Busay barangay councilor Yody Sanchez (left) shows Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella the damaged building of Busay Elementary School. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)
Every school year, children in Busay and Buot-Taup in the mountains of Cebu City return to cracked classrooms standing on shaky ground.
In 2007, the school sites were declared landslide-prone by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
No relocation site has been prepared.
After a field visit yesterday, Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella said he wants the areas reassessed by the MGB.
“We will ask the MGB to come back and see if that same situation is still existing today before we take any other action,” Labella told reporters.
In Busay Elementary School, one buildings is starting to lean.
Only two classrooms of the building, which used to house more than 10, can be used by the students.
The others are used as a store room for chairs and desks. The outermost part near a mountain slope was demolished.
“It’s really dangerous for the students since there are already cracks. We decided to use only the two rooms farthest from the hillside,” said school principal Pamela Oliva.
“A lot of work really needs to be done in Busay,” Labella said.
He said an MGB reassessment would show whether only the school building is landslide-prone or the entire school compound.
This would mean relocating the entire school.
In the Don Emilio Osmena Integrated School in barangay Buot-taup, the school principal said they took steps on their own to reduce the effects of landslides.
“We were able to bulldoze a part of the mountain slope beside our school and leveled it,” said l principal Ricardo Aman.
Trees were also planted to protect the school buildings from rocks or soil that may slide down.
It was not clear why City Hall,until now, has been unable to take action after the MGB 7 assessment declared both schools “unsafe” with “high risk” of landslides seven years ago.
Joey Daluz III, head of the Local School Board (LSB), said he only learned of this last week during the Brigada Eskwela.
“When we went to Busay during the Brigada Eskwela, we noticed that the school building was already leaning. Then we heard from the teachers that they received the assessment from the MGB. I was alarmed, so we wrote a letter to MGB asking for a copy,” said Daluz, who was appointed to the school board last year.
He said the previous school board head, former vice mayor Joy Young, may have received the assessment.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) spokesman Eddie Llamedo, said the MGB assessment results were sent to the barangay captains and school principals.
He said the mayor was furnished a copy.
He said they received the letter request of Daluz for the MGB to reassess the two schools yesterday.
“We’ll check on it but for now, we’re rushing to finish the assessment of Yolanda-hit areas by June 22,” Llamedo said.
He urged the schools to revisit the geohazards threat advisories, “taking into account very seriously” the measures to be taken by the Department of Education and local government units.
He said the advisories have findings and recommendations.