Cojuangco Hits Camacho, DepEd on School’s Sad Fate

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BAYAMBANG – Former Congressman Mark Cojuangco assails the officials responsible for the lamentable fate that befalls the abandoned Bayambang Central School here where many of its properties have been stolen.

PLEDGES. Former Congressman Mark Cojuangco (red shirt)

promised P1 million for the repair of the Bayambang Central

School while SINAG President Rosendo So (extreme left)

said his organization pledged P400 thousand for the bellied-

out school. The duo was accompanied by Bayambang's

town council led by Vice Mayor Melvin Junio (5th from left).

He said the Department of Education should not have totally left the Central School when it transferred to a new location.

The absence of even a security guard resulted to the unhampered stashing by thieves of the school’s properties like ceiling, doors, black boards, iron grills, tables, chairs, and others that made the existence of the learning edifice unusable.

“Iyan ang sinabi ko sa Dep Ed na dapat maglalagay sila dito, hindi nila nilagyan principal office dito kahit temporary iyong paglipat doon sa isang site dapat manatili dito ang isang physical presence ng school sinabi ko po sa kanila ay suggestion ko reestablish nila iyong isang form of negligence na pinabayaan po  itong building na ito”.

He posed that  the administration of Mayor Ricardo Camacho seemed to be a party of interest to the conspiracy that has been  transacted.

“ Iyan pong municipal government para  pong  may pagka party in interest din ano? Kung magkano po ang halaga ng lupain, magkano lang ang pinagsasabi na magiging swapping deal. Parang luging-lugi masyado ang bayan ng Bayambang doon sa deal na inaayos nila. So kung ganoon po bakit kailangan umalis dito?”

The new site is only two hectares while the Central School is nestled in more than three hectares prime land in the town proper.
After the controversial principal Danilo Lopez and former Parents Teachers Association President Alex Medrano wrote a letter for the transfer of the students to a site in Barangay Magsaysay, Mayor Camacho filed a mandamus in the Regional Trial Court in San Carlos City for the recalcitrant mentors and parents to transfer in the new site -- two kilometers from the old site in the town area.

Presently the case is pending at the RTC through an indefinite Mandatory Injunction after the 20 days Temporary Restraining Order issued by Judge Hermogenes Fernandez expired.

The case however would become moot and academic after William Chua, the owner of the new site, wrote an ultimatum letter to Camacho that he will eject the teachers and pupils after 15 days if he could not get the swap deal with the mayor.

“It seems Chua and the brains behind the transfer blinked after the raucous raised by Cojuangco and SINAG President Rosendo So?” a political spectator posed.

So, chairman also of the Abono Party-list, said as of press time he got a pledge of 1,959 arm chairs and 50 teachers' tables from different individuals and organizations in the country for the bellied out school, while Cojuangco and SINAG promised P1 million and P400, 000 respectively for the urgent repair of the school to help eases the returning teachers and students.

The century old U.S designed Gabaldon Building was gutted by fire in a mysterious way in June 2012. After the conflagration, the mayor and his municipal officials said that the health of the pupils would be endangered because of dengue. Cojuangco wonders that this was the only case in the entire country that the whole student body have been evacuated to a two kilometer away location in Barangay Magsaysay because a single building, amid the presence of countless usable buildings, was burned and public officials fear the menace of dengue.

Camacho plans to make the Central School as site for a central terminal and a mall to be ran by Chua.

Parents Teachers Association President Filipina Alcantara said the other interest of the power- that- be is the Japanese treasure buried somewhere in the school.