Pag-asa Island school draws support from lawmaker

ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio. congress.gov.ph photo

MANILA, Philippines — A party-list lawmaker on Wednesday lauded Kalayaan town on Pag-asa Island for opening an elementary school on the disputed Spratlys territory.

ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio saw the school as a “welcome development” in such a distant island, given that China and the Philippines have yet to resolve its dispute over the area.

“This would be a tremendous help in advancing education in the disputed territory. The families of students also would not have to be separated (from their children)… so that they can go to school,” he said.

He vowed to send assistance to the school after learning of its request for funds and the fact that it was using donated books sourced by the town mayor.

Tinio said that they would send assistance to the school in the forms of teaching materials and other school supplies and said that the partylist group was looking into the construction of a larger school building on the island.

The island of Pag-asa lies 527 kilometers or 285 nautical miles west of Palawan.