BACOLOD CITY — The city government is set to construct a PHP20-million school building for the Progreso Village National High School (PVNHS) in its relocation site in Barangay Vista Alegre.
The groundbreaking rites for the three-storey, 15-room structure led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia was held Wednesday afternoon.
“This is not just another groundbreaking because this is a picture of what we are in Bacolod. It is a reality that we have so many informal settlers,” the mayor said during the rites.
“This is very significant both to the education of the people of Bacolod and to the informal settlers,” he added.
The school building will rise on a one-hectare lot in Progreso Village I, one of the two relocation sites in the eastern side of Bacolod.
The project, approved by Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones, will be solely funded by city government through the Special Education Fund.
“This is a dream come true for the people of the relocation site,” said Riggi Lachica, principal of the Vista Alegre-Granada Relocation Elementary School (VAGRES), which has more than 2,000 pupils.
The elementary school started hosting the students of PVNHS last year when the latter started accepting Grade 7 students.
This year, VAGRES will continue to accommodate both Grade 7 and 8 students numbering almost 500, and will do so until the PVNHS building will be completed by next school year.
City Schools Division Superintendent Cynthia Demavivas said that when DepEd decided to open the PVNHS last year, she asked Lachica to host the students and brought in teachers from Handumanan National High School for the Grade 7 classes.
Lachica has been appointed as acting high school principal, she said.
Demavivas added that for this school year, six new teachers will be assigned to the PVNHS, as confirmed by DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Mateo in his letter to the DepEd-Bacolod.
Vista Alegre village chief Jose Maria Leandro Norberto de Leon welcomed the construction of the high school building at the Progreso Village I as this would mean that students in the relocation site would no longer have to travel to the neighboring schools and spend for travel expenses.
Other officials who attended the ceremony included Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, Councilors Renecito Novero, Caesar Distrito, Em Ang and Bartolome Orola, Barangay 31 village chief German Bullolaza on behalf of Rep. Greg Gasataya, and Gualberto Dajao, president of Bacolod City Public School Teachers’ Federation. (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
