DepEd needs at least 18 B to repair calamity-damaged schools

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday said it would need at least 18 billion for the repair, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of infrastructure damaged by calamities this year and of the previous years.

Following the earthquakes which destroyed schools in North Cotabato, Undersecretary Alain Del Pascua said that DepEd currently needs around

11.6 to 12 billion to address the costing needs of schools that were damaged. However, he noted that there is a backlog since 2017 due to lack of funds for repair, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of infrastructure that were damaged by calamities.

“So far, we lack around 16 to 17 billion,” Pascua said in an interview at the sidelines of the 7th Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) in Schools International Learn

ing Exchange (WinS ILE). DepEd has a program fund called “Quick Response Fund” (QRF) to cover repair and replacement of classrooms caused by calamities or disasters.

“Every year, we have 12 billion for QRF but in 2017, it was transferred to the NDRRMC [National Risk Reduction and Management Council] so from 2017, 2018, 2019, the funds have piled up because the 12 billion fund is not enough,” Pascua explained.

To address the backlog caused by insufficient QRF, Pascua said that the DepEd has requested for the use of unutilized funds or balance funds for 2018-2019 “to be applied to those damages that we can no longer apply the QRF for.”

QRF is applicable on the existing year and three months before that, he said.

“We have something around 1700 million unutilized funds as balance for 2018 so we will use that for the year 2017,” he explained.

Pascua that said DepEd has already requested the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for additional funds. “We are requesting for a contingent fund or augmentation fund from the DBM to cover the remaining requirements,” he said.

The QRF for 2019, Pascua said, has already been allocated to schools that were damaged in the previous years as well as for those damaged by disasters during the first and second quarters of this year.

With that, DepEd has requested the Senate to increase the agency’s QRF fund from 12 billion to 14 billion every year.

“We are requesting the Senate to increase the P2 billion QRF so we can achieve a zero-zero balance before 2020 and we can cover all the required costing to repair the schools that were damaged by calamities since 2017 until this year,” Pascua explained.

Continued monitoring

Meanwhile, DepEd noted that it continues to monitor the damages in schools following the 6.6 and 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Tulunan, North Cotabato.

Latest available data from the DepEd’s Disaster Risk Reduction Management Service (DRRMS) showed there are 837 schools with reported damages directly affecting 538,625 learners. There are also 701 totally damaged classrooms; 992 classrooms with major damage and 3,683 classrooms with minor damage.

Results of the non-infrastructure damages also showed that there are 73 schools which reported that damages which include 1,603damaged school furniture, 595 damaged learning materials

and 477 damaged computer sets.

DepEd noted that it has already processed the first batch of assistance to affected learners and schools including the release of 59 units of Temporary Learning Spaces (TLS) amounting to 15,032,700.00 and mobilization support funds amounting to 1900,000.

DepEd data showed that a total of 3,326,822 learners are affected by suspension of classes at all levels in 6,980 schools under 28 divisions in BARMM, Regions X, XI, and XII.

During his visit in some of the affected schools, Pascua told teachers that TLSs will be put up so the students can continue schooling. “However, I also told them that they would probably be using these TLSs for months since we don’t have enough funds for repair or reconstruction of damaged classrooms yet,” he said.

Pascua noted that “more or less, we are looking for sources for around 1 8 billion to answer all the damages not only by earthquakes but also of floods and other calamities.”

Until the DepEd finds sources for this funding requirement, many learners in calamity-affected areas will continue to attend classes in makeshift classrooms.