New Tuburan Study Center breaks ground in Iloilo City

Beneath a bright June sky, the future of formation and learning took root along General Luna Street in Barangay Villa Anita. With prayers, ceremonial shovels and the quiet optimism of a community gathered around a shared purpose, Daguiao Foundation Inc. marked the site blessing and groundbreaking of the New Tuburan Study Center on June 27, 2026.

The occasion brought together leaders from the church, government, business and education sectors for a project envisioned not only as a new structure, but as a home for study, mentoring, reflection and personal growth. Most Rev. Midyphil Billones, DD, archbishop of Jaro, led the blessing, lending spiritual weight to a milestone centered on youth formation. Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. joined the ceremony, along with Roel Castro of MORE Power, Daguiao Foundation Inc. President Antonio Jon, Tuburan Study Center Director Engr. Rene Tan, and other guests and supporters.

The planned multi-story facility is designed to respond to a need increasingly felt by students and families: a place where young men can cultivate discipline, focus and character amid the pressures of modern academic life. For Daguiao Foundation, the project extends a mission it has carried since 1991 — supporting educational and community-based initiatives that uplift the youth through both academic guidance and moral formation.

Jon said the foundation has remained committed to empowering young people by providing a safe and purposeful environment where they can learn, grow and strengthen their values. That vision animated the ceremony, where the breaking of ground suggested more than construction. It signaled an investment in the interior lives of students — their habits, aspirations and sense of responsibility to others.

The center’s location in the heart of Iloilo City also gives the project a civic dimension. It is meant to be accessible, rooted in the community and responsive to the changing needs of young people seeking spaces that encourage reflection as much as achievement. In this sense, the Tuburan Study Center is being shaped as both an academic refuge and a values-centered institution.

As the time capsule was lowered and the first shovels cut into the earth, the gathering carried the measured excitement of beginnings. The building, set to be completed in two years under the project development of RBJR Construction Services, will rise from soil blessed by intention and shared hope.

When finished, the New Tuburan Study Center is expected to stand as a quiet but enduring statement in Iloilo: that communities are strengthened not only by what they build, but by the young lives they choose to form.