By Sen. Sonny Angara One of the hallmarks of the time our country was under the American In­sular government was an emphasis on public education. This comes as no surprise, as the United States at the time was also strengthening its public education system, starting in 1892 with the National Education Association’s recommendation of 12 years of instruction. Here in our country, public education had its first big push when the late Assemblyman Isauro Gabaldon sponsored Act No. 1801, which would be known as the Gabaldon Act. Under the auspices of this law, school buildings de­signed by William Parsons, the designer of the Philippine General Hospital, were constructed from 1907 to 1915. By the end of that time, 3,000 schools were built. These structures were modern for the time, but at the same time took features from the bahay kubo and bahay na bato designs that were common in towns in that era. Features included raised flooring, large windows, and high ceilings. These Gabaldon school build­ings, as they came to be known, became historical and cultural features in the provincial towns, aside from providing the people with much-needed education. Sadly, out of the 3,000 struc­tures built only 1,446 remain, according to a Department of Edu­cation estimate in 2015. Though these one- to two-story structures were made of hardwood and were certainly built to last, one hundred years of use, the elements, and other events have certainly taken their toll. Some of them were dam­aged or destroyed by typhoons, while others fell victim to fire. In one case, a Gabaldon school in Jampang, Argao, in Cebu was destroyed by fire in 1984. Some Gabaldon schools in Aklan were destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. Another one in Bayambang, Pangasinan, was demolished due to its state of disrepair. That par­ticular school was the first in the area, and was built in 1912. This is why I introduced a measure during the 17th Congress, with then Senator Chris Escudero as sponsor, to establish a pro­gram for preserving these school buildings. RA 11194, the Gabaldon School Buildings Conservation Act, mandates the preservation of these historical structures and, at the same time, finds funds for their rehabilitation and recon­struction. Under this law, the Department of Education will consult with the National Commission of Culture and the Arts, the National His­torical Commission of the Philip­pines, and the National Museum on how to implement a program of identification and conservation of Gabaldon schools nationwide. These school buildings will now be recognized as cultural properties – in essence, as heritage structures – under RA 10066, the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009. On January 18 of this year, Pres­ident Duterte signed the Gabaldon School Buildings Conservation Act into law. Hence, the program can now proceed. With the recom­mendation of Senators Pia Cayetano and Ralph Recto, the DepEd’s budget was increased significantly in the version of the 2020 General Ap­propriations Act (GAA) now on the Senate plenary. Part of that additional budget is meant for the preservation of our Gabaldon School Buildings. Our national hero once wrote: “The school is the basis of society. The school is the book in which is written the future of nations. Show me the schools of people, and I will show you what that people is.” The Gabaldon school buildings are historical structures where many generations of Filipinos first ex­perienced the light of knowledge, and, hopefully, wisdom. It is then a national imperative that we preserve these structures, as a re­minder of our nation’s past, what we should now, and how we should go forward into the future – that is, that education is intrinsically important to the development of our nation. Email: sensonnyangara@ya­hoo.com| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara Senator Sonny Angara has been in public service for 15 years—9 years as Representative of the Lone District of Aurora, and 6 as Senator. He has authored and sponsored more than 200 laws. He recently won another term in the Senate.