School and local government officials of San Juan City formally opened on Monday the four-story West Crame Elementary School in Barangay West Crame, San Juan, three years after it was completed.
“For three years, schoolchildren have been deprived of its use,” said San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, who had funded the construction of the 20-classroom school out of his priority development assistance fund.
“It was a building built to a world class standards,” he said. “You can never see any school building in Metro Manila like this. It’s the first.”
Zamora was elated over the opening of the school, which was constructed in the amount of P43.8 million, saying it has finally breezed through the issue of politics.
The school building, located right beside the compound of Camp Crame, the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police, was inaugurated on December 8, 2015, a year after its construction began.
However, it was never allowed to open by the previous administration of San Juan, allegedly on a concern that the school is not safe from bullets coming from the firing range of Camp Crame.
The former officials of San Juan even allegedly claimed that the school is even hit by stray bullets from the firing range, which is close to the building, something that school officials and Zamora belied.
“That’s what they have said. But after all the investigation, nothing came out to that effect,” Zamora said, insisting that the school was only politicized by the former Estrada administration.
Zamora was not a political ally of the Estradas. His son, Francis, is currently the mayor of San Juan, beating Janela Estrada, daughter of former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, during the elections two months ago.
Dennis Bacle, principal of the Pinaglabanan Elementary School in San Juan, who would temporarily supervise the West Crame Elementary School, likewise dismissed the issue of security over the school’s opening.
“The fact that it has been allowed by the Department of Education to open, that means it is safe,” he said, as he led other school officials during the opening event, which was graced by Zamora, his son and other officials.
“There’s the assurance of officials, even by the Philippine National Police,” Bacle said.
In 2017, then-PNP chief and now Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones issued a certification to the safety of the school.
Zamora and his son visited PNP chief Director General Oscar D. Albayalde, who assured both of them that aside from other safety precautions that have been in place since 2017, additional safety precautions will be set up and that the “children who will be studying here will all be safe.”
While the safety issue had been addressed, Zamora said the previous administration of San Juan just refused to allow the operation of the school.
Former San Juan officials even eyed to operate it as a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, or as a housing unit, and not as a public school which is the very purpose on why it was built in the first place.
Zamora said the elementary school building would benefit children from Barangay West Crame, as the nearest public school in the area was the Pinaglabanan Elementary School, which is about 3.2 kilometers away.
Aside from the elementary school, Zamora is eyeing to construct a high school building out of his congressional funds, also in West Crame.