MANILA -- While its regional offices were able to submit preliminary damage assessment reports on state universities and colleges (SUCs) affected by Typhoon Ompong, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) officer-in-charge J. Prospero de Vera III said on Tuesday there is still room to improve and hasten their reporting system.
“We are reviewing our reporting system in the commission particularly with state universities and colleges to be able to get a faster report. Sometimes the assessment reports can’t be submitted fast enough because in the campuses they don’t have enough people to do the structural physical assessment,” he said in a press briefing.
De Vera reported that SUCs in the Cagayan Valley Region were badly hit as the Cagayan State University logged an estimated damage cost of PHP215.34 million for its seven campuses.
“The Cordillera Administrative Region has a total of PHP20,048,799.98 estimated damage cost but we expect the figure to go up in one to two days because we haven’t received any report from Benguet State University the area of which have been hit badly by the typhoon,” he said.
Meanwhile, the total damage among the SUCs in the Ilocos Region amounted to PHP193,482,800, with the Don Mariano Marcos State University suffering the most damage at PHP42 million.
“The president went to Laoag and Governor Imee Marcos had requested assistance for infrastructure asking that the money be coursed through the commission so we have the estimates already,” he said.
SUCs in the Bicol Region reported no damage and casualties.
As most of the preliminary damage reports mainly concerned higher education infrastructures, de Vera said they expect the damage reports cost to increase in the coming days as SUCs begin to examine their equipment, which might have been damaged during the typhoon. (PNA)
