NEARLY 500 students at Bankal Elementary School in Lapu-Lapu City will face shifting schedules and temporary relocations after a fire damaged the school’s stockroom and forced the closure of 10 classrooms on Friday night, Sept. 5, 2025.
The blaze, which damaged several classrooms, has forced school officials to resort to a temporary sharing and shifting schedule to ensure classes continue. The incident brings to light the challenges public schools face in maintaining safe facilities amid budget constraints and deferred maintenance.
The fire
The Friday evening fire damaged three classrooms and rendered seven others unsafe for use. The blaze, which began in a stockroom, caused an estimated P720,000 in damages. No students or staff were injured.
School Principal Evelyn Orongan confirmed that 472 kindergarten and grade 5 students will be affected by the displacement. To accommodate them, the school is implementing a new schedule that includes half-day sessions and the relocation of classes to other available rooms.
Orongan said the recommendations have been forwarded to the Department of Education (DepEd) Lapu-Lapu Schools Division Superintendent Marilyn Andales for approval before being implemented in classes on Monday, Sept. 8.
Bankal Elementary School has 3,723 students and 83 classrooms.
Initial investigation by the Lapu-Lapu City Fire District points to an electrical short circuit as the cause. The fire reportedly originated from an arched wire near a stockroom. School officials noted that a power meter had exploded months earlier due to overloading and that only parts of the school’s electrical system were rewired at that time.
The risk of aging infrastructure
Lapu-Lapu City Fire District Fire Officer 1 Vincent Rhey Reyes, in a separate interview, said that the initial investigation suggests that the incident was sparked by an electrical short circuit from an arched wire near the stockroom entrance.
The destroyed stockroom contained educational materials such as old unused books and electric fans marked for disposal.
School Disaster Risk and Reduction coodinator John Wilbert Go recalled an incident in February 2024 following the explosion of the school’s power meter due to overloading.
He explained that while some parts of the system were fixed, the old wires weren’t part of the rewiring plan at that time.
When asked about the possible overload, Go said it is possible considering the heavy electrical load in the area, with multiple classrooms in use or appliances left on or forgotten to be turned off.
DepEd Lapu-Lapu Schools Division Engineer Jonas Jacalan, who inspected the area, said in a separate interview that the rewiring project focused on the perimeter fencing and two main distribution panels.
Jacalan said the rewiring involved larger wires running to the buildings, but the classroom wirings were not replaced.
He added that the primary goal of the rewiring was to restore power to the school, while maintenance and wiring inside the classrooms are the school’s responsibility.
School officials are waiting for the results of the ongoing investigation.
Classroom shortage
The fire at Bankal Elementary School highlights a recurring problem in the country’s public education system: the state of school infrastructure.
The incident is not an isolated case but rather symptomatic of a larger issue. Many public schools, particularly older ones, operate with outdated electrical systems, overcrowded classrooms, and inadequate maintenance budgets.
According to a 2023 report by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, over half of the country’s public schools are in need of major repairs. In some cases, aging electrical wiring, like the one implicated in the Bankal school fire, poses a direct safety risk to thousands of students and teachers. When incidents like this occur, they not only disrupt learning but also force schools to divert already limited funds from educational programs to emergency repairs.
The incident also illustrates the distinction between local school-level maintenance and large-scale, division-wide projects. While some rewiring was completed after an earlier incident, the new work did not include the interior classroom wiring. The fire underscores the need for a more comprehensive and well-funded approach to school maintenance that addresses the entirety of a building’s infrastructure.
The system issues
The incident at Bankal Elementary School is an example of the long-term challenges faced by the Philippine government in ensuring a safe and effective learning environment for millions of students. Despite efforts to build new classrooms, the maintenance of existing ones often lags behind.
These incidents also raise questions about oversight and accountability. While DepEd has various programs for school maintenance, the responsibility is often decentralized, with funding and decision-making varying across different levels of the bureaucracy. The fire in Lapu-Lapu City underscores the need for a more proactive approach to identify and address infrastructure vulnerabilities before they result in disasters that disrupt education.
The incident could also prompt a broader discussion on the role of local government units (LGUs) and the national government in providing adequate resources for school infrastructure. The DepEd, with support from LGUs, is expected to provide safe and secure learning spaces, but the resources needed often fall short of the actual demand.
Looking ahead
Investigations into the fire are ongoing. The immediate focus will be on the speed with which the temporary learning arrangements for the displaced students can be implemented. The longer-term question, however, is whether the incident will spur a more systemic effort to assess and upgrade the electrical systems and other critical infrastructure in public schools across the country.