Two new school buildings worth P83 million were formally turned-over to the Benguet National High School in Wangal, La Trinidad, Benguet on Sept. 16 to address the lack of classrooms in the municipality’s biggest school.
The Department of Education-Benguet led by Division Supt. Gloria Buya-ao and BeNHS Principal Bivian Cuh-ing received the buildings from the representative of the Benguet First District Engineering Office of the Department of Public Works and Highways and witnessed by La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda.
The new buildings – a four-story with 24 classrooms and a four-story building with four workshop rooms, one science laboratory and one Information and Communications Technology rooms would greatly address the need for classrooms at BeNHS, which caters to 6,000 learners.
The new buildings were part of the eight school buildings in the municipality that have problem with requirements that caused the delay in the turnover to DepEd.
The municipality has received the request of DepEd-Cordillera Director Estela Cariño for the waiving of fees from the school buildings such as building permit from the municipality.
Salda has forwarded the request to the municipal council, which will decide whether to authorize the mayor to waive the fees.
Cariño has committed to Salda that DepEd will coordinate with DPWH to properly follow the requirements and make sure that the funding for school building constructions will include the processing of necessary documents from the municipality.
The DPWH First BDEO reported that three school buildings were issued with certificates of completion.
Twelve school buildings were turned-over to DepEd while nine other buildings will be turned-over anytime soon. Also, there are 16 schools issued with certificates for its structural integrity and safety. – Ofelia C. Empian
