MASARAWAG NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY

(Historical Background of Possession or Occupation)

In the past years, there was a very low literacy rate in rural areas especially those in the barrios. The reasons were financial and transportation difficulties.And so, only few graduated in the secondary education and in college. Others who want to study in high school were so deprived that they were not able inish their studies.

Because of the people's need for further education, the barangay captain of Masarawag, Mr. Inocentos Menesis, worked for the creation of a secondary school. That was in 1967, where finally, the Masarawag Barangay High School was created. It operated for four years but in 1973, it was closed due to lack of funds.

In 1977, the principal of Masarawag Elementary School (MES), Fidensia A. Camba acted upon the request of the parents to reopen the school. Through her efforts, the school was re-opened and operated in Masarawag Elementary School Site. The school operated under the supervision of the principal of MORMS, the mother high school. The principal of Masarawag Elementary School acts as a principal, since it has no school site of its own; it occupied some rooms in Masarawag ES.

School site is an important factor in having a well-established school. Along this line, several attempts on acquiring a school site were done by school, barangay officials, and concerned citizens.

It was started with Mr. Marcial de los Reyes in 1980. He worked for the official donation of a land owned by the late Mr.Tirzo de los Reyes in Doña Tomasa, and when he died, it was continued by Mr. Eric de los Reyes. The

donation did not materialize because the land is to small and it was not able meet the required size for a secondary school. And to add, those equating in the said land don't want to vacate the place.

Sometime in August 1988, Mrs. Elizabeth Olaguera, Principal I Masarawag Elementary School and at the same time Asst. Principal of Masarawag High School with the help of P.T.A. Officials headed by Mr. Garvancio Nuda, Barangay Council headed by Mr. Prudencio Manrique, worked for the donation almost 2 hectares piece of land by the Chunaco brothers. The donation leads the allotment of (JICA) Japanese International Cooperating Agency, Scho building for Masarawag High School.

In August 1988, due to the nationalization of all secondary schools, principal of elementary school no longer acted as Asst. Principal of the High School, there-by designating Teachers In-Charge in the newly nationalized high schools (formerly barangay high school). The designated Teacher In-Charge then of Masarawag High School Ms. Mency M. Palenzuela.

She continued to work on the donation papers - have it registered and submitted papers pertinent to JICA School Construction.

In December 1988, the Multi-Purpose Building from the DECS is donated to Masarawag High School for it has been already a school site. Just when the DECS and JICA Building construction about to start, there was claimant of the site by Cataline Paycana. It led to some difficulties and so, there was then a follow up of the Division Supervisor regarding that matter.

A meeting was held to settle matter on site ownership. It was attended by barangay and school officials, supervisor from DECS, Mr. Nicolas T. Amano and Mr. Jose O. Osia, OIC Principal of MORMS, Mr. Numeriano P. Ocbina, the Paycana's family and the Chunaco Brothers. The DECS people were able to onvinced Paycana not to stop the building construction for a school to be placed near them is so advantageous.

The following day, the contractor of Multi-purpose Building started the work. But the truck carrying the materials was again stopped by Paycana's Family-much to surprised Ms. Palenzuela and Mrs. Padua and the other people there because of what has been agreed in the meeting. The military men and the barangay officials helped the school in pursuing with the construction. But they did not succeed because they did not want to harm anyone or they didn't want to have a fight with the Paycana's family considering that the latter presented also a title of the land.

There was really a problem of who is the real owner of the land. Was it Chunaco who was in possession of the land many years or was it Paycana who has the title but did not possess the land? "Is the donation valid?" It was at this point that the school tried to find ways and means to find for new school site. To add the DECS and JICA don't want to construct school buildings on a site with a problem on ownership.

Since the Masarawag Elementary School (Site 2) is big enough, the Principal of Masarawag ES, Mrs. Olaguera and the TIC of MHS, Ms. Palenzuela had an agreement that the back part of Masarawag ES be used by the high school as long as it existed. The agreement was only alternative just to be able to construct the buildings in Masarawag and not be given to other places. And so, Ms. Palenzuela worked for her supporting papers for the agreement. In the process, it was found out that the site of Masarawag ES was not yet donated to the school and the title was still in the name of the Municipality of Guinobatan. Because of this, the agreement did not materialize for there would only be an agreement if the land is already in the name of DECS. And so, having it donated to the DECS was the next problem.

Through the resolution passed by the P.T.A. of Masarawag ES and barangay officials, the municipality of Guinobatan represented by Mayor Juan G. Rivera, donated the 14,198 sq.m. of land to Masarawag Elementary School and 8000 sq.m. to Masarawag High School. This leads to the construction of the DECS Multi-purpose Building in 1988 and JICA Building in 1989 with legal documents on the sharing of school site between Masarawag Elementary School and Masarawag High School.

To add, having a site really owned by the school leads to the developments of Masarawag High School.  In 2002, the government of the Republic of the Philippines thru Undersecretary Ricardo Saludo, Presidential Management Staff donated the sum of five hundred fifty thousand to the donee, Mr. Nestorio O. Dela Torre, principal in which he accepts and agree to utilize the said amount to partially fund the purchase/acquisition of three hectares lot for the expansion of Masarawag High School.

In 2016, as the new curriculum was endorsed by DepEd, Masarawag National High School adheres to comply with the K-12 Curriculum. After soil testing in the time of Mrs. Rosa Orpilla, Principal, the contractors constructed the Senior High School Building located at the

three hectares of lot aforementioned above. The utilization of lot resulted to school improvement and amelioration of physical facilities. The school then open course and strands for Academic Track and TVL Track. The strand offered for academic Track is General Academic Strand while Home Economics, Automotive Servicing and Agri-Fishery Arts are strands offered for TVL Track thus catering the educational needs of the students.

The original/previous owner of the lot, Herederos de Ciriaco Chunaco Dist Inc. appeal to the separation of ownership to DepEd Albay and Masarawag National High School for them to be free from the burden of paying tax since the lot belongs to the school since 2002.

         Per DepEd memorandum and guidelines, all schools are required to secure land title of the school site as part of the accountability to secure a special patent of school site for Masarawag National High School  hence, the principal, Mr. Jesus V. Locaba  and the owner in the name of Herederos de Ciriaco Chunaco Dist Inc. has been called by the District Office thru the request of the latter.