It’s finally a go for mountain college

• Source:http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2016/06/17/its-finally-go-mountain-college-480175
• Friday, June 17, 2016

By Princess Dawn H. Felicitas

STUDENTS in Cebu City’s mountain barangays will no longer have to commute to the city proper to go to college.

Yesterday, the groundbreaking for the construction of a mountain college extension of the Cebu Technological University (CTU) in Barangay Babag was held. The project will cost some P75 million.

The amount will cover the construction of a two-story building with 20 classrooms, which can accommodate 1,000 students.

It will also have a university gym, a university hospital and an administrative building that will house not only the offices but also the library and laboratories.

“We will change the landscape here in the mountain barangays with this project. I feel sorry for the students here in the mountain barangays because they have to travel to the city to be able to study. But the nice thing now is that the family can already save on the students’ fare,” Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa (Cebu City, south district) said.

Those who are from Babag, which is 14 kilometers away from the city proper, have to pay P20 to P25 each for their fare to the nearest urban barangay.

Abellanosa was the one who initiated the establishment of the CTU extension in the mountain barangay by securing funding from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The project will rise on a one-hectare lot owned by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) in Babag.

Abellanosa said Tieza will allow the use of their property for 50 years through a usufruct agreement. It is renewable.

The establishment of the CTU mountain college became controversial after outgoing Mayor Michael Rama stopped efforts to open the temporary campus in Barangay Bonbon in June last year, saying it had no approval from the City Government and other concerned agencies.

That time, the extension campus was supposed to be housed in the gym of Bonbon.

In an interview yesterday, Abellanosa said he is happy that the permanent campus in Babag will already be constructed.

He said that DPWH will start constructing the extension college by July. They are targeting to build the classrooms and the administrative building first.

They hope to finish the project within six months so the school can already be operational when the second semester starts.

For the hospital, Abellanosa disclosed that the Department of Health has earmarked P6 million for the purchase of the required equipment.

In his speech during the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday, incoming mayor Tomas Osmeña said the college education of those who will enroll at CTU mountain college extension will be free.

The City is already giving P10,000 scholarship benefits to all high school graduates in the city.

Osmeña is planning to increase the amount when he assumes office on July 1.

In a separate speech, Acting Mayor Margarita Osmeña said she wants one of the buildings at the extension campus to be named after Pastor Crisostomo Maternal Jr., who was gunned down in Barangay Bonbon last week.

She said Maternal was among those who fought for the establishment the CTU campus in Bonbon last year when Rama ordered it stopped.