NOTHING in this world is permanent except change and if it is for the better, then it needs to be welcomed with open heart, mind and spirit. And for those who firmly believe that change will happen, change will come.
Butay Integrated School (BIS) has recently gained worldwide exposure after the school was featured in GMA’s toprating magazine show, Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho (KMJS). According to Juju Z. Baluyot, segment producer of KJMS, the documentary “Salay” based from the improvised cable car is a finalist in the 2019 New York Festivals TV and Film Awards.
Sitio Butay, Barangay Pichon, Caraga, Davao Oriental is home of more or less 300 Mandaya learners from Kindergarten to Grade 9 studying at Butay Integrated School which was given the integrated status by virtue of the approval by the office of the Department of Education 11.
Currently, BIS has 235 enrolees, 160 from Kindergarten to Grade 6 for elementary level and 75 from Grades 7 to 9 in Junior High School. It has eight national paid teachers and one head teacher who serves as teacher-in-charge.
Some schoolchildren need to ride the “salay” – a makeshift cable car made of rattan daily after the floodwaters swept the bailey bridge constructed by the provincial government.
Butay is a Mandaya word which means mountain. It is really a mountainous place that is 13 kilometers from the nearest Sitio, Sangab. One has to walk for six to eight hours of continuous uphill terrain to get to the village of Butay, which is even harder to reach during rainy season. Sitio Sangab is also a one and a half to two hours drive from the town of Caraga, Davao Oriental.
Butay Integrated School is headed by Pablo Banabal, newly promoted head teacher. He will soon get a Principal I position after passing the 2017 Principal’s Test. Banabal is a former finalist as CSC Region 11 Most Outstanding Public Official in 2011 and Most Outstanding Public School Teacher of DepEd Region 11 of the Agila Award.
Deped’s intervention to help the school is by approving it to become an integrated school so that high school learners will not anymore go to Sangab and hike 13 kilometers. They are also given priority in the hiring of teachers but because of its terrain, there are only few takers. Also, some teachers were already assigned to other schools, thus the need to scout from the nearby Division of Mati City and Compostela Valley.
Banabal who is now on his 11th year as teacher and school head posted a video of Mandaya learners riding a rattan cable to cross the river in his Facebook account. It was downloaded by newsline.ph, published by Edith Caduaya, who sent the video to the Office of the President for comment and to ask what kind of intervention can they provide.
Former Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go called the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other line agencies to evaluate the situation and find ways to help the students.
Banabal said the community worked to provide a temporary bridge through “Bayanihan”.
“We decided to have our own version of a bridge using our ethnic way. The rattan bridge worked, and it is serving us,” he said.
On June 23, 2018 former Davao Oriental 1st District Engineer Albert Cainghog and his team visited the area to conduct a survey and make cost’s estimate for the priority project.
On December 27 to 28, 2018 a meeting to fast track the road opening with attach bridges from Sitio Sangab to Sitio Butay was held between the local government unit and the DPWH.
It was followed with a meeting at DPWH Regional Office 11 in Davao City with DPWH Regional Director Allan S. Borromeo where the implementation of the P130 million road project was discussed.
Brought by the impact of the said documentary, Smart Philippines took notice of the need of the school which qualified them in one of their projects for unenergized and remote schools, the School-in-a-Bag (SIAB).
School-in-a-Bag, which was launched in 2016, is a portable digital classroom designed to facilitate learning in basic education in remote areas without electricity.
Michelle Bayhonan, School-In-A-Bag Program Manager, Public Affairs, Smart Communications, Inc., said it utilizes mobile technology coupled with an innovative 21st century teaching pedagogy and K+12 content to enable learning.
Since the school does not have electricity, they were given a solar panel with battery through the Smart School-in-a-Bag progream. The big backpack contains a laptop, tablets, TV, pocket Wi-Fi, and digital and printed educational content aligned with the official curriculum. Each donation package worth P100,000 includes teacher training and yearlong monitoring.
In another positive development in Sitio Butay, on January 6, 2019, troops of Charlie Company, 67th Infantry Battalion, installed and turned-over the generator from the Office of the President to Sitio Butay.
The school also received school supplies and solar lamps from Ethan's World.
Meanwhile, Dr. Chris Limen and his team from the Municipal Health Office (MHO) of Caraga and the Human Resource for Health (HRH) Department of Health (DOH) successful conducted a series of health services at Sitio Butay. This included School Based Immunization, Expanded Program on Immunization, prenatal check-up, medical check-up, and dental check-up and tooth extraction, among others.
With the way things are happening in Sitio Butay, it is hoped that the development projects planned for the place especially the road projects and bridges will continue so that it will benefit the community especially the schoolchildren.