Sulu school receives new buildings

From the Manila Bulletin (Jun 1): Sulu school receives new buildings

SULU — Located about 30 minutes from Sulu’s solitary airport, and just 15 minutes away from Barangay Tupas -- site of the latest conflict between the military and the Abu Sayaff Group (ASG) -- is the Kaunayan Elementary School.

First established in the 1940s, it is the second oldest school in Patikul, Sulu, and has seen its own share of conflict through the years. In fact, the school was almost closed down in 2004, either because of intermittent conflict or sheer apathy, depending on which of the locals you ask.

But on a sunny afternoon last Monday, conflict was the farthest thing from the minds of the schools 477 students as they celebrated the turnover of three new buildings housing six classrooms, as well as two new restrooms, built through the efforts of the Philippine Army’s Marine Battalion Landing Team Six (MBLT-6), in partnership with TEN Moves!

TEN Moves! is a public fundraising campaign for the construction of 10,000 classrooms nationwide.

In simple rites held on the school’s open ground, the buildings mwere turned over to Kaunayan Elementary School principal Dalma H. Indanan by Colonel Jose Johriel M. Cenabre, commander of the 2nd Marine Brigade; Lieutenant Colonel Antonio G. Mangoroban Jr., commanding officer of the MBLT-6; and Atty. Angelo L. Valencia of TEN Moves!

Indanan says that the school caught TEN Moves! attention when she approached Lt. Col. Mangoroban about the sorry state of the school, which only had 70 children enrolled during 2004.

Since that partnership, however, things have improved immeasurably the school. Not only has the student population ballooned to nearly 500 students, but the surrounding community has also grown.

“Dahil sa TEN Moves!, ang dami nang tao na pumupunta sa school. Noon ‘yan, kahit anong okasyon, walang tao na bumababa dito. Noon, kapag mag-Brigada (Eskwela) kami, walang tao. Kami-kami lang,” she says. (There are now more people who go to this school because of TEN Moves!. Before, nobody would go here, what ever the occasion was. When we would do Brigada Eskwela, there was just us.)

While Lt. Col. Mangoroban admits that there was distrust between the two sides early on in the partnership, he says that their mutual concern for the children of Kaunayan trumped any misgiving the locals had with the military, and vice versa.

http://www.mb.com.ph/article.php?aid=14911&sid=1&subid=5#.UamkOY7D9jo