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Quake-hit schools get computer sets from DTI, Japanese Government

By Danilo E. Doguiles
Published on November 30, 2020

MAKILALA, Cotabato Province, Nov. 30 (PIA) -- The Department of Trade and Industry recently handed over 10 computer sets to the administration of Batasan National High School in Barangay Batasan, this municipality.

The turnover ceremony was one of the highlights of the Serbisyo Caravan in Batasan on November 26, one of the 36 barangays in Cotabato Province to be included in the Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP), a convergence initiative in line with the implementation of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's Executive Order No. 70.

Senior trade-industry development specialist Epifania Ealdama said six other public high schools that sustained major damage from the earthquakes that struck the province in 2019 are also recipients of the computer set packages.

Other computer set recipients are Sto. Niño High School, Kisante National High School, Buena Vida National High School, Bulakanon National High School all in Makilala municipality as well as Balite National High School in Magpet, and Nueva National High School in Mlang.

"These computer sets are given to public high schools most affected by the earthquakes last year under the Personal Computers for Public Schools (PCPS) project of DTI and Japanese Government," Ealdama said.

PCPS is a project of the DTI funded by the Japanese Government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency under the Non-Project Grant-in-Aid Counter Value Fund. The project gives 10 sets of computers to each beneficiary school.

Each computer package contains a monitor, central processing unit, printer, keyboard, mouse, and uninterrupted power supply.

Already in its fifth phase, the project aims to enhance the skills of the youth in information technology and address the need for computers in schools. PCPS project started in 2010.

"This batch of computer donations is actually an extension of Phase 5, specifically intended for junior and senior high schools most affected by earthquakes that hit the province last year," she explained.

Use of these computers is exclusive to students, not for teachers and school administrators, she emphasized.

DTI, led by Regional Director Jude Constantine Juagan and Cotabato Provincial Director Ferdinand Cabiles, is among the government agencies participating in the serbisyo caravan for RCSP-target barangays.

During these caravans, DTI personnel orient villagers about the agency's livelihood seeding program and other services. (DED-PIA XII)