Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia yesterday said he is working for more classrooms for city schools, especially at the Vista Alegre Granada Elementary School that serves a  new relocation site.

Leonardia said Department of Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro is sending a team to check on the prospective sites for the new classrooms. He said they discussed this during the recent congressional budget hearings where he is a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

Leonardia, who had opened the Abada Escay and Arao relocation sites when he was mayor of the city, said there is a pressing need for classrooms at the VAGRES considering its growing population.

“Our relocation sites are getting filled up, so we need to put up more education and other facilities to serve the children,” Leonardia said.

He added that an estimated 4,000 families are projected to settle in the relocation sites. “This early, we must prepare to meet their basic needs. VAGRES was the first major service institution we established in the area right after we opened the relocation site in 2004,” Leonardia also said.

Considering the circumstances of the population in the relocation site, “we feel that we must give priority to education for their children,” Leonardia added.

Aside from the classrooms, he is also working to establish a high school  in the area, he said.

Since 2013, DepEd has built nine new classrooms for the city. They are a 3-storey 3 classroom building at ETCS 1; a 2-storey, four-classroom building in Estefania and two classrooms in Mandalagan.

Aside from these, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. is also constructing a four-storey,  20-classroom schoolbuilding in Barangay Bata, he added.*

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