Repairs of 7 Mandaue schools damaged by Odette fast-tracked

DepEd Mandaue hopes that the repairs will be done before classes start

Ongoing repair of one of the buildings of Mandaue City Comprehensive National High School, hit by super typhoon Odette. The building was donated by a private company before, but its repair was funded by the city government. | Mary Rose Sagarino

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Ongoing repairs of seven Mandaue City schools damaged by Super Typhoon Odette in 2021 are being fast-tracked so that these can be completed before the school break ends.

Of the 15 schools damaged, repair of only 8 were still completed, said Lawyer Marinel Oro, the spokesperson of the Department of Education in Mandaue City (DepEd-Mandaue).

READ: DepEd-7 completes repair of 81 Odette-damaged public schools 

Goal for repair to be done

“Hopefully , mahuman na nila before magstart ang classes para magamit na nato ang schools and especially naay coming elections, magneed gyud ta’g mga classrooms para sa atoang election,” said Oro.

(Hopefully, they can complete the repairs before the classes will start so that we can use these schools, and especially, there is a coming election, we would need classrooms for the election.)

Oro was referring to the opening of classes of public schools on August 29, 2023.

READ: Start of classes for public schools set Aug. 29–DepEd

P40M budget

The city government through the Special Education Fund has allocated about P40 million for the repair of the schools damaged by Odette.

In a previous interview with city councilor Malcolm Sanchez, the chairperson of the council’s Committee on Education, said that the schools that were completed included Casili National High School, Casili Elementary School, Bakilid Elementary School, Cabancalan 2 Elementary School, and Maguikay Elementary School among others.

Aside from the funding from the city, Oro said that the DepEd central office has also allocated a budget for other four schools that needed to be repaired.

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