Lawang Bato, Valenzuela City
March 4, 2021

“Making quality education to all Filipinos is one of my administration’s top priority in the development agenda,” said President Rodrigo Roa Duterte when he inaugurated the new school buildings of the Lawang Bato National High School and Canumay East National High School in a simultaneous ceremony held in Lawang Bato, Valenzuela City.

“When I ran in 2016, I promised our people that by the end of my term, we would have built conducive, inclusive and resilient learning environment for our students,” the President conveyed in his keynote speech, adding that the task was made more complex due to the challenges brought by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to the country’s education system.

Nonetheless, President Duterte assured his ‘kababayans’ that the government is exerting all efforts to roll out the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination program in order to reopen schools and slowly resume face-to-face learning for students. He shared that later on in the day, the AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX Facility would be arriving in the Philippines — the second batch of vaccine shipment in the country following the arrival of CoronaVac developed by the Sinovac Biotech Ltd. on February 28, 2021 that is already being rolled out to healthcare workers starting March 1, 2021.

“To our students, I hope that despite the challenges ahead, you will persevere and strive hard to excel and reach your potentials. Together, let us pursue our shared aspirations for a stronger, brighter future of the Filipino people,” the Chief Executive ended.

The Lawang Bato National High School is a newly built school campus inaugurated by the local government of Valenzuela City on January this year. It has three (3) infrastructures consisting of four (4)-storey buildings with a total of 44 classrooms.

On the other hand, the Canumay East National High School used to be part of the Valenzuela National High School and was known as the Valenzuela National High School – Canumay East Annex. By virtue of Republic Act No. 10205 passed in 2012, the complex was converted into an independent national high school and has since been called the Canumay East National High School (CENHS).

Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones and Valenzuela City Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian joined President Duterte in unveiling the marker for the newly constructed buildings of the Lawang Bato National High School. The unveiling of the marker for the new CENHS school buildings with DepEd – Valenzuela District Supervisor Filmore Caballero and CENHS Principal Maria Patricia De Vera took place at the same time.

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