EDUCATION is the bedrock of a prosperous society.

Supporting this belief, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is set to release a total of P10 million to 25 public schools.

The move is in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd) under the Adopt-A-School Program (ASP) and part of GSIS’s corporate social responsibility.

“We share President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s belief that education is the ‘bedrock of a prosperous society’. Our public schools need our support and assistance especially after the reopening of face-to-face classes in November,” GSIS president and general manager Wick Veloso said.

“In selecting the schools that do not have enough funds and must therefore be prioritized, we closely coordinated with DepEd,” Veloso added.

GSIS has increased the assistance for each school to P400,000 this year from P200,000 in 2014.

The funds will be used to provide assistive devices to the selected school such as computers, internet connectivity and educational tools.

In the National Capital Region, the adopted schools are Navotas Elementary School, Constantino Elementary School in Valenzuela City, and Laiban Integrated School in Rizal.

In Luzon, the list includes Calawaan Elementary School in Ilocos Sur; Baccuit Elementary School in Cagayan; San Miguel Elementary School in Isabela; Pinayag National High School in Nueva Vizcaya; and Maguyepyep Integrated School in Abra.

Also included are Haligue Silangan National High School in Batangas City; Calpi Elementary School in Sorsogon; Aroroy East Central School in Masbate; Tagaytay Elementary School in Albay; and Bagumbayan Elementary School in Catanduanes.

GSIS’s adopted schools in Visayas are Celestino Diaz Integrated School in Capiz; Manjuyod Central Elementary School in Negros Oriental; Gaas Elementary School in Cebu; Nahawan Elementary School in Bohol; Hinoloasco National High School in Eastern Samar; and Catig Primary School in Southern Leyte and Hinoloasco National High School – Caglao-an Annex in Eastern Samar .

In Mindanao, the six adopted schools include Sinoropan National High School in Zamboanga; Talisay National High School in Dapitan City; Magallanes Elementary School in Davao City; Don Ruben E. Ecleo Sr. Memorial National High School in Dinagat Island; Surigao City National High School in Surigao City; and Camp Edward Elementary School in Surigao del Norte.

Since its implementation in 2014, a total of 85 schools have already benefitted from the program.

SMC APOLOGIZES

Last week, a monstrous traffic in several highways inconvenienced motorists and the riding public.

It was caused by a momentary network outage in SMC Infrastructure’s electronic toll collection system.

Nevertheless, the company sincerely apologized to all those affected by traffic jams along portions of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), Skyway, NAIAx and STAR Tollway.

The firm’s IT teams traced the source of the downtime to a cut in their fiber optic network. As of this writing, they are still determining the root cause of the damage, but there are indications that a major vehicular accident may have contributed to the situation.

To help ease traffic congestion, SMC Infrastructure deployed additional manpower to provide support for motorists.

They also opened affected toll plazas and waived toll fees. All in all, this covers around 84,000 vehicles that passed through the expressways from 6am to 2pm, Thursday, November 17.

This includes motorists whose ETC accounts were deducted upon entry; they will receive electronic refunds in their Autosweep accounts.

While the system was restored around 9 am, the company decided to keep barriers at toll plazas up, to enable all affected motorists to pass through for free.

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