Philippine gov't to build 14,000 more classrooms
SOURCE: ANN
Some 14,000 new classrooms will be built and about 300,000 hectares of farmlands distributed to small farmers in the Philippines next year under the P1.6-trillion (US$36 billion) national budget signed by President Aquino on Monday.
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SOURCE: ANN
Some 14,000 new classrooms will be built and about 300,000 hectares of farmlands distributed to small farmers in the Philippines next year under the P1.6-trillion (US$36 billion) national budget signed by President Aquino on Monday.
The new classrooms to be built by the Department of Education (DepEd) represent roughly 11 percent of the current shortage in public schools nationwide.
DepEd chief engineer Oliver Hernandez said the department had been given a P12.04-billion fund for the construction of schools in the coming year, four times the P3-billion allocation this year.
The fund, approved by Mr. Aquino along with the P207-billion DepEd budget, will enable the DepEd to address a backlog of classrooms across the country that now stands at 153,000, said Hernandez, chief of DepEd's Physical Facilities and Schools Engineering.
This figure is pegged in the ideal classroom-to-student ratio of 1:45. A standard classroom costs P650,000 to build. It does not include furniture, including desks and other room implements.
"This is important because now we can concentrate on building new classrooms for the red and black schools," Hernandez said, referring to DepEd's color code for schools with severe shortages.
Among regions with the worst classroom shortage are Metro Manila, Calabarzon and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where many schools are forced to hold classes in several shifts a day to accommodate the volume of students.
Throughout 2010, DepEd invested P2 billion to build some 5,000 additional classrooms and set aside P1 billion for schools damaged by typhoons, floods and fires, Hernandez said.
Highest in recent years
The DepEd also intends to repair schools in the Ilocos region and Cagayan Valley damaged by Supertyphoon "Juan" in October, the engineer said. Repairs for typhoon-damaged schools in Cagayan, Isabela and Benguet were estimated to cost about P460 million, Hernandez said.
DepEd's 2011 budget is the highest in recent years, with almost 80 percent allocated for salaries. The department intends to boost the public kindergarten system at the start of the new school year, among other priority programs.
Land acquisition
The national budget, also known as the General Appropriations Act of 2011, contains P10.179 billion for the land acquisition and distribution program of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
"The government intends to acquire some 300,000 ha of private and public estates next year for redistribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries," Cebu Representative Eduardo Gullas said in a statement.
"The fresh funding will enable the DAR to take over some 200,000 ha of private land and 100,000 ha of public land, and then parcel the estates out to small landless farmers," Gullas said.
The P10.179 billion is 15.4 percent, or P1.363 billion, higher than this year's P8.816-billion allocation for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Peace talks
Gullas' statement came on the heels of the government's announcement of the formal resumption of peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), which is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2011.
"The confiscatory land reform--the seizure of estates owned by 'big landlords' and the subsequent redistribution of the holdings to 'landless peasants'--formed part of the NDF's original 10-point program put forth in the 1980s," the lawmaker said.
Gullas said the 300,000 ha targeted for acquisition and distribution next year would cover around 20 percent of the residual undistributed lands.
The government has so far awarded a total of 7,558,777 ha of land to some 5 million agrarian reform beneficiaries nationwide, leaving only 1,485,295 ha still undistributed, according to the DAR.
Five-year extension
In August 2009, Congress passed Republic Act No. 9700, which extended by another five years the land acquisition and distribution schedule under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of 1988.
Under the law, the DAR has up to June 30, 2014, to complete its land procurement and dispersal plan and expand the economic opportunities of small farmers who currently do not own the land they are cultivating.
Once the land acquisition and distribution plan is completed, Mr. Aquino is expected to streamline the overlapping functions of the DAR, Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
DepEd chief engineer Oliver Hernandez said the department had been given a P12.04-billion fund for the construction of schools in the coming year, four times the P3-billion allocation this year.
The fund, approved by Mr. Aquino along with the P207-billion DepEd budget, will enable the DepEd to address a backlog of classrooms across the country that now stands at 153,000, said Hernandez, chief of DepEd's Physical Facilities and Schools Engineering.
This figure is pegged in the ideal classroom-to-student ratio of 1:45. A standard classroom costs P650,000 to build. It does not include furniture, including desks and other room implements.
"This is important because now we can concentrate on building new classrooms for the red and black schools," Hernandez said, referring to DepEd's color code for schools with severe shortages.
Among regions with the worst classroom shortage are Metro Manila, Calabarzon and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where many schools are forced to hold classes in several shifts a day to accommodate the volume of students.
Throughout 2010, DepEd invested P2 billion to build some 5,000 additional classrooms and set aside P1 billion for schools damaged by typhoons, floods and fires, Hernandez said.
Highest in recent years
The DepEd also intends to repair schools in the Ilocos region and Cagayan Valley damaged by Supertyphoon "Juan" in October, the engineer said. Repairs for typhoon-damaged schools in Cagayan, Isabela and Benguet were estimated to cost about P460 million, Hernandez said.
DepEd's 2011 budget is the highest in recent years, with almost 80 percent allocated for salaries. The department intends to boost the public kindergarten system at the start of the new school year, among other priority programs.
Land acquisition
The national budget, also known as the General Appropriations Act of 2011, contains P10.179 billion for the land acquisition and distribution program of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
"The government intends to acquire some 300,000 ha of private and public estates next year for redistribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries," Cebu Representative Eduardo Gullas said in a statement.
"The fresh funding will enable the DAR to take over some 200,000 ha of private land and 100,000 ha of public land, and then parcel the estates out to small landless farmers," Gullas said.
The P10.179 billion is 15.4 percent, or P1.363 billion, higher than this year's P8.816-billion allocation for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Peace talks
Gullas' statement came on the heels of the government's announcement of the formal resumption of peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), which is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2011.
"The confiscatory land reform--the seizure of estates owned by 'big landlords' and the subsequent redistribution of the holdings to 'landless peasants'--formed part of the NDF's original 10-point program put forth in the 1980s," the lawmaker said.
Gullas said the 300,000 ha targeted for acquisition and distribution next year would cover around 20 percent of the residual undistributed lands.
The government has so far awarded a total of 7,558,777 ha of land to some 5 million agrarian reform beneficiaries nationwide, leaving only 1,485,295 ha still undistributed, according to the DAR.
Five-year extension
In August 2009, Congress passed Republic Act No. 9700, which extended by another five years the land acquisition and distribution schedule under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of 1988.
Under the law, the DAR has up to June 30, 2014, to complete its land procurement and dispersal plan and expand the economic opportunities of small farmers who currently do not own the land they are cultivating.
Once the land acquisition and distribution plan is completed, Mr. Aquino is expected to streamline the overlapping functions of the DAR, Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
