P200 BILLION AVAILABLE TO FUND K-12 PROGRAM

 Batangas Second District Congressman Hermilando I. Mandanas presented to the Department of Education (DepEd) the  P200 Billion funding program to upgrade the basic education in the Philippines, as contained in the House Resolution (HR) No. 158, which was adopted by the House of Representatives last year.   

   

 The P200 Billion fund, Mandanas said, is  available to construct the backlog of 200,000 classrooms, furnished with chairs, tables, blackboards, electric fans, etc.   

   Another 50,000 e-learning centers with at least 1 Million computers, with connectivity, can be constructed for the approximately 25 Million elementary and high school students, now under the K12 Program of  DepEd.  The 500,000 teachers and administrators will also be provided with their individual computer.  At the moment, there is only one computer for every 250 public school students and only 2% of the teachers are computer literate.

   The implementation of the P200 Billion upgrading of basic education will be undertaken by the Local Government Units (LGUs), who expect to receive a total of P500 Billion from unreleased Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).  

   Mandanas said he is optimistic that the Supreme Court will rule favorably on his Petition for the release of P500 Billion IRA backpay to Provinces, Cities, Municipalities and Barangays on or before July, 2012.   Of this amount, 40%, or P200 Billion, will be used to upgrade the standards of basic education in the Philippines as contained in HR No. 158.  The remaining P300 Billion of the P500 Billion IRA backpay will be used to improve the devolved health services and for local projects like roads, water system, housing, calamity mitigation, livelihood, safeguarding the environment and other much needed local projects.

   The Department of Education will assist the P200 Billion Funding Program by instructing its Regional, Division and District personnel to provide all the information needed by the LGUs to implement this program, and to request for the new schoolrooms and other facilities to upgrade the standards of basic education in the Philippines using the IRA backpay upon its release.

Mandanas, who is a son of a public elementary school teacher, and also graduated from a Barangay Public Elementary School, emphasized that, “the P200 Billion for Basic Education will raise the competence and dignity of the Filipinos.  The Philippine economy is primarily based on the quality of citizenry.  All Filipinos, including our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and those in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, will enhance their capabilities and will then be able to work and earn enough to reach and meet the increasingly high cost of respectable living in the Philippines”.