No end in sight for delay in school repair

22 December 2007

LEGAZPI CITY—NO QUICK end is in sight for the repair and construction of schools that were damaged and destroyed by successive typhoons in Bicol as the Department of Education said it lacked P850 million more for the projects.

The DepEd regional office received P1.2 billion to build and repair the schools.

But Celedonio Layon, DepEd regional director, said that as of Dec. 15, 203 classrooms were still under construction and 792 were being repaired under the Bicol Calamity Assistance, Emergency Response project of the national government.

Eight school buildings have yet to be built and 107 others have yet to be constructed, he said.

Cost of school damage and destruction was estimated at P2.4 billion, although it wasn’t clear how the figure was arrived at.

Layon said the lack of funds meant only that not all schools would be repaired.

He said the DepEd had not requested additional funds.

President Macapagal-Arroyo, in a speech at the regional peace and security assembly in Masbate on Dec. 13, scolded education officials after learning that the school rehabilitation project was unfinished a year after the typhoons struck.

“Our goal now is to finish the rehabilitation of schools, up to what the funds will allow, before end of March in 2008,” Layon told the Inquirer.

He said that as of Dec. 15, 73 percent of ongoing school construction had been completed.

Damaged schools that have not been demolished to clear lots for new schools were counted as uncompleted repair work, he said.

The project was also hounded by bidding failures and fighting between government soldiers and communist guerrillas.

Layon said some contractors were being forced by rebels to pay taxes. This report has yet to be verified, however.

At a resettlement village in Taysan, a makeshift structure still serves as classroom for students displaced from their school in Barangay Padang, a lahar zone.

The grade school pupils have to endure the heat from iron sheets that served as roofing.

Without concrete flooring, the classroom would turn muddy during rainy days. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon