By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff
Reporter
Batac City—This
city now has its own Department of Education division office as its ceremonial
opening took place at the Batac Central Elementary School on November 26, 2013.
“Better late than never,” quipped Batac Mayor
Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta in his speech during the opening adding that it was a
long journey of waiting for the said office since Batac became a city in 2007.
Nalupta expressed elation with the
realization of his dream for Batac to have its own division office as the
memorandum of agreement with the DepEd national office materialized.
In his speech, he thanked all the people
behind this success, especially to the people of DepEd.
Relative to this, the mayor hopes that in
the near future, the department would appoint the officer-in-charge as they
await a full-pledge superintendent.
Nalupta added that the division would not
only be a plus factor for the city government but more so to pupils and
students as well as teachers in Batac as they would have more opportunities to
grow up as they would no longer compete in division contests but instead would
now go straight to regional tilts.
However, he considers that next few years
as critical as this would be the schedule of the implementation of the K+12
education program and with the presence of its own division office, he said
they would can now focus more on the implementation.
The mayor also explained that the city
government has not withdrawn its earlier proposal to donate a lot intended for
the use of the division office. He said that the mode was only changed from a
deed of donation into a deed of usufruct. The lot is the city government’s
counterpart in the construction of the division office.
Usufruct is defined as a legal right to use
and derive profit from property belonging to someone else provided that the
property itself is not injured in any way.
Nalupta added that the deed of usufruct is
50 years and is renewable.
Records show that the Batac DepEd division
is now the 14th division in Region I.
Dr. Norma Fernando became the
officer-in-charge for the Batac City division temporarily until she retired
last year.
Meanwhile, DepEd regional director Teresita
Velasco, who served as the special guest of honor and speaker in the opening,
congratulated the people of Batac for their patience in waiting as the process took
long.
Velasco announced that DepEd already
approved the P8 million budget intended for the construction.
Velasco added that it would be provincial
schools division superintendent Dr. Cecilia Aribuabo who will be taking care
the Batac division while waiting for the appointment of an officer-in-charge.
Provincial administrator Windell Chua,
standing in for Ilocos Norte Gov. Ma. Imelda “Imee” R. Marcos, also
congratulated the officials of the city government.
The ceremonial opening of the Batac DepEd
division coincided with the birthday of the mayor.
The Batac DepEd teachers and non-teaching
staff took the opportunity to greet the mayor with the traditional Ilocano birthday
song.
Aside from the ceremonial opening of the
city DepEd, the one-week birthday celebration of the mayor involved other activities
including leaf painting contest, “Fat Free Morning”, “A Taste of Old Batac”, blessing
and inauguration of the Batac City Hall ATM, kite flying contest, fellowship dinner
to honor the outgoing barangay officials, a Rivermaya concert, “Project Eye
Care Distribution”, mass oath-taking of new barangay officials, bloodletting drive,
a singing contest and fun walk.
This year’s birthday celebration of the
mayor was dubbed as “Join Enjoy Fat Free” Batac.
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