VILLAR WANTS 17,626 SENATE-FUNDED CLASSROOMS
TO BE READY BY SCHOOL OPENING IN JUNE

Senate President Manuel Villar, President of the Nacionalista Party, today pressed government to make sure that the 17,626 new classrooms the Senate has funded in the 2007 national budget are completed in time for the opening of classes in June.

The election season should not distract the administration from its duty to provide adequate number of classrooms for public school students, says Villar.

According to Villar, he supports the call of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to exempt classroom construction from the public works ban that will take effect 45 days before the May 14 election.

Provided that it is approved by the Commission on Elections and it will not be used for political purposes, I will support any decision to exempt the education sector from the construction ban, cites Villar.

Villar revealed the Senate had increased by almost half the number of classrooms to be built this year from 12, 226 as proposed by Malacanang to 17,626the level provided in the P1.126-trillion national budget which Congress has sent to President Arroyo for her signature.

The additional classrooms will cost P2.613 billion, which the Senate was able to cobble together by reducing funding of least-important programs proposed by Malacanang.

Despite the additional classrooms, the year will end with public schools still short by 2,961 classrooms, largely due to the yearly increase in enrollment , which is expected to hit 17.5 million next school year.

Recognizing the need to wipe out school manpower and infrastructure lack, the Senate had added P4 billion to the budget of the DepEd as proposed by Malacanang.

As a result , appropriations for DepEd this ear will increase by 14 percent to 128.6 billion, from last years spending level of P113.2 billion.