Roxas, Oriental Mindoro – Barangay Dangay held the groundbreaking ceremony of its Kalahi-CIDSS sub-project last March 28, 2014 at the Roxas Community College. The half-day activity was attended by the members of barangay local government unit headed by Hon. Eddie Forca, members of the Sangguniang Bayan, and several Kalahi-CIDSS community volunteers.

Nonetheless, the event was graced by no other than Vice Mayor Violeta Dimapilis, and the Regional Project Coordinator of Kalahi-CIDSS Joel S. Mijares.

Barangay Dangay’s sub-project is a 1-unit 2-storey technical vocational school building.  The said sub-pro

ject is a public college proposed by the residents as one of the needs of the barangay. In fact, a total of 207 individuals were identified as out-of-school youths.  While there are private colleges present in the municipality of Roxas, most parents cannot afford to send their children to school because of high tuition fees. Hence they opt to go to public school in another municipality, which only incurs a large amount spent on allowance and transportation. With this situation, several youths were forced to stop and drop out of school in the middle of the year, since they cannot sustain the finances.

On this note, residents of Brgy. Dangay proposed a technical vocational school building to address the need for an affordable yet quality education for the youth. The sub-project is an additional building in the existing community college of Roxas. It will consists of six classrooms where technical vocational courses such as welding, electronics, and bookkeeping will be taught. The sub-project is seen not only as a mean to provide quality education, but more importantly as an avenue to provide economic opportunities to those who will finish the vocational course.

The beneficiaries of the sub-project are not only residents of Brgy. Dangay but also of other barangays in Roxas, and nearby municipalities of Bongabong, Mansalay, and Bulalacao.

Vice Mayor Dimapilis said that the groundbreaking ceremony marks the start of finally addressing the need for a public college in their area. But then this would not be possible if not for the opportunity given by Kalahi-CIDSS.

Brgy. Dangay is one of the three prioritized barangays whose projects were funded by Kalahi-CIDSS. The total project amounts to Php 6.5 M with a Kalahi-CIDSS grant of Php 5,049,869.57. Nevertheless, the LGU of Roxas allotted a local counterpart contribution of Php 1,450,130.43. ###