Lobregat prioritizes island schools in 10-Rs project

The Landang Gua elementary and secondary schools and other island barangays were the first in the list of recipients of the products of Operation 10-Rs, a project initiated by Mayor Celso Lobregat to recycle dilapidated or junk chairs and desks.
Mayor Lobregat yesterday morning supervised the delivery of 260 chairs to Landang Gua in time for the first day of school today. The chairs were ferried from the 10-Rs project depository at the Don Pablo Lorenzo Memorial High School in Gov. Ramos to the Arena Blanco wharf where the facilities were ferried to Landang Gua.

Asdaris Jakaria, head teacher of both Landang Gua Elementary and High Schools, who received the chairs from Mayor Lobregat, expressed appreciation to the chief executive for prioritizing Landang Gua stressing that it will help resolve the problem on lack of chairs in the school. The Landang Gua Elementary School has an estimated student population of 400 for school year 2009-2010 but the seating capacity is only 142. Jakaria said the 260 chairs allocated for the school would ensure that no student will squat during classes. â??This is a big help to the students and we thank Mayor Lobregat and the city government for this very laudable initiativeâ?. Since Saturday, Mayor Lobregat in cooperation with the other stakeholders in the Operation 10-Rs project has started distributing the chairs to different schools based on a listing prepared by the Division of City Schools. The project, launched late March, is a multi-sectoral undertaking initiated by Mayor Lobregat to â??Recycle, Repair, Refurbish, Rehabilitate, Restore, Remodel, Repaint, Renew, Redistribute and Reuseâ? dilapidated wooden and metal chairs/desks from the public schools. The stock piles of dilapidated armchairs and desks from the different public secondary and elementary schools in the city have now been transformed and recycled to over a thousand chairs/desks, ready for redistribution to and reuse by students this coming school year. Mayor Lobregat said over 1,900 newly recycled and refurbished chairs/desks have already been produced out of the 10-Rs project. The chairs are stored at the gym of Don Pablo Lorezon Memorial National High School but work on more scraps is ongoing at the Zamboanga City Polytechnic College (ZCSPC). No less than Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, who saw the work at the ZCSPC and the newly refurbished chairs at the DPLMHS Thursday, May 28, described the project as amazing and incredible and is contemplating on using Lobegratâ??s initiative as a model project in the Education Congress or Adopt a School Congress or even in the League of City Mayors. A brand new chair or desk now costs between P800 to P950 each, thus sparing the government, either the Department of Education or the local government unit, from spending for the repair of those dilapidated school facilities. Operation 10Rs is undertaken in coordination with Los Cotratistas de la Ciudad de Zamboanga, Industrial Group of Zamboanga, Southern Philippines Deep Sea Fishing Association (SOPHIL), Zamboanga Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerse abd Industry,Inc., Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Commission on Audit, City Schools Division Office, City General Services Office (CGSO), Western Mindanao State University (WMSU), Zamboanga State College of Marine Sciences and Technology (ZSCMST) and ZCSPC. (CITY HALL PR – Sheila Covarrubias)

Via Zamboanga Today