Schools urged to ensure safety of fire, earthquake drills after Cabuyao incident

House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro on Monday called on school officials to ensure the safety of everyone, especially students, participating in fire or earthquake drills and other school activities.

Castro, whose party-list, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), represents teaches, said such activities should be coordinated with the concerned government agencies.

"Sana ay tiyakin ng mga school officials ang kaligtasan ng lahat, lalo na ng mga estudyante, kapag may mga drills para di sila napapahamak," she said in a statement.

"Mahalaga rin na koordinado sa local government units o sa disaster management council o local na Bureau of Fire Protection man lang para nakahanda rin sila sa mga pangangailangan," she added.

(School officials should ensure the safety of all, especially students, during drills so that nobody would get hurt. It's also important that they coordinate with local government units or disaster management council or even local Bureau of Fire Protection in case of any untoward incident.)

Castro issued the statement after more than 100 students were taken to a hospital during a surprise fire drill in a school in Cabuyao City, Laguna last week.

Based on initial findings, the students passed out due to hunger and dehydration after being made to stand in the heat.

Castro, in her statement, reminded school officials that making students stand under the sun may affect their health, considering that many of them may not have eaten yet before participating in such activities.

"Napakatindi ng init sa ngayon. Huwag sanang ibilad sa araw ang mga bata lalo pa at karamihan sa kanila ay di nakakakain bago pumasok sa paaralan dahil na din sa kahirapan," Castro said.

"Sana ay matututo na tayo sa nangyari sa  Cabuyao na mahigit isang daan ang hinimatay dahil sa init at gumawa na rin ng paraan ang Department of Education (DepEd) para maging 35 na estudyante lang kada klase ang mga silid-aralan para di sila magparang sardinas," she added.

(It's really too hot these days. Let's not expose children to the sun too much especially since many of them have yet to eat before coming to school due to poverty. I hope we learned our lesson from what happened in Cabuyao and I hope the Department of Education will find ways to limit classrooms to just 35 students so that children are not packed like sardines there.)

Both the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health (DOH) are looking into the Cabuyao incident.  —Tina Panganiban-Perez/KBK, GMA Integrated News