One of the children who died in the Boljoon town truck accident on July 19, 2019. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio
BOLJOON, Cebu, Philippines — All district schools in Cebu will work together to raise funds to help the victims of the tragic July 19 accident in Boljoon town that left 9 children dead and 17 others injured.
Leah Apao, Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7), made this assurance, during an interview with CDN Digital on Friday, July 19, to the accident victims and their families.
Apao said that DepEd-7 would help them especially since the accident happened while the children were heading to the town center to attend a DepEd-hosted Nutrition Month Cultural and District Meet there.
Apao was in Boljoon town, which is estimated to be at least 100 kilometers south of Cebu City, with Rhea Angtud, schools division superintendent, when the accident happened.
Read more: 9 killed after student-loaded dump truck falls off cliff in Boljoon
Angtud also met with the families of the dead children and promised that DepEd would provide for the burial services of the student athletes who perished before they could even compete in the games.
Read more: Cebu province to shoulder hospitalization, burial expenses of Boljoon accident victims
“Nagsubo gyod ang Cebu Province Schools Division sa nahitabo sa Boljoon. Walay gusto mahitabo to. Karon, angay kitang magtinabangay para pagtabang sa taga Boljoon,” she said.
(The Cebu Province Schools Division is deeply saddened by what happened in Boljoon. Nobody wanted the accident to happen. Now, we should work together to help Boljoon.)
Read more: Mayor assures: Financial aid to Boljoon accident victims’ families
Apao also said that despite the accident, the DepEd activity in Boljoon continued because the children of the other schools were already in the town center.
However, she said they would look into the claims that the parade caused a delay in the rescue mission of the Boljoon Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Team (MDRRMO) and other neighboring towns such as Oslob and Argao.
She said that even if the parade continued, it should have given way to the rescue teams because the accident was an emergency that needed to be responded immediately.
Meanwhile Agnes Mendaros, Cebu Provincial Parents-Teachers Association president, criticized the DepEd-7 officials for continuing with the parade.
Mendaros said that they should not have continued with it since nine children, who would have been part of that parade died.
She said stopping the parade could have been a way of paying respect to those who died./dbs