City backs hike of special educ fund

CEBU, Philippines - The Talisay City Council is supporting a House bill authored by Makati district Representative Mar-Len Abigail Binay that seeks to amend the Local Government Code and expand the Special Education Fund.

Councilor Richard Francis Aznar authored a resolution expressing support to House Bill 614 known as “An Act Expanding the purposes and application of the Special Education Fund Amending for the purpose Sections 100, 235 and 272 of Republic Act 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code."

Aznar, who is the chairman of the Committee on Education of the City Council, said the enactment of a law to amend Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code will boost the city government’s basic education programs.

The SEF, taken from the additional 1 percent tax on real property, is one of the sources of local government funds for education services.

Under the law, the allocation of the SEF is mainly for “the operation and maintenance of public schools, construction and repair of school buildings, facilities and equipment, educational research, purchase of books and periodicals, and sports development” as determined and approved by the Local School Board.

According to Aznar, there is a need to incorporate new fields of education such as computer science into the public school system but this cannot be done because of funding concerns.

The recurring budget deficits of the national government is also contributing to the clamor to expand the application of, and the power to levy, the SEF, Aznar said.

Aznar said the bill addresses these concerns as it proposes to grant municipalities outside the Metropolitan Manila area the power to levy and collect SEF.

The bill will also expand the application of SEF as, among other things, payment for the remuneration or honoraria of volunteer school teachers and use the SEF as payment or collateral for loans, debts, or credits from lending institutions and financial intermediaries to further supplement the national budget allocations for education. — Garry B. Lao (FREEMAN)