Students return to Sta. Fe National High School as residents clear lahar, restore access and plan safer community facilities
By Benjamin Cuaresma
MANILA — Face-to-face classes have resumed at Sta. Fe National High School in San Marcelino, Zambales, after being closed for nearly two months due to severe flooding, lahar, and debris that damaged portions of the school and the surrounding community.
Classes resumed on September 21 as residents continued to clear the campus and restore access to Barangay Sta. Fe following the devastation brought by heavy rains and flooding during the southwest monsoon.
The school was among the facilities heavily affected by the disaster, with lahar and debris covering portions of the campus and making access difficult.
For weeks, residents worked together to clear debris from the affected areas and reopen vital routes to the village.
Their efforts included helping construct an access bridge that became passable to vehicles this week, restoring an important connection between the northern and southern portions of Sta. Fe.
The main bridge had been destroyed during the height of the southwest monsoon, leaving the northern portion of the village isolated.
While students have returned to face-to-face classes, the local government is examining longer-term measures to protect the community from future flooding.
The San Marcelino municipal government, in coordination with Barangay Sta. Fe, is identifying a suitable elevated site in the northern portion of the village where a new school could eventually be built.
The proposed relocation is part of a broader effort to move essential community facilities away from the southern portion of Sta. Fe, which sustained severe flooding during the disaster.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and San Marcelino Mayor Elvis Ragadio Soria visited the village on September 2 and observed the extent of the damage.
The southern portion is being considered for designation as a no-build zone because of its vulnerability to flooding.
Among the structures located in the affected area are the barangay hall, the existing school and several houses that sustained severe damage.
Meanwhile, the Department of Public Works and Highways is exploring the construction of a 48.5-kilometer San Marcelino-Floridablanca Bypass Road that would connect San Marcelino in Zambales with Floridablanca in Pampanga.
The proposed project was presented during an information and education campaign at the San Marcelino municipal hall on September 21.
Project details presented during the meeting indicate that the undertaking could take six years to complete, including approximately five years of construction.
The proposed alignment would pass through Nagbunga, San Rafael, Aglao and Buhawen in San Marcelino, followed by Batiawan in Subic, before reaching Gutad and Carmencita in Floridablanca.
Representatives of the Zambales 2nd District Engineering Office attended the meeting together with officials from San Marcelino’s municipal planning, engineering, assessment, environment, disaster risk reduction and agriculture offices.
Municipal officials raised existing road problems and other concerns that would need to be considered in the project’s technical assessment.
They also discussed the potential benefits of the proposed bypass, its technical requirements and the next steps for planning and possible implementation.
While the bypass project remains under technical assessment, the local government is also exploring another possible route connecting Sta. Fe to Barangay Omaya in neighboring San Narciso.
The proposed alternative could provide residents with another route in and out of Sta. Fe whenever flooding renders the usual access road impassable.
For now, the reopening of face-to-face classes marks an important step in the community’s recovery, even as authorities continue working on safer locations for schools, public facilities and access routes vulnerable to future flooding.
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