BACOLOR -- Bacolor town Mayor Jose Maria "Jomar" Hizon had asked the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and the Department of Education (DepEd) to include more school buildings in the new updated plans for the rehabilitation of Bacolor town.
Hizon said that it is likely that the town would need P100-million to P200-million in funding to build schools in or near former communities in the town that have been damaged by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991. Most of Bacolor town's local population are now located in resettlement centers in Pampanga.
Hizon also expressed worry that the planned school buildings should not be built in resettlement areas but in the former communities of the town to attract more residents to return.
The mayor added that school buildings are essential in attracting people to return. He said that the Bacolor Rehabilitation Plan aims to fulfill all the social components of a community set up in order to make the return to the town less of a burden to residents.
Pampanga Third District Representative Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales, Jr. who authored House Bill 3380 which embodied the Bacolor Rehabilitation Law, also expressed the same sentiments of Hizon during a meeting with other government agencies at the Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University in Bacolor town.
It could be remembered that in September 2008, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law the Bacolor Rehabilitation Council (BRC) whose main objective is the complete rehabilitation of this town which was buried by lahar, volcanic ash and debris in the aftermath of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.
The BRC came up with plans for construction of vital infrastructures to support the town’s former population.