Malacanang has released an additional P3.07 billion to ramp up construction of new classrooms and repair of old ones as well as P1.62 billion more to ensure electricity supply in off-grid power systems.
Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said in a statement the latest disbursement to the Department of Education brings this year’s running total to P10.09 billion.
Abad said additional DepEd funds will also cover the installation and upgrading of sanitation facilities in schools throughout the country.
DepEd’s basic education facilities fund (BEFF) was allotted P11.3 billion this year to support a total of 6,676 classrooms and 3,274 toilets in schools.
The budget chief said the Aquino administration was making good on its commitment to close the supply gap in learning infrastructure, including furniture and other facilities.
Of the P3.07-billion released, the National Capital Region—which suffers an “acute shortage” of classrooms – gets the biggest allocation of P646 million while Mimaropa will get P346 million and Western Visayas, P245 million.
For 2012, Malacañang is asking Congress to increase the BEFF by 54 percent to P17.4 billion.
Also, Abad said President Aquino had ordered the release of P1.62 billion to the National Power Corp. to shore up efforts to prevent imminent power shortages in far-flung areas across the country.
The amount was given out “to urgently address (Napocor’s) capability to provide stable power supply in off-grid areas, some of which have already experienced sporadic brownouts due to fuel supply constraints,” he said.
Of the P1.62 billion, P1.32 billion will be used to address the fuel needs of Napocor’s Small Power Utilities Group or SPUG while the rest will be used to buy spare parts for SPUG-owned power plants and for leasing generator sets.
SPUG operates 317 generating units with total rated capacity of 147.675 megawatts in 86 areas, including 78 island grids and eight inland but isolated grids that cater to 3,330 barangays in 192 towns across the country.