Monday, August 1, 2022

Ladies and gentlemen, Assalamulaikum. Madayaw ug maayong buntag kaninyong tanan. Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat.

Let me first acknowledge the men and women of the Department of Education behind this significant event today — an event that, we must admit, is causing both excitement and a little bit of uneasiness or anxiety to some of our teachers, some parents, and maybe to some of our learners.

Excitement — because Brigada Eskwela activities all over the country always highlight the communal efforts of all education stakeholders to prepare our schools for our learners. We would see parents who are excited, willing, and happy to extend any help they could to ensure that our schools are ready to receive our learners from Day 1 of the opening of classes and onwards to the school year.

The collaboration between the parents, the teachers, local governments, and the entire community on Brigada Eskwela opens deeper and meaningful collaborations even until after the school year closes.

Uneasiness or anxiety — because of the peculiarity of our time now. We continue to face the threats of the Covid 19 pandemic, along with many other unexpected challenges that hamper our daily progress for our learners — monkeypox, baha, bagyo, earthquake — all of that will come. What is important is that we have the determination to succeed in our mission.

We are all set to open our schools all over the country 22 days from now.

To address the valid concerns over Covid 19 transmission, we have laid down measures that will serve as our guide to prevent our children from contracting the virus as I continually call on our teaching and non-teaching unvaccinated Department of Education personnel to go to counseling and consider, reconsider your decision about vaccination.

Meanwhile, only last week, the province of Abra and other areas of Northern Luzon were jolted by a powerful earthquake that affected more than 9,000 schools. The assessment conducted by the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service showed that the government would need P1.4 Billion for the repair of 451 classrooms destroyed by the earthquake and the other 706 classrooms that sustained damage.

Two weeks ago, I also visited Clarin National School of Fisheries in Bohol and saw the traces of the destruction of Typhoon Odette that ravaged the island. But Typhoon Odette also destroyed many schools not only in the Visayas but also in Mindanao.

We all know these problems and the other problems and challenges that the Department of Education and its partners are facing year in and year out. As mentioned by Asec. Bringas, we were in a meeting last week and I was telling our Usecs and Asecs that we are in a quicksand. Hindi pa nga natin naayos at natapos ang destruction ng isang kalamidad, dumating na naman ang isang kalamidad. And we need more than P18 Billion, excluding the P1.4 Billion of damages from the Abra earthquake to get ourselves out of the quicksand of this year and last year. It does not include the things, or the repairs that we have to do from 2016.

But I am confident and I am optimistic that Department of Education will overcome — and we will overcome with the support of our national government and the administration of President Bongbong Marcos.

What DepEd Calabarzon did is an example of how we will be determined and resilient in the face of adversity. As mentioned earlier, there was really no notice about our program this morning here in Imus. But we are here, we were able to do our program. And the difference between possible and impossible is our determination to overcome all challenges to succeed.

The past administration has left us with a roadmap to look into and guide our steps to ensure that our target to deliver basic education to our learners becomes a success.

With the national government supporting DepEd, with the Basic Education Development Plan 2030 serving as our guide — the success of the Department’s plans and programs shall now be completed by our undying love for the profession of teaching Filipino children, our children, the future of our nation.

That we are gathering here today to pilot Brigada Eskwela all over the country — with your presence here — it is truly inspiring, and I hope that the energy that you are showing today will create waves and waves of the same energy and will reach even the farthest public school in the Philippines. And even if you don’t feel that energy, you get up every morning and psych yourself to feel, and to do everything with passion and energy, and enthusiasm to achieve.

Ngayon pa lang ay nagpapasalamat na ako sa inyo at sa libo-libong mga kawani ng DepEd sa buong bansa, sa mga magulang ng ating mga mag-aaral, at mga partner organizations and local governments.

We thank here today the provincial government of the province of Cavite represented by Vice Governor Tolentino, and the city of Imus represented by Mayor Advincula. Maraming salamat po sa patanggap ninyo sa amin dito sa probinsya ng Cavite.

Dahil sa inyong pagsusumikap, suporta, at pagmamahal sa bayan, kaya magiging matagumpay ang pagbubukas natin ng bagong school year at pagpapatupad natin ng mga proyekto at programa sa DepEd, isa na diyan ang in-person learning para sa ating mga anak.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat na bumubuo ng Imus Pilot Elementary School at sa ating DepEd Schools Division Office, sa pamumuno ni Dra. Rosemarie Torres, sa ating mga bisita na SDS at ASDS, at Usecs and Asecs.

Opisyal na bahagi kayo ng ating kolektibong pagsusumikap na matupad natin ang mga pangarap ng mga kabataang Filipino at matupad natin ang ating mga pangarap para sa ating bansa.

Patuloy natin na mahalin ang Pilipinas.

Magandang umaga. Daghang salamat. Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat.