City looks into utility bills of public schools

CEBU, Philippines - The principals of the various public schools in Cebu City have been ordered to look into the possibility that some unscrupulous persons are illegally tapping their water and power connections, because the city had paid P29.7 million for the schools’ electrical and water bills from January 2009 until April this year.

Of the P29,735,638 – the P19,779,066 was used to pay the power consumption of the 80 elementary and secondary schools in the city, including the electrical consumption of the Department of Education (DepEd) city division office. 

Vice mayor-elect Joy Augustus Young, who is also the education consultant of Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña, confirmed that there were some persons caught by the school officials washing their clothes inside the school premises during weekends that prompted him to order the taking of precautionary measures.

Young also instructed the school principals to verify the reports that some persons living near the public schools are getting their power directly from the schools’ electrical connections.

The water and electrical consumption of the various public schools in Cebu City is paid by the City Hall out of its Special Education Fund (SEF), which is equivalent to one per cent of the overall collections from the Real Property Tax.

The water consumption of the 34 public elementary and high schools in Cebu City is increasing almost every month because only P488,899 was paid in January 2009 but the amount increased to P779,165 in December that same year. The city had spent P7,362,299 for the schools’ water consumption in 2009.

Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD)’s public affairs manager Edna Inocando estimated that in 2009 the public schools in the city had consumed 152,134 cubic meters of water, equivalent to 760,670 drums.

From January to April this year, the water consumption of the 34 public schools in the city had already reached 268,105 that is why the MCWD billed P2,594,273 or more than P332,205 in last year’s water consumption of only P2,262,068

Inocando believes that most of the public schools in the city had consumed so much water during the first four months this year because of the El Niño phenomenon, but some City Hall officials said “Ah, maayo man og mangaligo na ang mga tinun-an diha sa eskwelahan.”

 Based on statistics obtained by The FREEMAN, some schools had more water consumption during April and May when there are no classes.

 The Don Sergio Osmeña National High School in barangay Labangon had a water consumption of P37,125 last March, but its water bill for April even reached P40,857.

Basak Elementary School had a water bill of P34,312 last April, although it is lower than the P36,403 for March. 

The five-storey and 75 rooms Cebu City Central School had a water bill of P75,067 in February and P59,032 in the following month, but after the graduation the school still had a bill of P42,724.

Although Young strongly believes that there might be some illegal connections, Cebu City schools district superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud said some schools still used a lot of water even during the vacation because of construction and repair work.

The City Hall records showed that the average monthly water bill of the 34 schools in Cebu City is P613,524.

Young said he had instructed the school principal to put a lock on every faucet to make it difficult for the unscrupulous persons to do their illegal activities.

Many schools in the city do not have security guards or even tanods guarding the facility during weekends or vacation.

The documents obtained by The FREEMAN from the Cebu City school board also showed that the city had spent P14,165,651 for the schools’ power consumptions in 2009 and P5,616,45 for the schools’ power consumption from January to April this year.

DepEd-7 regional director Recaredo Borgonia admired the Cebu City officials for always helping the DepEd by spending millions to shoulder the needs of the schools and the construction of more school buildings.

There were 127,339 students enrolled in various public schools in Cebu City during last school year, but the statistics may go up this year because many students from the private schools had transferred to public schools due to the economic crisis. — /NLQ (FREEMAN NEWS)