Serge pledges P150M for additional classrooms

Mayor Tomas Osmeña's recent visit to Manila proved successful after his brother, Senator Sergio Osmeña III, pledged P150 million for the construction of additional classrooms in Cebu City.

However, considering that Serge belongs to the opposition party, the mayor said he will have to seek help from President Arroyo for the immediate release of the money. The money would come from Serge's Countryside Development Fund.

"We need to convince Malacañang to release the money," Osmeña said yesterday, adding that the money will definitely help the city cover up its backlog of P300 million for the construction of school buildings for this year.

For 2006 alone, the city already spent over P100 million for the construction of classrooms, however, the same is not enough.

In an interview, Osmeña's consultant for education, Augustus "Joy" Young, said that once the money would be released, the same would be spent for additional classrooms for Tisa II Elementary School, Talamban Elementary School, Quiot Elementary School, Tejero Elementary School, Don Sergio High School, Ramon Liberty High School, Mambaling High School and Alaska Mambaling High School.

Osmeña said Cebu city needs more money to construct the school buildings because what would be put up are multi-level structures. In some cases, he said, a certain amount of money would also be spent to destroy old structures to be able to build new ones in the same lot.

He said the absence of enough classrooms is the reason why an area at the Pardo Public Market was converted into classrooms.

Osmeña said Cebu has been a victim of the perception that it is a rich city that is why senators, since the 1960s, have allocated very less financial assistance for the construction of school buildings. Siquijor province reportedly has received more funding compared to Cebu city.

What happened before, he said, was that schools only get financial assistance depending on the aggressiveness of its officials.

Of the recent batch of senators, he said that only three have been generously helping Cebu including Senator Francis Pangilinan who funded the concretizing of roads in Green Valley and the construction of a foot bridge in barangay Sambag II, Senator Pia Cayetano who gave additional funding for the cementing of barangay roads, and Senator Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. who donated P5 million to the city for the construction of a water well in barangay Lahug. - Joeberth M. Ocao