Education officials open more schools in cleared areas in Marawi

LANAO DEL SUR --- Officials reopened 12 more schools in different areas in Marawi City that were badly affected by the deadly five-month siege by Islamic militants.More than 60 schools failed to open in June as a consequence of the hostilities in Marawi City which erupted on May 23 and lasted until October 23.Reports obtained on Tuesday from the office of Ana Zenaida Unte, assistant superintendent for Marawi City schools, stated that the 12 reopened institutions are now guarded by barangay officials and government security forces.Unte said they are busy now delivering learning kits and other provisions donated by offices of the Department of Education in different parts of the country for conflict-stricken Maranao school children. We received from DepEd central office more than 500 big boxes of supplies for the reopened schools. These donations came from different DepEd division offices in regions across the country, Unte said.Unte said they also received on Monday 17 sets of solar power-generation facilities secured by John Magno, regional education secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, from DepEd’s central office. We are in dire need of these because the regular facilities supplying electricity to conflict-ravaged barangays were destroyed by bombs and explosives used by the protagonists in the five-month Marawi conflict, Unte said.More than a dozen schools were reopened by DepEd-ARMM even before President Rodrigo Duterte announced on October 23 that Marawi City had been liberated from Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen.Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command said on Tuesday that bomb experts are still clearing many school campuses from improvised explosive devices and booby traps laid by terrorists.Magno said their bid to reopen schools in areas already cleared by security experts are being coordinated closely with military and police officials in Marawi City. We do not reopen schools without due security clearance. We are thanking the WestMinCom for its effort to clear the campuses of bombs and unexploded ordnance, Magno said on Tuesday.Magno said classes also resumed in Marawi City’s Conding, Sikap, Cabingan, Banga, Datu Tambak, Bito, Pendolonan, Abdulazis, Camp Bagong Amai Pakpak, Sugod and Mipaga Elementary Schools early on.