Carina, Habagat worth of damage to schools now at P1.6B

It would take at least P1.6 billion to reconstruct and repair the schools damaged due to Super Typhoon Carina and the Southwest Monsoon or Habagat, the Department of Education (DepEd) said Monday.

During the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture meeting, DepEd Undersecretary Revsee Escobedo reported that 355 classrooms were totally damaged, while 1,555 others sustained partial damage.

Aside from classrooms, he said there were 274 handwashing facilities also damaged.

These were located in nine regions, namely: National Capital Region (NCR), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, and Eastern Visayas.

“The estimated cost for infrastructure damages, we generated a report to about P1.66 billion— P887 million for reconstruction, and P777 million for major repairs,” Escobedo said.

For non-infrastructure, the DepEd official noted that 10,773 school furniture, consisting of tables and chairs, were damaged. There were also 869 computed sets damaged by the weather systems.

There were also over 344,241 learning resources damaged, especially in NCR and several municipalities of Bulacan.

The School Year 2024-2025 kicked off last Monday, July 29. However, some schools in the country have only started classes a week later or on August 5, after reeling from the effects of the recent typhoons and the Southwest Monsoon.

A total of 42 schools in Malabon City have yet to open classes as heavy rains started pouring again last night which resulted in flooding in some areas in the city. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News