Matanao prioritizes rebuild of school buildings destroyed by ‘19 quake

The administration of the Municipality of Matanao mulls of prioritizing the construction of the schoolbuildings destroyed by the series of earthquakes two years ago.

Mayor Vincent Fernandez of Matanao said the town has been badly hit by the quake being the epicenter of the magnitude 6.9.

He said the series of earthquakes impacted on the school buildings.

“In fact, we had schoolbuildings that were totally damaged and no longer required retro-fitting. They need to be reconstructed anew,” Fernandez said.

He said they have already raised this concern to the Department of Education, asking them for help to rebuild our schoolbuildings.

Fernandez lamented that up to this writing their plea has no response yet.

He said the municipality has 33 barangays and 42 school sites that need to be reconstructed.

Fernandez said some of these buildings were newly erected by were destroyed by the earthquake.

“The Matanao National High School is highly affected and it is now practically a ghost-town because of the devastation. There were six buildings erected in the area, but could not be used because of the weak structural integrity,” he said.

Fernandez said they were advised by the Department of Public Works and Highways in Davao del Sur and their municipal engineers not to use and to abolish the buildings. F