History
The Notre Dame of Cagayan is
located in a far distant island called Mapun, Tawi-Tawi. It is one of the Notre
Dame schools founded by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in the Sulu and
Tawi-Tawi archipelago to respond to the literary education needs of the local
people. Among the Notre Dame schools, NDC is one of the farthest if not the
most challenging mission area of the oblates particularly with regards to
transportation.
The Notre Dame of Cagayan is
known for its clear vision which is to help the “Jama Mapun” or the people of
Mapun in education and not to proselytize. Thus, NDC exemplifies discipline and
academic excellence all throughout its existence.
New discoveries
Majority of the people in the
municipality of Mapun practices Islam. Only a few numbers are Christians coming
from Dumaguete, Bohol, Cebu, and Zambaonga provinces. This follows that
majority of NDC students are Muslims.
Notre Dame schools among the
Muslims is not unusual. Although some would think that it is not appropriate to
have Notre Dame schools in the far, isolated, and small islands, the OMIs
remained committed in bringing closer quality education into these places.
People living outside
Mapun would surely think that this is a scary place. The transportation from
Bongao, Tawi-Tawi or from Zamboanga City or from Palawan only allows boats like
“lantsa,” a small ship, and “Kiring-Kiring,” or smaller lantsa which often used
in transporting fish and some goods. While travelling on sea, the fast-changing
course of the sea current coupled with the long travel at sea with its old
boats often overloaded with all kinds of materials are definitely insane.
Anyone will just be amazed how
the people of Mapun were able to adapt the situation or simply maybe because
they have no other choice. One good thing though is that there are two private
planes available for transportation. One is owned by the Adventist whose
priority are the patients that need to be transported to other islands. The
other is available when there are enough passengers. It means it has to be
fully packed with passengers in order to leave. The problem is that most of the
time the plane has some problems with the plane parts so most of the time it is
unavailable. These two planes are small ones with only 4 to 6 seaters. The fare
from Zamboanga City to Mapun costs P8,000 while Mapun to Palawan (Bataraza) is
P5,000. For ordinary people, it is still very high and costly.
Landmarks
Being at the farthest island in the
Philippines, an island which is even closer to Malaysia than to the Philippines
is truly a remarkable ordeal and achievement of the OMIs. Fr. Hemann with other
priests assigned started from scratch. They put up several classrooms just to
accommodate the number of students. They have to pave the area for the building
structures with limited tools at that time.
Students would even recall that
often they are also asked to help in the preparation of the area for the
building, carrying stones to dump in the area. But they were all excited.
Imagine having the only high school at that time means people have no other
choice but to help build the school.
The structure of the old school
can still be seen today. Although much have been improved in the structures, the
old convent where Fr. Hemann would stay and have his office is still intact
which is now used as the TLE room and AVR room.
The old library is still the same
though. The solid wood used in the structure of the old buildings are supremely
incredible. For years, the structure stood against strong winds and changing
weather.
During Fr. Hemann’s time, there was
an area where he would park and land the plane and it’s called “landing.” It is
a sea water area covering about half kilometer long near the old fish pond of
the school. It was still part of NDC until such time that Fr. Hemann was
transferred and there was no use of the landing area. Eventually, people nearby
would collect the stones beside the landing area and make them as foundation in
their new built homes.
Ambitions for the future
It’s been 64 years since the
foundation of NDC school and the mission continues. Today, NDC has 816 students
from junior to senior high school with 34 teaching and non-teaching personnel. The
classrooms have tripled and now the school has a new covered court and a
basketball court. The school has also started the building of 2-storey
8-classroom building to address the increasing number of students.
Much have already been given and
done. But there are still a lot to accomplish.
Keeping strong to the vision and
mission of NDC, the school continues to commit itself in providing quality and excellence
in education. This entails addressing all aspects of the institution starting
from maintaining and enhancing personnel development to student’s welfare by
giving appropriate and pertinent knowledge, skills and services, to providing
quality, relevant and upgraded facilities to ensure proper processes while maintaining
a closer and stronger relationship with the stakeholders.
All these and more are the tasks
and decisions that need to be regularly addressed to ensure the image of OMI
evangelization through education in Mapun, Tawi-Tawi.
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