DBP opens new P10B loan facility for education programs of LGUs

The Development Bank of the Philippines has opened a P10-billion loan facility that local government units can tap to fund their public education projects.

In a statement, DBP said the establishment of the P10-billion Financing for Public Basic Education (FPBE) facility was intended to complement the government’s program to improve the delivery of primary education services.

With the facility, local government units may borrow funds from DBP to finance such projects as the acquisition of land, infrastructure, furniture and equipment, supplies and materials needed by public primary schools.

The poorest municipalities, specifically those classified as 4th to 6th class, will be given priority under the new lending facility of the DBP.

“We are optimistic that with the FPBE, we can catalyze the improvement of the public school system by encouraging LGUs to invest in facilities that will improve the learning environment of public schools such as classrooms, libraries, laboratories, toilets, and sufficient textbooks and teaching aids,” DBP president Francisco del Rosario Jr. said in a statement.

Del Rosario said the lending facility was aimed at helping the country achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on primary education.

Under the goal, all children must be given primary education by the deadline of 2015.

According to estimates, net enrolment ratio for primary education in the Philippines stood at about 85 percent in 2009.

While the latest enrolment ratio for primary education is not too low, it is a deterioration from the over 90 percent enrolment level achieved in the early 2000s.

The Philippines is thus urged to spend more on education services to get on track to meeting the MDG on primary education by 2015.

“The FPBE will also support the national government’s efforts to achieve universal primary education,” Del Rosario said.

Meantime, DBP said loans to be secured by local government units from the FPBE will account for a maximum of 90 percent of the estimated project cost.

The remaining 10 percent of the project cost will be funded by the borrowers as their counterpart fund.

Loans are payable up to 10 years.