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Monday, July 24, 2006
Sirao ignores landslide risk
By Rene H. Martel
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Despite warnings from geologists and a declaration that the area is under the constant threat of landslides, classes were still held in the old school site of Barangay Sirao proper, Cebu City.
Sun.Star Cebu visited the school last week or over a month after classes started, and learned there are parents who are more wary of the new school site in the mountain barangay.
The school principals, for their part, believe transferring the school to the area will create problems in the neighboring schools.
They said over half of the high school students will most likely no longer enrol in Sirao because of the distance of the new school from their homes.
The site for the new school was already leveled when Sun.Star Cebu visited the area Thursday last week.
Sirao barangay officials have identified the lot in Tawagan, which is a few kilometers above Sirao proper, as the ideal site for a new school.
After visiting the area with City Hall education consultant Joy Augustus Young last March 6, lot owner Boom Fonacier agreed to donate one hectare of his property, which includes the proposed school site, to the City Government.
The area, located meters away from Sirao’s temporary school in Tawagan, was what the barangay council picked as the permanent site for the school.
Sirao Barangay Captain Jesus Bontuyan Jr., in a separate interview, said tests were already done on the area and these showed the ground is stable.
Soil test
Ayala Land Inc., he said, agreed to his request to include the site when the company conducted drillings to test the soil in Sirao a few years before.
Construction, however, has not started and materials were not yet delivered to the area, despite an earlier promise made by City Administrator Francisco Fer-nandez that bidding for the project will be expedited.
The Cebu City Council last May charged to the City’s calamity funds P14,805,511 for the construction of two 10-story buildings for the elementary and high school students.
The figure was based on the summary of cost submitted by the Cebu City engineering office, whose report Mayor Tomas
Osmeña approved.
One parent, though, complained the site the barangay officials recommended is more dangerous because it sits on an area below two hills.
She said she is not the only one having reservations.
The new school, she added, could end up like the one in Barangay Buot Taup, where a portion of a hill collapsed and almost buried two school buildings.
Bontuyan, however, said the area underwent soil testing and passed it.
Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) 7 Director Roger de Dios, in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu last month, maintained the students and teachers are still in danger.
The estimated seven-hectare swath of shifting soil and boulders as big as houses at the base of Mt. Kan-irag continually move. One heavy rainfall could send them all crashing on the school.
No movement
The mountain looms over the current school site in Sirao proper. A landslide buried the high school building in 1996. Luckily, no one was hurt.
De Dios said they had been monitoring the area since February and found no soil movement in their last inspection.
But officials should not let their guard down, he added.
Elementary School Principal Rizalinda Cairo said classes started uneventfully last June.
“Wala may ingon nga kuyawan ang mga bata ug ginikanan kay lagi kuno mag-landslide. Dili man sila kaayo katoo ana,” she said (None of the pupils or the parents expressed fear of a landslide. They can’t believe that would happen).
She has 424 students under her care. But almost half of them attend classes in the temporary school in Tawagan, which was built after the 1996 landslide.
High School Principal Normando Panilag also said majority of the 250 students under his supervision are residents of Sitios Langub, Kambiyoos and Cabanba-nan, which are quite far from Sirao proper.
The new school site, he added, is too far for them, they might not enroll in Sirao in the next school year, he said.
More complaints
“Mas duol na man kuno ang sa (Barangay) Guba o sa Pulangbato ba. Adto na lang kuno sila mang-eskwela,” he added (The schools in Barangays Guba and Pulangbato are nearer. They might just enroll there).
Both Cairo and Panilag said they have no problem with the new school site, but the parents and students are complaining.
Concern for geo-hazard areas had been raised following the Southern Leyte tragedy, where a portion of a mountain collapsed and buried the whole barangay and almost wiped out the entire population in February.
MGB identified at least 25 landslide-prone areas and 80 flood-prone areas in Central Visayas, including some barangays in Dumanjug, Ronda, Carcar and Toledo.
It also has recommended that the students and teachers in Sirao evacuate the current site because of the unstable condition of the land in the hills beside it.
The Department of Education, though, has allowed the students to occupy the same school structure until the City
completes the new buildings.
Osmeña last February also advised against the evacuation of the students and their six teachers, saying soil movement is just gradual.
Parents and barangay officials, though, were told to be vigilant and to monitor the surrounding area, especially when it rains.
There are 674 students currently enrolled in Sirao.
In an informal voting, students of one classroom Sun.Star Cebu visited decided overwhelmingly against transferring the school elsewhere.
At least seven liked the new site, but only because it is near their homes.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 24, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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