TARLAC CITY—School buildings constructed during the American colonial period are fast disappearing, leaving us with very few physical evidence of the role of the United States in shaping Philippine education.
Prompted by this sorry state of affairs, Education Sec. Jesli Lapus has created a task force charged to “identify and restore” heritage school houses in the country.
Titled “Constituting a Task Force on the Conservation of Heritage School Buildings,” Department of Education (DepEd) Memorandum 164 Series of 2009 aims to “identify the number and location of heritage school buildings in all public schools, including but not limited to Gabaldon school houses.”
Issued last April 15, the memo named the following as members of the task force: Jonathan Malaya, DepEd assistant secretary for special projects and legislative liaison, as chairman; engineer Oliver Hernandez, as vice chairman; and Dr. Lino Dizon, engineer Annabelle Ramos, lawyer Art Tantuan, architect Numeriano Baler, John Roces, and Luzviminda de la Rosa, as members.
Hernandez heads the DepEd’s physical facilities schools and engineering division (PFSED) while De la Rosa heads the department’s special projects unit (SPU). The PFSED and the SPU will serve as secretariat of the task force.
Ramos and Tantuan are assistant chief and legal consultant, respectively, of PFSED while Dizon, a historian and author of numerous books on Tarlac history, is director of the Tarlac State University’s Center for Tarlaqueño Studies.
The task force, according to the memo, shall “coordinate with the National Historical Institute (NHI) to cause the placement of historical markers in each of the identified heritage school buildings to ensure that it is protected by law.”
It shall then “recommend to the (Education) Secretary the issuance of such guidelines … in the conservation, renovation, and/or rehabilitation of heritage school buildings.”
In pursuit of these conservation and rehabilitation efforts, the task force is mandated to “provide technical assistance to schools.”
Gabaldon buildings are named in honor of Assemblyman Isauro Gabaldon, the lone representative of Nueva Ecija to the First Philippine Assembly headed by then Speaker Sergio Osmeña, a Nacionalista from the second district of Cebu.
In 1907, Gabaldon authored what would later on be known as the Gabaldon Act or Act No. 1801, which appropriated P1 million between 1907 to 1915 for the “construction of schoolhouses of strong materials in barrios with guaranteed daily attendance of not less than sixty pupils….”
The Gabaldon Act was first of 170 laws passed by the First Philippine Assembly.
By 1916, nearly 2,000 Gabaldon school buildings had been built.
Prompted by this sorry state of affairs, Education Sec. Jesli Lapus has created a task force charged to “identify and restore” heritage school houses in the country.
Titled “Constituting a Task Force on the Conservation of Heritage School Buildings,” Department of Education (DepEd) Memorandum 164 Series of 2009 aims to “identify the number and location of heritage school buildings in all public schools, including but not limited to Gabaldon school houses.”
Issued last April 15, the memo named the following as members of the task force: Jonathan Malaya, DepEd assistant secretary for special projects and legislative liaison, as chairman; engineer Oliver Hernandez, as vice chairman; and Dr. Lino Dizon, engineer Annabelle Ramos, lawyer Art Tantuan, architect Numeriano Baler, John Roces, and Luzviminda de la Rosa, as members.
Hernandez heads the DepEd’s physical facilities schools and engineering division (PFSED) while De la Rosa heads the department’s special projects unit (SPU). The PFSED and the SPU will serve as secretariat of the task force.
Ramos and Tantuan are assistant chief and legal consultant, respectively, of PFSED while Dizon, a historian and author of numerous books on Tarlac history, is director of the Tarlac State University’s Center for Tarlaqueño Studies.
The task force, according to the memo, shall “coordinate with the National Historical Institute (NHI) to cause the placement of historical markers in each of the identified heritage school buildings to ensure that it is protected by law.”
It shall then “recommend to the (Education) Secretary the issuance of such guidelines … in the conservation, renovation, and/or rehabilitation of heritage school buildings.”
In pursuit of these conservation and rehabilitation efforts, the task force is mandated to “provide technical assistance to schools.”
Gabaldon buildings are named in honor of Assemblyman Isauro Gabaldon, the lone representative of Nueva Ecija to the First Philippine Assembly headed by then Speaker Sergio Osmeña, a Nacionalista from the second district of Cebu.
In 1907, Gabaldon authored what would later on be known as the Gabaldon Act or Act No. 1801, which appropriated P1 million between 1907 to 1915 for the “construction of schoolhouses of strong materials in barrios with guaranteed daily attendance of not less than sixty pupils….”
The Gabaldon Act was first of 170 laws passed by the First Philippine Assembly.
By 1916, nearly 2,000 Gabaldon school buildings had been built.
