COC holds groundbreaking, blessing of Puerto campus

Friday, January 27, 2012

CAGAYAN de Oro College-Phinma held a groundbreaking ceremony, blessing and ritual rites of its satellite campus in Barangay Puerto on Saturday.

The groundbreaking of the 3,000-square-meter lot signals the start of the construction process of the three-storey state-of-the-art education facility.

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Laboratories of the multifarious functions would cater to secondary education (high school), Information Technology, Arts and Sciences, Criminology, Education, Management, Accountancy, Hotel and Restaurant and Management (HRM) courses alongside a comprehensive library and students’ lounges.

CAGAYAN DE ORO. Phinma Education Network president Dr. Chito Salazar (center) leads the groundbreaking rites for COC’s satellite campus in Puerto with Misamis Oriental Governor Oscar Moreno (far left). (Michael Andrew W. Yu)

In the building plan, the whole process would span to three years under three phases. The first phase will accommodate more than 1,500 students and will cater to more than 4,000 students after completion.

Phinma Education Network President Dr. Chito Salazar said the first step in making the life better through education is to make it accessible.

“After achieving our goal of providing quality affordable education in Carmen and the surrounding communities, it’s time to extend this to more students, particularly in Barangay Puerto, its neighboring barangays, Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon. And by bringing the school to them, we lower their transportation cost and remove the need for boarding houses. So not only are our tuition and fees more affordable, the overall cost of sending kids to college is lower,” Salazar said.

He said their goal is to make the dreams of students and their families come true.

CAGAYAN DE ORO. Members of the Manobo-Tigwahanon tribe lead the ritual ceremony called “padugo” on the new COC-Phinma Puerto satellite campus. (Michael Andrew W. Yu)

Barangay Agusan Parish Priest Fr. Paul Finlayson led the blessing of the area while the members of the Manobo-Tigwahanon tribe from the Gardens of Malasag in Cugma led the ritual ceremony.

The event was attended by school executives and staff, Misamis Oriental Governor Oscar S. Moreno, Commission on Higher Education Regional Director Dr. Zenaida G. Gersana and local officials from barangays Puerto, Bugo and Agusan.

COC-Phinma belongs to the Phinma Education Network, which is under the umbrella of the PHINMA Group of Companies.

The school continues to change the paradigms of learning through quality education that is at par with the global standards through its College of Criminology, Nursing, Arts and Sciences, Information Technology, Engineering, Education and Graduate School.