Saying he values education “more than anything else,” Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada has gifted public students in the city with new school buildings worth more than P2.5 billion last year.
For 2016, Manila under Estrada’s watch constructed and repaired 45 school buildings in various public elementary and secondary schools in the city. In 2015, the city also completed 44 school infrastructure projects, 32 of which have been completed, with a total project cost of P1.49 billion.
“While we save our youth from the clutches of illegal drugs and other illegal activities, we are equally committed in providing them quality education, and one way of doing that is giving them the best educational facilities we could offer,” Estrada said.
Thirteen of the 45 school building projects last year were new buildings worth P828 million. The rest were repair and rehabilitation works worth P1.72 billion, according to the Office of the City Engineer.
For the two-year period, the city government completed 87 school building projects with a total project costs of P4.038 billion.
Education is one of Estrada’s priority programs. He has allocated almost P2 billion to the city’s Special Educational Fund to finance additional school infrastructure and other related programs.
These include P40 million worth of textbooks and instructional materials; P375 million for 50 digital computer laboratories, 1,600 desktop computers, laptops, printers, projectors and other school equipment.
To raise the morale of public school teachers, Estrada also increased their monthly allowance from P2,000 to P3,000, and provided them with computer tablets to aid in their teaching.
Elementary schoolchildren also get free books, PE uniforms, and school supplies, and have benefitted from the city government’s feeding program.
Last November, in his “untiring effort” to help poor but deserving students with their studies, Estrada released another P1.5 million as cash gift for indigent public elementary and high school students.
Estrada distributed P5,000 each to 311 students, the latest batch of beneficiaries of the Educational Assistance Program he started when he assumed office in 2013.
Through the Manila Department of Social Welfare Department, Estrada has given out P5,000 in educational assistance to elementary and high school students every year, and more than 500 have received the aid.