The Pampanga High School (PHS) in the City of San Fernando has become among the last recipients of school buildings from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).
This was revealed by Andrea Domingo, Pagcor Chairwoman, during Saturday’s inauguration of a P41-million school building at PHS, Pampanga’s oldest and largest public secondary school.
Domingo said President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Department of Education to be directly in charge of the construction of school buildings and Pagcor to focus on social and health services.
DepEd’s budget was increased by 31 percent to cover for its requirement on school buildings.
“Pagcor’s funds for social services will now be poured into health services such as requirement of public hospitals for equipment and facilities and availability of medicines to all Filipinos,” Domingo said.
With the order, Pagcor will just finish completing the more than 7,000 buildings it originally funded such as that for Francisco G. Nepomuceno Memorial High School (FGNMHS) in Angeles City and the 24-classroom, four-storey edifice for PHS.
Domingo, an alumni of PHS Class of 1965 and former Pampanga congresswoman, said more than 1,000 students under the Senior High School program will benefit from the project.
PHS, which has close to 11,000 students, has been awaiting for the opening of the new school building as its population spiked due to the additional years under the K-12 program.
The new PHS building was built taking into consideration the topographic location of the school which is perennially flooded. Its foundations were also strengthened to endure earthquakes and typhoons.
“These school buildings were built in the standards of Pagcor to withstand typhoon and flooding,” Domingo said.
Constructed at the right side of PHS’ main Gabaldon Building, the Pagcor-donated building is elevated by at least one meter from the ground to make sure that it will not be easily reached by flood.
RELIEF OPERATIONS
Domingo, along with Assistant Vice President for Communications and Services Department Arnel Ignacio, also made Pagcor felt to flood-affected families of the region with hundreds of relief packs distributed to municipal mayors and local social welfare officers.
More than 12,000 packs of relief goods were delivered to flood-hit towns of Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan, said Domingo.
The towns of Minalin, Macabebe, Masantol, Sto. Tomas, Guagua, Mexico, Sasmuan and this city, were among the recipients of the relief goods.
Pagcor and local officials in this city personally distributed the relief goods to residents of Barangay San Jose, one of the inundated areas in this capital city. –Albert Lacanlale