The Department of Education (DepEd) will spend P2.4bn in 2020 to preserve heritage public schools nationwide, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas said.
Gullas, a member of the Appropriations committee of the House of Representatives, said an additional P384mn was added to the P2.06bn earmarked this year for the conservation and restoration of Gabaldon and other historical schoolhouses.
“We have, nationwide, around 1,800 Gabaldon school blocks, of which over 140 are in Cebu,” Gullas, also an educator, said.
Many of the remaining Gabaldon school structures were built during the early years of American colonisation, and are now well over a century old. The programme was introduced by Isauro Gabaldon, a member of the 1907 Philippine Assembly who authored the law that appropriated P1mn “for the construction of school houses of strong materials in barrios with guaranteed daily attendance of not less than 60 pupils.”
“Our Gabaldon school houses are valuable cultural assets that hold pieces of our history,” Gullas said.
He cited the need “to safeguard the heritage school structures to remind future generations of Filipinos of the grandeur and aesthetic splendour of the architectural designs of the past.”
The conservation and restoration of Gabaldon school buildings is mandated by Republic Act 11194, which President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law in January this year.
The law compels the DepEd to identify, refurbish and protect all Gabaldon school structures, in co-ordination with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the National Historical Commission and the National Museum.
Eduardo Gullas: focus on conservation
