DAVAO CITY—Two schools in Maguindanao and Marawi City got P27 million in combined grant assistance from the Japan government, one set of new school building to bring it nearer to school children, the other one to repair battle-damaged building.
The donation of a combined 14 classrooms to the two schools was part of the five-package assistance last week totaling P42 million that also included the upgrading of a health center and donation of medical and agricultural equipment.
The Bayanga Norte Elementary School in Matanog, Maguindanao, received a grant of $169,645 (approximately P9 million) to construct two new buildings with seven classrooms and to be located nearer the residences of rural families.
The proponent is the municipal government of Matanog, whose interior villages formed part of the erstwhile largest military camp of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The Bayanga Norte Elementary School has its own existing makeshift and dilapidated classrooms and which could only be reached by children after walking for 3.5 hours and up to five hours going back and forth from their residence.
“When the project is completed, students’ walking hours will be reduced within 45 minutes and they will have improved access to education. This project is part of the Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development or J-Bird 2,” the Japanese embassy said in a news statement.
In Marawi City, the assistance of $341,179 (approximately P18 million) was through the request of GMA Kapuso Foundation Inc. for the construction of a new building in Datu Saber Elementary School, whose existing building was “dilapidated and have been damaged during the Marawi Siege in 2017.”
“In addition, the school had more than 400 students [who] hold classes in six nonstandard classrooms, which resulted in congestion. Given these concerns, there is an immediate need to improve the poor situation of the school and its students,” the embassy added.
The new three-storey seven-classroom school building is also part of the J-Bird assistance program.
The assistance was firmed up on March 22 by Japanese Ambassador Koji Haneda who signed five grant contracts at the Embassy of Japan with the representatives of recipient organizations for several social development projects in the Philippines. The ceremony was attended by Assistant Secretary Salvador C. Malana III, of the Procurement and Administration of the Department of Education and Director Mar Wynn G. Bello, of the Bureau of International Health Cooperation of the Department of Health.
The new approved contracts of the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects includes the repair and upgrading of the main health center building and purchase of laboratory equipment in Dingalan, Aurora, (worth $109,567 approximately P5.8 million), the provision of medical equipment for the rural health unit of Balete, Batangas, ($98,880 or approximately P5.2 million), and the provision of a mobile drier with movable shed for the municipality of Calintaan in Oriental Mindoro ($72,007 or approximately P3.9 million).
The embassy said that since 2006, Japan “has been intensively implementing Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) and other official development assistance (ODA) projects for conflict affected areas in Mindanao, collectively called J-BIRD.
Assistance under this program has reached more than $200 million.
Also, the embassy said the Japanese government is the top ODA donor for the Philippines and launched the GGP in the Philippines in 1989 for the purpose of reducing poverty and helping various communities engaged in grassroots activities.