Legarda focuses on education

CEBU, Philippines - Believing that upgrading the quality of Philippine education is a good investment for the country, Senator Loren Legarda has allocated a large amount of her Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for the construction and rehabilitation of classrooms and school buildings.

Legarda also yesterday said that the first bill that she will file in the Senate once she gets  re-elected is her "Pantawid Tuition Program ."

From 2010-2012, Legarda allocated a total of P146 million for 291 classrooms and school buildings in various parts of the country.

"Placing high priority on education will be one of the best investments we can make. Aside from legislation, allocating a significant portion of my PDAF to building classrooms and schools is one way to help upgrade the country's education system," Legarda said in a statement sent to The FREEMAN.

She said that she is fully supportive of the "highly motivated attitude" with which the administration is addressing the backlog in classrooms.

President Benigno Aquino III who was in Cebu yesterday said that since he assumed office, the country has built around 8,000 classrooms per year.

Aquino said that with six years as President, only a total of 48,000 classrooms will be built and with this, he is asking everybody's cooperation to achieve the zero classroom-backlog before his term ends in 2016.

As for Legarda's Pantawid Tuition Program , she said this will ensure that there is a graduate student in every family household.

Legarda said that Sixth District Rep. Luigi Quisumbing also assured her that once he gets re-elected, he will also file the same bill in the lower house to support her bill.

According to the Senator, there are currently about 3.8 million families registered under the "Four P'S program" of the government.

Quisumbing sees Legarda's proposed bill as a laudable move considering that many poor Filipinos have already benefitted from Aquino's Four P's program.

"Nindot ang new measure ni Sen.Legarda to include the College scholarship per recipient family. In that way, we can be sure that the effects of the Four P's program are not limited to one generation but it will cascade down the line through education," Quisumbing said. —/JPM (FREEMAN)