BAYAMBANG CENTRAL SCHOOL: A Hundred and Three and Counting…
by Carmencita Pacis
Bayambang Central School is a product of Act No. 1801 framed by Assemblyman Isauro Gabaldon of Nueva Ecija. Built in 1914, the school celebrated its hundredth or centennial year in 2014 making it the pioneer school in the municipality of Bayambang, Pangasinan. It is located in Rizal Ave. behind the Bayambang Municipal Hall complex and in front of the Bayambang National High School. It is within short walking distance of the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish Church, the town plaza, the public market, and other key places in the municipality.
History
In 1914, seven years after the Gabaldon Act of 1907* was signed into law, the first Gabaldon building in Bayambang was built which came to be known as Bayambang Elementary School (thereby making it the pioneer school in Bayambang). And of the many towns and cities in the country, the town of Bayambang is one of the luckiest because it was the beneficiary of not just one but five Gabaldon buildings, three concrete and two wooden, in the elementary school, excluding the Gabaldon buildings of a nearby university.
The first of the five Gabaldons was a three-classroom structure constructed in March 1914 at the southeastern part of the approximately three-hectare territory.
In 1922, the second building, an elevated bungalow-type structure was finished. It has all the rooms of an ideal house with the ‘modern amenities’ of its time. It was aptly used as the Home Economics building.
(Photo caption: The first Gabaldon building and wide open space serve as scenic backdrop to typical prim and proper pupils and teachers of yesteryears.)
Photo courtesy of Hermilina G. Pacis
(Photo caption: The main building bustles with activity before its fiery end.)
The buildings, characteristic of all the Gabaldons nationwide, have architectural harmony with the main building and the other accessory structures with expansive high-ceilinged rooms and tall spacious windows that allow the humid tropical air to circulate within the classrooms. The augur well for ideal and conductive teaching and learning process, thus, probably becoming the yardstick of the criteria for classroom evaluation of the Department of Education, which include ‘spacious and well-ventilated rooms’ in the succeeding years. It makes one wonder how learning took place in such environment when learners were few, leaving the rooms and halls larger, and teachers were, according to accounts, strict in every sense of the word. No wonder pupils before were better learned and better equipped with reading and communication skills especially in English, making them eligible to teach after graduating from the seventh grade.
In between the construction of these big structures, between the constructions of these big structures, two wooden Gabaldon buildings were also built. The wooden four-classroom unit used to be located where the intermediate grade rooms are presently situated, while the smaller three-room unit stood where the grade three Marcos type rooms now stand.
(Image caption: 2014 GRADUATION PROGRAM AND SOUVENIR. The use of the ordinal number to mark the succession of the closing exercises is the only existing proof that the school has turned a hundred years in 2014.)
However, the two buildings did not stand the elements and termite infestation and had to be torn down to make way for new rooms.
The ‘house’ has a wide veranda running along its façade all the way to its left flank. The bedroom has a capacious wooden bed complete with embroidered bed cover and pillow cases. Right outside the bedroom is the living room furnished with gleaming wood set and rattan chairs all adorned with crochet dollies. Adjoining the sala is the dining room with big display cabinets arrayed with cutlery and silverwares. Behind the dining room wall is the kitchen equipped with both double burner woodstove that can accommodate big pots and pans, and a gas range. Another interesting feature of the building is the washroom that boasts of an enormous porcelain bathtub, sink and toilet bowl.
The four walls of the house feature wide panoramic windows with sliding capiz shutters that cool the atmosphere year round.
The building is remarkably equipped with a water system of its own, which is not really surprising because it was constructed around the Insular Government period, an era that introduced material comfort to people’s consciousness brought about by the Americans.
(Photo caption: Last ‘Man’ Standing! The sad plight of the school can make or break this once illustrious institution.)
The last to be completed was the biggest of the Gabaldons that was finished in 1924. Located some meters from the first one, it has twelve classrooms and a small office at the rear end. It became the main building of the Central School, and has served as the learning area of the first and second grades for the longest time until its disheartening end.
During World War II, Japanese troops used the Gabaldon buildings in Bayambang Central School and Pangasinan Normal School (now Pangasinan State University) as garrisons.
Recent past
Bayambang Central School has 41 classrooms excluding the charred thirteen-room Gabaldon building, two administrative offices (the supervisor’s and the principal’s, a computer room, a canteen, a clinic, and a mini-teacher’s lounge for fifth grade teachers, accommodating approximately two thousand pupils, 57 teaching personnel, a liaison officer/school clerk, four utility workers and the school principal.
Present
As of writing, Bayambang Central School temporarily holds classes at the proposed relocation site in Barangay Magsaysay. The temporary transfer took effect after the Regional Trial Court in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). The RTC issued the TRO against the respondents, former school head Danilo D. Lopez, all teachers under his authority, and former Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Alma Ruby C. Torio after some teachers refused to comply with Mayor Ricardo M. Camacho’s Executive Order demanding the school populace to “relocate temporarily to the said site until after the rainy season.”
The Executive Order was an offshoot of Mr. Lopez’s letter requesting the local government “to relocate the students and teachers to a safe location due to widespread dengue cases among the pupils and flooding during rainy season.”
Sadly, of the 41 classrooms and other facilities, not a single room was spared the looting and blatant destruction by unscrupulous persons days after the pro term transfer was effected. The rooms were ransacked and stripped of all conceivable materials serviceable to man. Fortunately, several philanthropic business tycoons, NGO’s concerned citizens and government officials led by Senator Cynthia Villar started the reconstruction and refurnishing of the vandalized classrooms.
Meanwhile, the respondents and the Department of Education await the decision of the Court of appeals to lay, finally, the dilemma to rest.
The five buildings speak of a grandeur the past has seen.
Their wide stairways and open hallways were playgrounds to countless learners who troop year in year out to the institution. The dark cavernous spaces under their elevated floors are favorite haunts of the more adventurous when playing hide – and – seek, the favorite pastime of many a children. They were the second home of pupils who have come and gone, who have made a mark and continues making their mark in the society. They were silent witnesses to the history and growth of Bayambang from a rusting town into a busting place nearing cityhood.
In the subsequent years, more classrooms were constructed funded by national and provincial governments and donations from private citizens to accommodate the growing number of students populace.
Intellectuals and respected citizens of Bayambang with a few from outside of the town served as school head of the century old institution, the latest of whom is the feisty Dr. Sherlita F. Baratang of Brgy. Tococ this municipality.
Catastrophe
A few years before the school can celebrate its hundredth founding year, the first concrete Gabaldon building was demolished due to infestation of termites.
Within five years of the demolition, tragedy struck when a fire gutted the biggest Gabaldon at the opening of the school year in June 2012 due to faulty electrical wiring, according to the Bureau of Fire and Protection. This displaced some 500 first and second graders occupying the13 classrooms.
(Photo caption: The illustrious in ruins. A fire razed the building to the ground in June 2012.)
The shortage of classrooms resulted to the shifting of classes between the first, second and third classes. In addition, the Home Economics building was also converted into classrooms to accommodate other primary classes.
(Published with permission from the author)
by Carmencita Pacis
Bayambang Central School is a product of Act No. 1801 framed by Assemblyman Isauro Gabaldon of Nueva Ecija. Built in 1914, the school celebrated its hundredth or centennial year in 2014 making it the pioneer school in the municipality of Bayambang, Pangasinan. It is located in Rizal Ave. behind the Bayambang Municipal Hall complex and in front of the Bayambang National High School. It is within short walking distance of the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish Church, the town plaza, the public market, and other key places in the municipality.
History
In 1914, seven years after the Gabaldon Act of 1907* was signed into law, the first Gabaldon building in Bayambang was built which came to be known as Bayambang Elementary School (thereby making it the pioneer school in Bayambang). And of the many towns and cities in the country, the town of Bayambang is one of the luckiest because it was the beneficiary of not just one but five Gabaldon buildings, three concrete and two wooden, in the elementary school, excluding the Gabaldon buildings of a nearby university.
The first of the five Gabaldons was a three-classroom structure constructed in March 1914 at the southeastern part of the approximately three-hectare territory.
In 1922, the second building, an elevated bungalow-type structure was finished. It has all the rooms of an ideal house with the ‘modern amenities’ of its time. It was aptly used as the Home Economics building.
(Photo caption: The first Gabaldon building and wide open space serve as scenic backdrop to typical prim and proper pupils and teachers of yesteryears.)
Photo courtesy of Hermilina G. Pacis
(Photo caption: The main building bustles with activity before its fiery end.)
The buildings, characteristic of all the Gabaldons nationwide, have architectural harmony with the main building and the other accessory structures with expansive high-ceilinged rooms and tall spacious windows that allow the humid tropical air to circulate within the classrooms. The augur well for ideal and conductive teaching and learning process, thus, probably becoming the yardstick of the criteria for classroom evaluation of the Department of Education, which include ‘spacious and well-ventilated rooms’ in the succeeding years. It makes one wonder how learning took place in such environment when learners were few, leaving the rooms and halls larger, and teachers were, according to accounts, strict in every sense of the word. No wonder pupils before were better learned and better equipped with reading and communication skills especially in English, making them eligible to teach after graduating from the seventh grade.
In between the construction of these big structures, between the constructions of these big structures, two wooden Gabaldon buildings were also built. The wooden four-classroom unit used to be located where the intermediate grade rooms are presently situated, while the smaller three-room unit stood where the grade three Marcos type rooms now stand.
(Image caption: 2014 GRADUATION PROGRAM AND SOUVENIR. The use of the ordinal number to mark the succession of the closing exercises is the only existing proof that the school has turned a hundred years in 2014.)
However, the two buildings did not stand the elements and termite infestation and had to be torn down to make way for new rooms.
The ‘house’ has a wide veranda running along its façade all the way to its left flank. The bedroom has a capacious wooden bed complete with embroidered bed cover and pillow cases. Right outside the bedroom is the living room furnished with gleaming wood set and rattan chairs all adorned with crochet dollies. Adjoining the sala is the dining room with big display cabinets arrayed with cutlery and silverwares. Behind the dining room wall is the kitchen equipped with both double burner woodstove that can accommodate big pots and pans, and a gas range. Another interesting feature of the building is the washroom that boasts of an enormous porcelain bathtub, sink and toilet bowl.
The four walls of the house feature wide panoramic windows with sliding capiz shutters that cool the atmosphere year round.
The building is remarkably equipped with a water system of its own, which is not really surprising because it was constructed around the Insular Government period, an era that introduced material comfort to people’s consciousness brought about by the Americans.
(Photo caption: Last ‘Man’ Standing! The sad plight of the school can make or break this once illustrious institution.)
The last to be completed was the biggest of the Gabaldons that was finished in 1924. Located some meters from the first one, it has twelve classrooms and a small office at the rear end. It became the main building of the Central School, and has served as the learning area of the first and second grades for the longest time until its disheartening end.
During World War II, Japanese troops used the Gabaldon buildings in Bayambang Central School and Pangasinan Normal School (now Pangasinan State University) as garrisons.
Recent past
Bayambang Central School has 41 classrooms excluding the charred thirteen-room Gabaldon building, two administrative offices (the supervisor’s and the principal’s, a computer room, a canteen, a clinic, and a mini-teacher’s lounge for fifth grade teachers, accommodating approximately two thousand pupils, 57 teaching personnel, a liaison officer/school clerk, four utility workers and the school principal.
Present
As of writing, Bayambang Central School temporarily holds classes at the proposed relocation site in Barangay Magsaysay. The temporary transfer took effect after the Regional Trial Court in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). The RTC issued the TRO against the respondents, former school head Danilo D. Lopez, all teachers under his authority, and former Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Alma Ruby C. Torio after some teachers refused to comply with Mayor Ricardo M. Camacho’s Executive Order demanding the school populace to “relocate temporarily to the said site until after the rainy season.”
The Executive Order was an offshoot of Mr. Lopez’s letter requesting the local government “to relocate the students and teachers to a safe location due to widespread dengue cases among the pupils and flooding during rainy season.”
Sadly, of the 41 classrooms and other facilities, not a single room was spared the looting and blatant destruction by unscrupulous persons days after the pro term transfer was effected. The rooms were ransacked and stripped of all conceivable materials serviceable to man. Fortunately, several philanthropic business tycoons, NGO’s concerned citizens and government officials led by Senator Cynthia Villar started the reconstruction and refurnishing of the vandalized classrooms.
Meanwhile, the respondents and the Department of Education await the decision of the Court of appeals to lay, finally, the dilemma to rest.
The five buildings speak of a grandeur the past has seen.
Their wide stairways and open hallways were playgrounds to countless learners who troop year in year out to the institution. The dark cavernous spaces under their elevated floors are favorite haunts of the more adventurous when playing hide – and – seek, the favorite pastime of many a children. They were the second home of pupils who have come and gone, who have made a mark and continues making their mark in the society. They were silent witnesses to the history and growth of Bayambang from a rusting town into a busting place nearing cityhood.
In the subsequent years, more classrooms were constructed funded by national and provincial governments and donations from private citizens to accommodate the growing number of students populace.
Intellectuals and respected citizens of Bayambang with a few from outside of the town served as school head of the century old institution, the latest of whom is the feisty Dr. Sherlita F. Baratang of Brgy. Tococ this municipality.
Catastrophe
A few years before the school can celebrate its hundredth founding year, the first concrete Gabaldon building was demolished due to infestation of termites.
Within five years of the demolition, tragedy struck when a fire gutted the biggest Gabaldon at the opening of the school year in June 2012 due to faulty electrical wiring, according to the Bureau of Fire and Protection. This displaced some 500 first and second graders occupying the13 classrooms.
(Photo caption: The illustrious in ruins. A fire razed the building to the ground in June 2012.)
The shortage of classrooms resulted to the shifting of classes between the first, second and third classes. In addition, the Home Economics building was also converted into classrooms to accommodate other primary classes.
(Published with permission from the author)
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