Just in time for the opening of classes on Monday, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada has rebuilt an elementary school in Tondo, which was destroyed by a huge fire two years ago.
Estrada had released a total of P222 million for the reconstruction of the two school buildings of Gregorio Del Pilar Elementary School at the corner of CM Recto Avenue and Jose Abad Santos that were razed by fire on Feb. 17, 2015.
The first building, built at the cost of P153 million, has 24 classrooms and is now being used, while the adjacent building is set to be completed in the third or fourth quarter of 2017, according to Estrada on Friday.
“Our students and teachers will no longer be holding their classes on makeshift classrooms. I have ordered our city engineers to hasten the construction of the new classroom buildings for the coming school year,” he said.
Phase 1 of the project was the main four-storey school building, which was completed late last year.
The second building, with a project cost of P72 million and will have 16 classrooms, is still being completed, according to engineer Henry Alcantara of the Office of the City Engineer.
In the poverty-stricken community of Baseco Compound, Estrada also built from scratch a technical-vocational school in a 500-square meter vacant lot used as a dumpsite by residents.
Alcantara said the city government has set aside another P10 million to build a third floor at the two-storey Cory Aquino Senior High School, which was completed only last year at the cost of P52 million.
The school currently has four spacious, fully-equipped technical-vocational classrooms and is now K to 12 compliant, he said.
“With the addition of another floor for classrooms, the school will be able to accommodate more students,” Alcantara added. The city-run school has about 400 students.
Education is one of Estrada’s priority programs. He has allocated almost P2 billion to the city’s Special Educational Fund to finance the construction of additional school infrastructures and other related programs.
In 2016 alone, Estrada constructed and repaired 45 school buildings in various public elementary and secondary schools in the city totaling P2.54 billion to further improve the quality of education being given to poor students.
Of the 45 school building projects, 13 were new ones worth a total of P828.23 million; the rest were repair and rehabilitation works worth P1.72 billion, according to the Office of the City Engineer.
In 2015, the city mayor also completed 44 school infrastructure projects – 32 of which have been completed – with a total project cost of P1.49 billion.
For the two-year period, the city government completed 87 school building projects with total project costs of P4.03 billion.