BACOLOD City – A municipal councilor of Isabela, Negros Occidental appealed to concerned government agencies to expedite the construction of buildings for a high school in the town.
The P38-million project would allow Tinongan National High School to essentially have its own campus. Currently the high school occupies buildings of the Tinongan Elementary School.
In a news conference yesterday, Councilor Patrick Montilla, chairman of Isabela’s Sangguniang Bayan committee on education, lamented what he perceived as a slow progress of the project.
Montilla’s family donated a 9,973-square meter property in Hacienda San Bonifacio, Barangay Tinongan for the construction of the high school buildings.
The project involves three units of two-story, four-classroom buildings (P34,668,987.87) and one unit of a one-story, two-classroom building for senior high school (P3,250,580.76), read part of a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) memorandum that Montilla showed the press.
Randolfo Melosantos, district engineer of the DPWH-Negros Occidental 2nd Engineering District, signed the memorandum addressed to DPWH regional director Wenceslao Leaño Jr.
The project was validated in the third quarter of 2017 yet, Melosantos said in the memorandum.
There was a need for a redesign of the foundations because the soil at the construction site – just adjacent to the elementary school – has a low-bearing capacity, he said.
After the redesign of the foundation, the revised program of work, plans and structural analysis were submitted to the Department of Education (DepEd) in Pasig City in November 2017, said Melosantos.
“This office is still waiting for the Special Allotment Release Order [for the project] to start the procurement process,” he said. “All necessary documents for bidding were already prepared.”
Montilla lamented that he was informed about the progress of the project “just recently” even when he made prior follow-ups with the DPWH and the DepEd.
Moreover, he said he learned from some top DepEd officials that there was a plan to build the high school buildings somewhere else, not on the property the Montilla family donated.
“Which reason [for the delay] do I believe?” the councilor said.
Groundbreaking and laying of time capsule ceremonies for the project was held in September last year./PN
