Coast Guard apprentice seaman joins teachers in Kalayaan Islands school

A Coast Guard apprentice seaman was among the teachers who welcomed students to the first day of classes at Pag-asa Elementary School in Kalayaan town in Palawan, an area disputed by the Philippines and China.

The Coast Guard on Sunday said Apprentice Seaman (ASN) Oliver Mazo was transported to Pag-asa Island via a Philippine Navy Islander in time for the start of the school year on June 6.

In a post on its Facebook page, the Coast Guard said Mazo is a "licensed teacher who took a week-long DepEd K-12 training along with two other Coast Guard personnel in DepEd-Palawan."

Coast Guard Palawan maintains a sub-station in Pag-asa Island.

"The deployment of Coast Guard teachers in Pag-asa Island will likewise augment the manning of the sub-station," it added.

Last April, Kalayaan town mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. and Coast Guard Palawan head Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista signed a memorandum of agreement for the Coast Guard to provide teachers to augment the existing teaching staff of the elementary school.

In 2012, Bito-onon asserted his authority over some of the disputed Spratly Islands were China formed its new Sansha City.

Bito-onon said Filipinos started to settle in the islands in 1978, while China is forming the government of its Sansha City there only that year. — Joel Locsin/BM, GMA News