MINALABAC, Camarines Sur -- Mayors of Camarines Sur’s first district are demanding for the details of the work plan of school buildings constructed under the Calamity Assistance Rehabilitation Efforts (Care) be provided to them before acceptance.

        Mayor Gil Basmayor Jr., this town, told the Bicol Mail they wanted to know the details to erase doubts about project implementation because he said what was at stake in the project is the education of the public school pupils.

        Basmayor said the disclosure of the details of the lump sum of the project costs would clear the air of suspicion of low-quality construction and rehabilitation works of school buildings damaged by super typhoons last year.

        “They must spare this project,” added Mayor Norberto Genova of Cabusao, Camarines Sur, without elaborating.

        But Engr. Oliver R. Hernandez, chief of Physical Facilities and Schools Engineering Division-Office of Planning Services (PFSED-OPS) of the education department, said the work plans are available and that the school buildings constructed under Bicol Care or BCARE passed the evaluation with the completion of almost all the targets.

        Hernandez said that 98 percent have been completed based on the actual physical accomplishment in the construction and repair of school buildings under the BCARE.

        He said the BCARE funds coursed through the Department of Education (DepEd), intended for the repair and construction of school buildings, amounted to P1.2 billion.

        In a press kit provided to the media, the DepEd has identified 2,220 schools sites where some 771 new classrooms are up for construction and 7,142 are for repairs.

        The education department also reported that President Macapagal-Arroyo has been informed during the inter-agency meeting on January 17 that DepEd is the first agency in Bicol to complete its rehabilitation work.

        “As of January 7, 2008, classroom construction and repair are proceeding at a steady pace with all provinces reaching almost 100-percent completion in repair and construction of new school buildings,” the DepEd reported.

        Hernandez said one of the reasons of the backlog was that there are dilapidated buildings that required demolition and that certain processes must be complied with to implement the construction plan.

        “We have to fast track the compliance of local government unit certification, Commission on Audit rules and approval of the regional office of the DepEd,” he said, as he enumerated the requirements to start the demolition of dilapidated school buildings.

        Hernandez revealed that the total rehabilitation and improvement of school buildings and facilities all over Bicol requires some P500 million more on top of the present P1.2-B released.

        Responding to the demand of the mayors in his district, Congressman Dato Arroyo said he has appointed the 10 mayors in the first district of Camarines Sur to become a member of the validation team of the BCARE commission, an inter-agency body task to monitor and evaluate the projects.

        “The mayors will be directly involved in the monitoring and evaluation of the projects in their respective municipalities under the BCARE to fast track the completion of its components. They are to feed important developments of the implementation that are very important in the evaluation because they are the authorities in their localities,” Arroyo said.