ACCESS to tertiary education will soon be easier for students in the third congressional district of Cebu.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, her younger brother, Deputy Speaker Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd), Mayor Alex Binghay and third district Provincial Board Member John Ismael Borgonia recently led a groundbreaking ceremony for a satellite campus for the Cebu Technological University (CTU) in Balamban town.
The school will rise on a 1.5-hectare lot in Barangay Cantuod.
A Provincial Capitol video report on Feb. 17, 2020, said the project’s first phase is worth P38 million, while the second phase, P25 million.
For the implementation of the first phase, the Provincial Government has set aside P12 million, which will be added to the P25 million allocated for CTU during the governor’s term as then third district congresswoman.
As House member, Garcia had pushed for the establishment of a CTU satellite campus in Balamban by sponsoring a resolution for this purpose before the House of Representatives.
“We passed a supplemental budget in August 2019, which included funds fo the school building in Balamban,” the governor said.
Subsequently, funds for the implementation of the project’s second phase were allocated after current Deputy Speaker Garcia pushed for the inclusion in the national budget of P25 million for a two-story building in the proposed CTU-Balamban campus.
“We believe that education should be within reach by our constituents,” he said.
Mayor Binghay, for his part, said the school will not only help students but their parents as well.
“A lot of parents will be happy because they will no longer spend so much to send their children to school. They don’t have to send them to Cebu City and spend for boarding. They can closely monitor their children,” he said in Cebuano.
CTU, formerly known as Cebu State College of Science and Technology, is a Level IV university composed of 20 campuses and extensions. (RTF)