Congressman Chong bares educational assistance to Biliranons

By RODRIGO S. VICTORIA (PIA Biliran)
April 26, 2008

NAVAL, Biliran  –  When classes for the school year 2008-2009 open in June this year,  parents of pupils and students in the elementary, secondary and tertiary levels in the province of Biliran have something to rejoice with as Rep. Glenn A. Chong bares many educational assistance that would mean a lot of help in reducing the financial burden of sending their children to school.

In an interview with Representative Chong, the young Biliran solon informed that he will apportion some 12,000 backpack type of schoolbags to elementary pupils from grades 2 to 6 in the entire province of Biliran to an estimated 24,000 elementary enrollees this school year.

He said that he allocated P1.5 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) this year for this purpose.

Likewise, Rep. Chong revealed that he will coordinate with a non-government entity for the provision of school supplies aside from the school bags to the elementary pupils.

The representative of the Lone District of Biliran disclosed that he allocated another P9.5 million from his PDAF for the procurement of seven 55-seaters school buses at one each for the municipalities of Almeria, Biliran, Cabucgayan, Caibiran, Culaba, Kawayan, Naval and another two L300 panel type bus will be given to the island municipality of Maripipi.

He informed that these transportation facilities will provide free ride to elementary pupils and secondary students in the eight municipalities including college students in municipalities where there is a tertiary school.

“These buses will ferry pupils and students from their respective homes to their schools and vice-versa when classes start this year. This would be a big help to our parents who will bear the financial burden of high transportation cost in sending their children to school,” Rep. Chong said.

According to Rep. Chong, these school buses have the same features with the tourist buses in Japan complete with air conditioning and television units and soft reclining chairs in order to provide convenience and comfort to the students.

He will allocate P1 million per year for the salaries of drivers to include the maintenance and operation expenses of these buses.

The provision of school buses in the eight municipalities in the province of Biliran is one of the campaign promises of Representative Chong in the May 14, 2007 elections.

Aside from the provision of school bags and buses, Rep. Chong revealed that he allocated P1 million from his PDAF for the 200 scholarship slots at P5,000 per qualified college student this school year.

For the 2nd semester of school year 2007-2008, Rep. Chong was able to get 55 slots from the 7th batch of scholars from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). He was able also to get scholarship funds for 69 college students for the second semester of school year 2007-2008 from Congressman Neptali Gonzales, Jr. who represents a congressional district in the city of Mandaluyong.

On top of this, he said that he got another P5 million from CHED for this school year to accommodate some 1,000 scholars to bring in a total of 1,324 scholarship slots in all since he assumed as representative of the lone district of Biliran in July 2007.

For the Biliranons who want to take vocational-technical courses, Rep. Chong disclosed that there are 1,200 to 1,500 available slots in the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in Biliran. He said those who are willing to avail of the scholarship slots, they may visit TESDA-Biliran for additional information and assistance.

With his commitment to further upgrade the equipment of the lone TESDA accredited vocational-technical tertiary school in the province of Biliran, he gave P.5 million to the Cabucgayan National School of Arts and Trades (CNSAT) for the purchase of welding machine, chiller and other important equipment needed by the school.

As a lawmaker with a passion to further improve the educational status of the Biliranons, he filed House Bill No. 1927 converting Naval Institute of Technology (NIT) into a university.

He said that he will work hard for the conversion of NIT into a university within his term which was not materialized during the term of the previous representatives in the district.

He also sponsored a bill for the creation of three high schools with specific field of studies. These high schools are to be established in Barangay Tamarindo in the municipality of Almeria to focus in the study of arts and culture; another one in the municipality of Caibiran as the center of study in information and communication technology and another high school in the municipality of Biliran to specialize in science and technology.

At present, Representative Chong is in the process of consultation with the Local Chief Executives of these towns since the establishment and operation of these high schools entail big amount of money.

“All of these things are geared towards providing the Biliranons the right kind of direction in education in order to prepare them for the greater and bigger opportunities not only in Biliran but anywhere in the Philippines and throughout the world,” Rep Chong said referring to the different education-related assistance he is working for the benefit of the people in his district.

He said he will work hard in order to provide of what is good and beneficial for the people in Biliran province who have given their full trust and confidence as their representative.