DAVAO CITY — President Duterte’s oldest Cabinet official, Secretary Leonor Briones, assured Indigenous People’s (IP) communities in Davao de Norte of better more education facilities.
“Talaingod was the IP area I failed to visit last year due to security concerns. But today, I have proven that the town is peaceful,” the 78-year-old education secretary said.
Briones visited the Nasilaban Integrated School in Barangay Palma Gil Talaingod in Davao del Norte on Friday.
Briones pledged to put up a three-story building with nine classrooms, a dormitory, a solar panel project for electricity supply, and a rainwater collector.
She called on her undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and DepEd officials, from the municipal to provincial levels, to make sure that the projects are delivered before the Duterte administration’s term expires in 2022.
“Every sitio (sub-village) in Talaingod would have its set of kinder, elementary, junior and senior high schools,” she added.
“Despite her age, she managed to visit us and provided government services to this far-flung area,” said Talaingod Mayor Jonnie Libayao.
Libayao also said that Briones got the chance to talk to the IP residents, teachers and students and promised to solve the shortage of school buildings and the needs of the schoolchildren. (With PNA)
