Legarda Ensures Funding for Damaged Schools in Cagayan

Senator Loren Legarda today said that she will ensure that funds are appropriated for the repair or construction of buildings in schools, universities and colleges in Cagayan province that were damaged by Typhoon Lawin last year.

Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, made the statement following reports that damages left by the typhoon to Cagayan schools in the amount of P597 million have not yet been addressed.

“If requests have been made for the rehabilitation of the damaged schools, these should have been either granted since there are still available funds for 2017 or included in the proposed budget for 2018. We will look into this and ensure that funds are made available,” she said.

According to a report, Cagayan State University (CSU)-Piat Campus and CSU-Carig Campus incurred the most damages among the schools affected. Moreover, there are 1,282 damaged classrooms of the Department of Education (DepEd).

Legarda has called on both the DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to address the concern immediately, noting that there are millions of unobligated funds that could have been used for the purpose.

According to the DepEd, they still have unobligated funds for the construction of classrooms worth P196 million pesos from their 2016 budget and P78.877 billion pesos from their 2017 budget, which will all expire by December 2017 if not obligated.

Meanwhile, CHED still has unobligated funds for capital outlay worth P328.253 million as of June 2017.

“It is unacceptable that billions of funds remain unused when there are students and teachers suffering from damaged, unsafe, leaking classrooms and buildings in their schools, universities and colleges. The DepEd and CHED should have allocated funds for the repair and reconstruction of these buildings damaged by typhoon Lawin as well as other schools damaged by previous disasters,” Legarda concluded.