Around P8-B needed to repair calamity-hit schools, DepEd says

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday said it would need at least P8 billion to repair, rehabilitate or reconstruct schools damaged by calamities in the past few years.

DepEd Undersecretary Alain Pascua said the agency is still finding where to source the fund to be used for these calamity-hit schools.

“More or less, we are looking for sources for around P8 billion to answer all the damages not only by earthquakes but also of floods and other calamities,” Pascua said in an interview during the sidelines of the 7th Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) in Schools International Learning Exchange (WinS ILE).

Pascua said DepEd had already asked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for additional funds.

He added DepEd also asked the Senate to increase the agency’s Quick Response Fund (QRF) from P2 billion to P4 billion to cover the repairs of schools hit by calamities since 2017.

“We are requesting for a contingency fund or augmentation fund from the DBM to cover the remaining requirements,” Pascua said.

“We are requesting the Senate to increase the P2 billion QRF so we can achieve a zero-zero balance before 2020 and we can cover all the required costing to repair the schools that were damaged by calamities since 2017 until this year,” he continued.

DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla earlier said the DepEd needs over P2 billion to repair the classrooms damaged by the recent series of quakes that jolted Mindanao.

READ: DepEd needs over P2B to repair quake-hit schools in Mindanao

The latest data from DepEd reported 837 schools suffered damage from the recent quakes with 87 in Northern Mindanao, 216 in Davao region, 526 in Soccsksargen and 8 in BARMM.