Documenting Gabaldon Schools in Dalaguete

I went to Dalaguete today. The purpose was gather data about two Gabaldon schools that were assigned to my team. "My team" basically includes Neil Menjares, Sherwin Ramosa, Marian Bas, Pepper Auman and Zee. Our task is to make a conservation management plan of the two Gabaldon schools: the Balud Elementary School, and the Obong Elementary School.

We met in Jolibee Banawa at 7:30am. We were able to leave at 8:30am because the van that the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) provided was late. Apparently, he got delayed because of slow traffic caused by a marathon. Travel to Dalaguete took two hours. When we reached the place, we went straight to the municipal hall where our guide, Engr. Donald Lara, the municipal engineer, was already waiting for us.

The first school building we went to was the Balud Elementary School. The school head, Mr. Arnel Bustamante, opened the school for us and talked to us about the history of the school. It was a Plan-3 type Gabaldon. We did not waste any time, we went straight to work. Mayan was in charge of general photography, Zee was assigned to interview for historical background, Sherwin was assigned to take note of pathology, while the Neil and Pepper took measurements. I was supposed to assist Neil and Pepper but I ended up staying with the municipal engineer and the school head.

Balud Elementary School. (L-R) Zee, Mr. Arnel Bustamante, Engr. Donal Lara, me, Mayan, Pepper, Neil, and Siao.

After working for two hours, we took a break for lunch at a restaurant specializing in Balbacua. In going there we passed by the newly developed government center along the coast of Dalaguete. It was very clean and beautiful. Last semester, a group of Design 9 students went to Dalaguete for their charette. They were further divided into smaller group with one group focusing on the government center.

The second school is the Obong Elementary School. The school head, Mrs. Socorro Sejudo, was already waiting for us. The school building is Plan-2 type. The design is exactly the same as the one in Sumaguan, Argao, which I just documented. I therefore told the team to concentrate on the pathology and historical background. Our work therefore took only about an hour.

Obong Elementary School. (L-R) Siao, Engr. Lara, Mrs. Socorro Sejudo, me, Pepper, Mayan , and Neil.

When I planned this trip I learned about the Obong Spring. I told the guys to prepare some clothes for swimming in case we still have time in our hands. Since we finished early we decided to push through with the plan. Obong Spring was full of people and the beach nearby is not ideal for swimming because of the low tide. After taking pictures, especially with the ruins of a "baluarte" close by, we decided to go to Alcoy and took a dip in the Tingco Beach.

Obong Spring

The ruins of the watch tower, between the Obong Spring and the beach.

Along the beach in Obong

After a refreshing dip in Tingco Beach resort in Alcoy

Going back to Cebu we wanted to go to Dalaguete Church and see its interior. Engr. Lara told us about the conservation work they did there and we wanted to see it for ourselves. Unfortunately it rained hard so we decided to go straight towards Cebu. Since the rain stopped by the time we reached Argao, we dropped by Chitang's Torta store and bought some pasalubong.

The plan was to go to SM as soon as we reach Cebu but Zee and Bryan decided to go home ahead since the our route passed by their houses. In SM, the rest of us had dinner and discussed the next step. Sherwin will make the pathology report for the two schools, Zee will write the historical accounts and analyze the significance of the place. I will make the sketchup model for the two schools while Neil, Mayan, and Bryan will make drawings for the architectural documentation.

Since we will be documenting a few more Gabaldon buildings, I decided to set up a group page in Facebook where we will store all the pictures and information we gathered so that everyone has access to them.