Schools squatting on city-owned lots

CEBU, Philippines - A Talisay City Councilor yesterday said there are several public schools in the city that are sitting on city-owned lots that have not yet been donated to them.

City Councilor Dennis Basillote, the former chairman on council committee on Education, made this revelation after teachers of Lawaan Elementary School yesterday aired their disapproval over the city’s plan to cut out a portion of the school’s property to be converted into police and fire stations.

Basillote said that although the city has not yet formally donated these properties to the schools already occupying them, it does not mean that it will take them back now or in the near future. 

He said the present plan however is to build extension offices for the police and fire departments inside Lawaan Elementary School considering that there is still unoccupied space inside the school premises that is enough to accommodate the proposed extension offices.

School principal Reynold Singco said it was last February they were informed by the city hall of its plan to put public facilities in the area, including a covered court for the barangay.

Singco said the school is opposed to the idea, saying that as of the moment, although there is still enough space, the school will need it to build more classrooms in the coming years.

Presently, each of the 20 classrooms in the school accommodates 70 pupils.

There may be a separate plan for the construction of a three-story building for 80 more classrooms, but the plan, which is under the Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Project (BIARP), depends on the school’s capability to raise funds.

At least P75 million is needed to complete the project.

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo J. Cardinal even led last Monday’s groundbreaking ceremony.   FREEMAN NEWS)