City school board’s OK needed for new school buildings
NEW CITY ORDINANCE
THE Dagupan City School Board has been empowered further by the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP). Without its imprimatur, no new public school building can be built in the city!
SP passed the ordinance on Sept. 8 requiring all contractors, architects and engineers to first submit plans for planned school buildings to the City School Board (CSB) for approval even before a permit from the City Engineering Office (CEO) can be secured.
Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, who sponsored the measure, said the ordinance seeks to avoid a repeat of the recent situation when 25 school buildings allocated for Dagupan under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme could not be used because it had no clearance even from the CEO.
The 25 PPP buildings for Dagupan, 19 of which have already been completed, have been found to be substandard and remained unutilized by the schools to date after the CEO refused to issue any occupancy permit since the contractor has not complied with the requirements, particularly the submission of construction plans to secure a building permit.
The Federation of Parents Teachers Associations of Dagupan, a member of the City School Board hailed the approved measure as it will also empower them to have a hand in scrutinizing plans for school buildings to be built to ensure that school buildings that are built are safe.
Councilor Tamayo, author of the approved Draft Ordinance No. 0-552, said the approval of construction plans by the CSB is now one of the requirements for the issuance of the building permit by the CEO.
Mayor Belen Fernandez stopped the construction of six other PPP school buildings that have not been started and will now be covered by the new ordinance.
Tamayo also said that in the interest of public welfare, all public school buildings or structures as well as accessory facilities thereto must conform in all respects to the principles of safe construction and must be suited to the purpose for which they are designed.
He added that the SP already passed a resolution calling on DepEd Central office to ask the contractor to redo its projects that have not benefited its intended beneficiaries. (Leonardo Micua)
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