Postpone polls due to damaged schools? Guv to confer first with Comelec

CEBU, Philippines - Governor Hilario Davide III will have to speak with officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) first if there is a need to postpone the barangay elections in the Province of Cebu.

This, after the number of damaged school classrooms in the province have increased over the past few days following the continuous monitoring and roving of Department of Education (DepEd) officials.

Based on the report of DepEd provincial superintendent Dr. Arden Monisit, the number of classrooms in the province that acquired damages due to the recent 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Central Visayas increased from 200 to 549.

Davide said that he has not yet received the updated report from Monisit but said that the increase number of damaged classrooms in Cebu, which will be used for the upcoming barangay elections, “could be a justification” for the recommendation to postpone the October 28 elections.

He said yesterday that he would have to speak first with Comelec Cebu Provincial Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano, who was still in Manila yesterday to turn over Certificate of Candidacies from the province.

In a phone interview with The Freeman, Castillano said that they would have to discuss the matter and he would also need to speak with Monisit to determine the extent of the damage of the classrooms.

But Castillano said that for him, there is no need to postpone the elections since there are enough classrooms to use.

The barangay elections would need around 5,000 classrooms all over the province, Castillano said. But even without the 549 reported damaged classrooms, Castillano said they can still manage.

The province has 1,122 schools; 893 of which for elementary schools and 229 for high school.

Based on the report of Monisit, 65 elementary schools have classrooms damaged by the earthquake and successive aftershocks while 43 secondary schools also have classrooms which acquired damages.

But Castillano said that even during the national and local elections, they did not use all the classrooms.

For the barangay elections, he explained that they may need more classrooms compared to the previous elections since the clustering of voters is by 400, lower than the mid-term elections’ 1000 voters per clustered precinct.

Further, Castillano said they can also find other means in case they would really lack classrooms like the use of government buildings and putting up of makeshift tents.

As of the moment though, Castillano said there has been no advice or recommendation from any election officer in the municipalities and cities in the province on the need to postpone the barangay elections.

According to Davide, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes said there were a lot of classrooms in the city that were damaged by the quake.

Castillano said though that there has been no advisory from the election officer of Mandaue City that they would need to find other means for the election.

Rebuilding

Governor Davide said he received a letter from the regional office of DepEd, asking for a report on the total number of schools and classrooms in the province that acquired damages due to the quake.

Davide said that provincial DepEd officials are still collating all the information but assured that the provincial government would help in the reconstruction and rebuilding of the damaged schools even if the funding is under the national office of DepEd.

 â€œDefinitely we are going to help sa pag-ayo or pag-rebuild,” said Davide, also referring to other government structures in the province that were damaged by the earthquake like municipal and city halls.

He added that even prior the earthquake, the construction of more public schools in the province has been in the pipeline of projects by DepEd and the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.

Davide explained they may not complete the construction of school buildings for the opening of classes soon but based on their initial discussion, he said they will provide tents using the provincial government’s calamity fund. —(FREEMAN)