Recto : Quick ballot count needed so schools
can be readied for June class opening
P850 M allocated for minor repair of 34,000 classrooms

Counting of ballots should be done quickly so classrooms used as voting precincts can be readied for the opening of classes three weeks after the May 14 polls, Sen. Ralph Recto said.

Recto said there is an allocation of P850 million in the P1.126 trillion 2007 national budget for the renovation of public school buildings.

The amount is earmarked for minor repairs such as repainting of an estimated 34,000 classrooms at a cost of between P20,000 and P100,000 each.

The sooner classrooms are vacated by Commission on Elections-deputized personnel, the earlier refurbishing work can be done on these, Recto said.

After precincts close on May 14, there are 21 days left before classes open, he said.

Citing Department of Education estimates, Recto said a surge of an estimated 17. 8 million students, or 850,000 higher than the official enrollment last year, will troop to public elementary and highs schools for academic year 2007-2008.

Recto explained that the allocation to spruce up classrooms is on top of the P5.37 billion fund in the national budget to build 11,673 classrooms this year, Recto explained.

Of the said amount, P2 billion has been assigned for the replacement of school infrastructure destroyed by the four typhoons which came in succession in the last quarter of the previous year.

He said classrooms which will be used for the elections but due to their dilapidated state have been condemned for demolition will be replaced using funds under the P5.37 billion allocation for new classrooms.

This is another reason why elections should not tarry at the precinct level. The sooner we remove all traces of elections in our campuses the sooner we can do construction work, he said.