NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL (Pattao High school Annex) Before the end of the School Year of 1993-1994, rumors have been circling around the town that a public school will open at Barangay Centro of this beloved municipality of Buguey, Cagayan the same was conceived through the initiative of the municipal government.
It was a great news for everybody in as much that there is no existing public high school within the poblacion. Indeed, parents were optimistic that the plan would push through especially those who cannot afford to send their children at a private school due to high tuition fees and other miscellaneous
Expenses. True enough, it came to being. It was then called Pattao High School Annex, which was initially conceived as an extension school of the Pattao National High School at Pattao, Buguey, Cagayan. Interestingly, they offered to open First and Second Years for the School Year 1994-1995, which certainly accommodated us, the Pioneer Batch, who have already started fist year education at different high schools. Of course, we enrolled. But where is the school building? We were informed upon enrollment that classroom discussions and sessions will be held at the El Presidente Beach Resort located at Centro, Buguey, Cagayan fronting the Babuyan Channel. The local government of Buguey decided, in meantime, to lend the El Presidente building and the cottages surrounding there to as well as stage/auditorium to be used for classroom discussions and sessions. But these are not enclosed, far from considering it as classrooms and no facilities such as chairs and blackboards are available. So, come the opening classes on June of 1994. We were directed at the largest cottage fronting the Babuyan Channel. Our first teacher announced her name. She is Mrs. Natalie Baclig Villallon of Brgy. Leron, Buguey, Cagayan. She informed us that she will be our Class Adviser and that our Class Section is called 2nd year- Gold. Although, second year class was offered with one section only. We were asked to write our name in a piece of paper and directed to submit the same to our teacher. In as much as we were just seated in the concrete bench built around the cottage, there was no other recourse but write our names in a paper using our laps as the writing board table. Roll call ensued. After staying in the octagon -shaped cottage, we were instructed to occupy the 2nd floor of the El Presidente Building where we spent the whole school Year of 1994-1995. Luckily, there were some available chairs up there and a table for a few. As a newly opened public high school, learning materials such as books were insufficient. Even writing materials and chalks were scarce. No laboratory equipment can be seen around. In fact, not even a laboratory equipment can be seen. As a matter of fact only our teachers then had books for their references. These events among others, tested our resourcefulness and dedication towards learning. Since our temporary classrooms were not really conducive for learning, this did not hinder us to strive hard. One concrete example is that during rainy seasons, rain gears were used inside the room to protect us from the heavy rain. We were even instructed to bring “trapal’ just so to wrap around the room to protect us from heavy rains. We were hard-headed, we conquered the heavy rains, we danced with the strong winds. The other school (private high school) where most of us came, is just a stone throw away from us. We were jealous to see them at the comforts of their rooms more specially during the rainy seasons. Maybe they were laughing at us then. Throwing insults against our poor but humbling situation. But we were not frustrated, we did not stop. We showed them that we can. Our skills and talents were also developed and nurtured. We were encouraged to join many extra curricular activities such as the sayawit, drum and lyre corps, dance troupe, sports, athletics, scouting and many more. Indeed, we had gone through a lot of obstacles but we were able to surpass them through the guidance of our class adviser, Mrs. Natalie Vilallon,our subject teachers Dr. Edwin Tagal, Mr. Gerry Goze, Mr. Reynaldo Uclaray, Mrs. Elina Taloza and mrs. Marylou Foronda.
