‘Over 2,300 schools used as quarantine facilities’

MANILA, Philippines — At least 1,797 public schools have been utilized as quarantine facilities during the pandemic, with 573 about to be used, which would bring to 2,370 the number of schools sequestered in the fight against COVID-19, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said yesterday.

“This (use of schools as quarantine facilities) proves once again that DepEd (Department of Education) is indeed the Department of Evacuation and the Displaced,” Recto said.

He said based on DepEd’s own partial and unofficial count, 874 schools are being used as isolation facilities as of Oct. 4, while 924 have been used in the past.

There is, however, a pending request to open 573 schools, where returning residents or individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 can be quarantined.

While they account for a fraction of the 47,188 DepEd-run schools, “most of them are in town centers, the so-called big central schools,” he said.

He said the count does not include facilities of state and city colleges and universities that have been transformed into isolation quarters.

“When disasters or calamities strike, the DepEd is the first frontliner agency in the Philippines – the first refuge of victims,” Recto said, adding people flee to school buildings during typhoons, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and landslides.

They are also the first option as refuge for victims of manmade calamities like fires and military-rebel clashes, he said.

The senator said public classrooms have become “Swiss knives, multipurpose in use.”

Schools have also been used as billeting quarters during athletics meets, science fairs, school press conferences and elections, he said.

Recto said the classrooms’ other important uses make their construction a top government priority, which must be annually reaffirmed in the national budget.

He said schools now cannot just be seen as places of learning but also as “safe havens for victims of calamities during this time of climate change, when storms are getting more frequent and stronger in a country that is prone to multiple disasters.”

He said the pandemic has also created a new class of evacuees sheltering in public schools – the 400,000 transferees from private schools.