Close to 200 employees of Davao Light & Power Co. recently trooped to Calinan National High School while another 90 workers “invaded” Sto. Tomas Central Elementary School where they did some fixing and repainting of three buildings (12 classrooms) to make them ready for the opening of classes this week.
This was the Aboitiz-owned electric utility’s way of involving its employees in the annual Brigada Eskwela, a nationwide activity initiated by the Department of Education (DepEd). Brigada is actually enlisting the support of the community and other stakeholders, including private business, in preparing public elementary and secondary schools for the return of students after the summer vacation.
Davao Light timed its Brigada activity on Saturday, May 28, the last day of the Brigada Week since it was a simultaneous participation of employees of Aboitiz companies all over the country.
Those who went to Calinan National High School did some repairs of ceilings and windows, repainted interior and outer walls as well as window grills of seven classrooms and roofs of two of the buildings inside the campus, including a 4-classroom building donated by Davao Light. They also fixed some portions of the plant-boxes fronting the buildings.
Davao Light executive vice president Art M. Milan, vice president for human eesource Lito B. Ortiz, VP for engineering Rodger Velasco, AVPs Mark Valencia and Ronald Chan led the electric utility’s Brigada volunteers in Calinan.
On the Sto. Tomas Central Elementary School front, Kaibigans, led by Aboitiz Power Distribution (AP-DU) VP for customer services Bien Garcia, assistant VPs Arzy sacamos, Rey Cabalan, Reynold Felix, Ed Tan and Arnold Arsolon were at the forefront. They led Davao Light Kaibigans in repainting a 5-classroom building as well as cleaning the school vicinity.
By 12 noon the two groups completed their respective tasks, although contractors were assigned in both schools to do clean-up and finishing work.
