History of Gabaldon Heritage Building Bais City Negros Oriental
Baisanon Historian : Prof. Penn Tulabing Larena, CPS,MPA, KCR
The Gabaldon School Buildings or simply known as the Gabaldon's is a term used to refer to heritage school buildings in the Philippines built during the American colonial era
These were the Commonwealth-era school buildings that were made possible by R.A. No. 1801, a bill Gabaldón had authored as a member of the Philippine Assembly in 1907. The early-20th-century bill ensured that a million pesos would be allocated to the building of schoolhouses (especially in the provinces) to go alongside the newly-implemented free public education system. The buildings were then designed by American architect William Parsons, who had also been the architect behind the Paco Railroad Station and the first Manila Hotel. As the Gabaldon School Buildings Conservation Act notes, the school buildings have a unique infrastructure: “these- to two-story structures are H or U shaped buildings that distinctly featured elevated flooring, Capiz-shelled windows with wooden frames, and classrooms connected by corridors, among other unique characteristics.”
The legislation was written by Isauro Gabaldon of the Philippine Assembly in 1907 a good friend of Sen Jose Muñoz Romero. The law provided for the funding of ₱1 million for the construction of modern public schools across the Philippine Islands from 1907 to 1915
The
Gabaldon's are protected under Philippine law under Republic Act No. 11194 or
the Gabaldon School Buildings Conservation Act. Under the law the
"modification, alteration, destruction, demolition or relocation" of
Gabaldon buildings is illegal. The particular legislation also designates the
Gabaldon's as cultural properties citing another legislation known as the
Republic Act 10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009.
Hon. Jed Teves Goni
The law
mandates local government units to adopt measures for the protection and
conversation of Gabaldon buildings under their jurisdiction
The school
buildings designed and built by the Bureau of Architecture and Construction of
Public Buildings for the Bureau of Education from 1910 to 1940;
Bais City Pilot School formerly known as Bais Formal School founded in 1904 during the leadership of Mayor Hermenegildo Teves Villanueva Jr. and managed by the Local Government
The Gabaldon Building the centrepiece of the Bais Elementary School was built in 1913 with the funding from National Government thru the Bureau of Education and the local funding from Hon. Hermenegildo Teves Villanueva the first district Assemblyman of Negros Oriental in 1912. The contribution of the Private sector and families of Bais made the beautification of the school campus, school suppliers and books were given by the family of Enrique & Francisca Baena Villanueva,Julian & Antonia Baena Teves, Felix Montenegro, Pedro & Maria Pastor Teves, Ramon Teves Pastor, Jose Teves Pastor Somoza –Arnaiz Hermanos, Rubio –Somoza Hermanas, ( Josefina,Carmen, Maria & Faustina) and Eligio Teves Villanueva & Family.
Department of Education Bais City Division officials and Member of the City Council
The building
was occupied in 1914 when the school was founded as Bais Elementary School under the
Bureau of Education. One of the first batch of Gabaldon Structure in the
Visayas.The first structure inside the Campus. William E. Parsons first time to
visit the Visayas for the on-site inspection was held in Bais
Gabaldon
building was the modern classroom at the time during the American Era .later on
after the Second World War the building was used as the Principal Office,
Assembly Hall, Library, Temporarily the Bais City Public Library and the venue of the annual school pictorial.
These school
buildings became the foundations of a national educational system that gave
every Baisanon child the chance to acquire formal education.
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