The Department of Education (DepEd) is coordinating a dual crisis response across the country this week, overseeing the heavily fortified reopening of a Tacloban high school following a fatal attack while deploying millions of pesos in disaster relief to earthquake-stricken areas in Mindanao.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara visited San Jose National High School in Tacloban City on Monday as face-to-face classes resumed under tight security. The reopening follows a 22 June campus attack that left three students dead and 20 others injured.

To assist traumatized learners, DepEd is allowing flexible learning modalities and providing ongoing psychosocial support for students not yet ready to return to regular classrooms.

Security upgrades at the campus now include additional closed-circuit television cameras, walk-through metal detectors, perimeter fencing and heightened police patrols.

The classroom where the attack occurred has been permanently converted into an office.

“By offering flexible learning pathways alongside a heavily fortified environment, we are giving our traumatized learners the grace, time, and space they need to heal without being left behind academically,” Angara said, adding that “true learning cannot genuinely resume where fear remains.”

Simultaneously, Angara announced the allocation of an additional P10 million for the agency’s EduKahon program to sustain learning continuity in Mindanao following a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake.

The funding will be split equally, with P5 million each going to the hardest-hit schools division offices of Sarangani and General Santos City in Region XII.

DepEd is also deploying 100 EduKahon learning kits — equipped with whiteboards, writing supplies, first-aid gear, laptops and communication devices — to evacuation centers to establish temporary, child-friendly learning spaces.

“Every disaster disrupts not only homes but also learning,” Angara said regarding the Mindanao response. “Through EduKahon, we are showing that even in evacuation centers, learning and dreams continue.”

To support affected teaching and non-teaching personnel in Region XII, DepEd approved a six-month moratorium on Provident Fund loan repayments and earmarked P155 million to replenish regional resources.

Qualified employees can apply for loans of up to P100,000 for multi-purpose needs and up to P200,000 for emergency hospitalization.

Officials cited that the six-month local payment suspension incorporates a separate, nationwide three-month moratorium currently in effect through 30 September 2026, which was previously implemented under a State of National Energy Emergency.