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Thursday, February 23, 2006
Classes suspended; officials see threat of landslide
By Rene H. Martel
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
The school in Barangay Sirao will be closed starting today after the Department of Education (DepEd) suspended classes for fear of a landslide.
On Monday, all 574 elementary and high school students will have to report to nearby schools because the one in Sirao is declared unsafe and should be abandoned.
Residents objected to the decision, citing the distance the students have to travel.
But Cebu City schools superintendent Leonilo Oliva said they do not want to put the lives of teachers and students at risk.
He said the landmass where the school stands continues to shift, and there is a big chance boulders overlooking the school will just roll down in any minute.
Gamble
“I will not gamble lives just to accommodate them. We we can’t foretell events. The teachers have expressed fear.
We also have to protect them,” he said.
The Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) had identified the school site as one of critical areas in the City.
As this developed, Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella is asking the City’s Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) to take advantage of the rainy day lull and start dredging the City’s waterways of silt to minimize the effects of flashfloods.
In yesterday’s dialogue in Sirao, the parents offered to sign waivers, which in effect would exonerate DepEd of any responsibility if something happens.
But Oliva turned them all down, saying waivers do not erase the fact that boulders and rocks could bury the school any time.
Barangay Captain Jesus Bontilao Jr. said the residents find it burdensome to have their children travel three to four kilometers just to reach Barangay Guba, where the 180 high school students are to be transferred.
Temporary
The 394 elementary students will be accommodated in the “temporary school” the City government set up in Sitio Tawagan when land slumping happened and affected Sirao in 1996.
Since there are students who are already using the structure in Tawagan, classes will be held “half day” to accommodate the rest of the students.
Bontilao said they just have to enforce the DepEd decision for the sake of the students’ safety.
His son Robert, lupong tagapamayapa vice president, also told Sun.Star Cebu that because the land in the school has been shifting, they have to place sand and gravel each week on the stretch of road that kept on sinking.
He said there is always water underneath the loose soil, even when there is no rain, a sign that the land is always soaked up and unstable and could collapse any time.
The MGB has identified at least three City mountain barangays—Sirao, Malubog and Pung-ol Sibugay—as geo-hazard areas, or those considered landslide-prone.
The barangays became the focus of City Hall’s attention following the landslide in Guinsaugon in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte that claimed the lives of hundreds of people.
Although over 1,000 are yet to be found, hopes dimmed that they are still alive six days after the incident.
Southern Leyte lies in a fault line, which, inundated by an unusual volume of rain, caused a portion of a mountain looming over Guinsagon to collapse and wipe out the whole barangay.
MGB 7 Director Roger de Dios, in an earlier interview, said that people living near slopes and riverbanks are at great risk of landslides.
City Councilor L`abella said DEPW could minimize the effects of flashfloods and overflow if the rivers are not silted.
“A relatively fair weather during the summer season signifies that the concerned government agencies could widen the scope of their clean up operations since the same will not be anymore encumbered by adverse weather condition,” he said in a proposed measure.
Labella also urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to take “proactive measures” and assist local government units in crafting a comprehensive forest use plan.
The move aims to protect public forest from private business entities, Labella said, after learning that “over 60 percent of Cebu’s mountain hinterland, which is ideal for wilderness preservation, is owned by the private sector.”
“The ongoing government thrust to revitalize the denuded forest areas of this city would really be more proactive rather than reactive if there is a blueprint for the systematic rehabilitation and development,” he said.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 23, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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