AS a tropical country, the Philippines is frequently visited by typhoons in the rainy season, more often leaving the rural areas a disaster site for their crops, houses and schools. The common refuge of the victims are the local schools—if they are not themselves damaged.

Unfortunately, many of these schools are also affected by the storms because they are inadequately built to withstand natural disasters.

“At least 22 typhoons hit the Philippines per year, causing estimated damage of P5 billion, mostly in the provinces,” according to a recent presentation made by Illac Angelo Diaz, executive director of My Shelter Foundation Inc. at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City.

As often happens in developing countries, the materials used in rural houses cannot withstand the violence of the strong winds, so they depend on classrooms to provide them shelter. What is a place of learning becomes a refuge of last resort in calamity, he added.

The government continuously spends huge sums of money to reconstruct school buildings every year, but when calamities strike and these are damaged anew, the classes are interrupted and the result of learning is lost. Building and spending on a better school in the long run will cost less for the government side, according to Diaz. Hence the vision behind the “Be Better, Build Better Program,” which aims to break this cycle and turn it into an ascent toward resiliency and progress.

My Shelter Foundation Inc., in partnership with the private sectors, has come up with a design competition that would help the government provide a better structural architecture for Philippine schools.

There are three components for the program: first, the Millennium School Design Competition, a global competition for a school-building design that can withstand typhoons, storms and other natural disaster; second, a Campaign for Preparedness when disaster happens, meant to empower the communities by proactive disaster management and education; and last, the Construction of the Winning Design, to be built in Nato Sangay, Camarines Sur, where Milenyo and Reming had wrought tremendous damage.

The millennium school is a design competition for countries located in the tropics; the competition is part of the global “Be Better, Build Better Campaign” to solicit the best architecture designs for humanity from all over the world.

Architects were brought together to try to find solutions to the problems of schools in areas at high risk of natural disaster.

The winning design through the Adopt-A-School program of the Department of Education will be recommended for future construction of the quintessential Philippine school.

Korean firms team up for P1-B Subic resort-hotel

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Counting on the influx of tourists and students from South Korea and the growing number of Korean businesses in the country, two Korean investors have pooled resources for a P1-billion resort-hotel project here.

Property development still at steady pace

At least 20 residential condominium projects were launched during the first three months of this year, quelling speculations that the property-development sector is in for a slowdown due to current economic conditions.

DAVAO CITY—Heavy siltation of the entire Davao City coast may muddle the plan of the city and the Department of Tourism to develop what may be a world-class wreck dive site of World War 2 Japanese ships just off its southern coast.

AS a tropical country, the Philippines is frequently visited by typhoons in the rainy season, more often leaving the rural areas a disaster site for their crops, houses and schools. The common refuge of the victims are the local schools—if they are not themselves damaged.