• THERESA MAE DULMAN
The Bacolod City Government is targeting the end of August to begin the distribution of school supplies to public elementary school students.
Councilor Al Victor Espino, committee chair on education, confirmed the timeline, following the delays.
“We’re expecting that, hopefully, by the end of August we can start distributing the school supplies as provided for by the ordinance,” Espino said.
According to Espino, they started the pre-procurement of the school supplies that consist of notebooks and other school essentials
To prevent the further delays, he explained that they left out the backpack, focusing only on the contents.
Espino added that they can possibly start the procurement early next school year but said that they are dependent on the actual numbers of enrollees.
“If we are willing to accept that there is a surplus in the supplies, and then we allocate and make early procurement, [we can] make provision on where to give the excess supplies, as long as there is no shortage,” Espino said.
A P29-million budget has been allocated by the city this year, for the school supplies of around 72,000 recipients.*
