His predecessor, retired Lt. Gen. Juancho M. Sabban, nominated the school to be the recipient of the engineering project.

Domingo Padul, City schools division superintendent of the Department of Education (DepEd), said that the newly constructed school facility answers the lack-of-classroom problem that the school faces with its students that are more than the capacity of the classrooms they have.

He added that it is inspiring that the US-RP collaborated in accomplishing a project that will not only upgrade the capacity of their school, but most importantly, the students.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=516860