Coca-Cola Turns Over 73rd Little Red Schoolhouse

When Coca-Cola first visited Pres. Roxas Elementary School in Giporlos, Eastern Samar in May, one can barely imagine a decent classroom out of the nipa hut-style makeshift structures in the school lot. Five months later, with the construction of a three-classroom building, Pres. Roxas Elementary School now deserves to be called a learning center.

The new multi-grade school building in the remote barangay of Giporlos is the latest to be completed under the Little Red Schoolhouse Project of the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc. (CCFPI). Last October 29, representatives from Coca-Cola Foundation headed by the president Cecile Alcantara, traveled to Eastern Samar to officially turn over the school building to the Department of Education’s local district. Tacloban Plant human resources manager Mary Jess Quijano and operations manager Louie Ytol was also there to grace the event along with several other employees who contributed in one way or another to the completion of the community school.

Local officials, headed by Giporlos Mayor Mateo Biong, Jr. and Brgy. Captain Rodolfo Inciso, were there to welcome the delegation from Coke. Also present were representatives from DepEd---Mrs. Remedios Loste and Mr. Sergio Ecol as well as Pres. Roxas Elementary school teachers---Rosemarie Neri, Jiana Biong and Nida Magno.

Pres. Roxas Elementary School is the 73rd schoolhouse completed under the Little Red Schoolhouse Project of CCFPI. In 1997, on the celebration of the 80th Anniversary of Coca-Cola’s arrival in the Phillipines, then Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Chair and CEO Neville Isdell promised to build 80 schoolhouses all over the Philippines as part of the company’s social responsibility thrust. To date, there are seven more schoolhouses that are well on their way to completion and are now being readied for turnover by the end of the year.