History
On July 17, 1945, due to the need of providing accessible high school education to the children of the Bureau of Prisons employees, Prisons Director Eriberto Misa, together with New Bilibid Prisons Superintendent Alfredo Bunye petitioned the Secretary of Public Instruction and Information for the opening of a public high school within the premises of the NBP Reservation. At that time, the children of prison employees either sent their children to the nearest high schools located in Manila or in Biñan. In the same petition, the prison officials guaranteed that the BUPRI administration would provide the facilities needed by the proposed high school. A week later, they sent another letter suggesting that a monthly tuition fee of 10 pesos shall be charged to every student. The Department of Public Instruction and Information, then led by Secretary Jose Reyes, approved the proposal. [2]
Upon the approval of the request of the BUPRI Officials, Superintendent Vicente Garcia of the Division of Rizal received instructions to organize the school, named as Muntinlupa High School. He appointed Mr. Cesar S. Tiangco, a Navotas-born teacher of Rizal High School as the school's first Principal. Mrs. Lourdes Tibayan and Mrs. Catalina Roque joined Mr. Tiangco as faculty members. Later, they were joined by Mrs. Teodora Sacco, Mr. Melchor Tugab, Mrs. Pilar Francisco and Miss Clarito. On their part, the BUPRI officials created a School Board, with BUPRI Executive Officer Generoso Castañeda as Chair and BUPRI Education Section Chief Rufino Recaido and NBP Superintendent Bunye as members. They likewise assigned a portion of the BUPRI's Construction Section Building located in NBP Reservation's Type B area as the MHS campus, consisting of two classrooms, one laboratory, a home economics room, and a windowless building dubbed as "carcel" (solitary confinement cell) as classroom for fourth-year students. A small patch of land across the road served as the school's horticulture garden, and the Muntinlupa Sunken Garden acted as the school's parade ground. [2]
The first class of Muntinlupa High School opened on August 3, 1945, with 41 students from various families of NBP employees. Four years later, this pioneering class had graduated, with BUPRI Director Eustaquio Balagtas giving the commencement speech. As the years went by, other children from the neighboring barrios of Muntinlupa were admitted to the school, increasing further the student population. In 1955, after four years of negotiations between the Department of Justice and Department of Education, and preparations by BUPRI officials first led by Director Balagtas and later, his successor, Atty. Alfredo Bunye, the MHS campus was relocated to a 10.5 hectare land on the northern part of the NBP Reservation. The school buildings in the new site were constructed by BUPRI inmates, with its funding derived from the congressional funds of Rizal First District Representative Eulogio Rodriguez Jr. It would serve as the sole public high school in Muntinlupa until the establishment of the Muntinlupa Municipal High School in 1980. [2]
After 31 years in service, in 1976, Mr. Tiangco returned to Rizal High School to serve as their School Principal. He was then replaced by Mrs. Marcela Ponce, on whose leadership the school was upgraded to its present status as a National High School following the approval of the Ministries of Budget and Education and Culture. Two years after, the school's main building was razed in a fire, prompting the government to replace it with a larger, two-storey Imelda-type building. [2] In 1994, the school started to offer the DOST's Engineering and Science Education Program, with students being admitted after a competitive examinations and their curriculum having electives in science and mathematics. In the same decade, the campus' land area was decreased due to the construction of the Katarungan Village, a housing project for the employees of the Department of Justice and its line agencies [3] .
Due to its large student population, MNHS annexes were established in the late 1990s. In 1998, the Muntinlupa National High School - Science Annex was established and selected MNHS faculty was tapped to serve as its initial administrators and teachers. It was initially located inside the nearby Itaas Elementary School compound before it was relocated in Barangay Tunasan and became the Muntinlupa Science High School. [4] In 2009, the Muntinlupa National High School - Annex (now Poblacion National High School) was established in Poblacion, Muntinlupa to cater to the residents of the Southville III Housing Project. Two years later, the MNHS - Tunasan Annex was established and in 2021, it became a separate school known as the Tunasan National High School. [5] In these cases, some of MNHS faculty members and administrators were seconded to these annexes until such time that the school itself had sufficient faculty members.
In 2019, MNHS won the Zayed Sustainability Prize for Global High School Category, beating more than 2,000 proposals from different schools around the world. The winning proposal, “RevAMP: Revitalized Algae Micro-farm Projects” was conceptualized by students Maria Eliza May Faldas, Miguel Bautista, and Diego de Vera, under the guidance of MNHS Science Department Head Teacher III Ma. Regaele Olarte and faculty member Mr. Jason Albaro. [6] [7] [8]
