Talino at Galing ng Pinoy (TGP) Partylist Congressman Jose “Bong” Teves Jr. last week promised to take up with the House Appropriations Committee the needed funding for the long-delayed repair of typhoon-damaged school buildings in the province of Catanduanes.
In his message during the groundbreaking for the construction of a new three-story, six-classroom school building in Calatagan Elementary School in Virac last Friday (Aug. 28, 2026), Rep. Teves said he would try his best to move for the inclusion of the school building repair during the scheduled budget deliberations.
The TGP solon was informed by DepEd Catanduanes Chief Education Supervisor Mary Jean S. Romero of the non-inclusion of the division’s damaged infrastructure in the first batch of schools funded for repair, despite letters and appeals by the provincial government and the district congressman.
During the same event, Teves expressed his profuse gratitude to President Bongbong Marcos, DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara, House Speaker Bojie Dy and Committee on Appropriations Chair Rep. Mica Suansing for making possible the P20 million budget for the new building for Calatagan ES.
Aside from the funding for the new infra, the solon also secured the P21 million funding for the 4th to 6th floors of the existing three-story school building at Calatagan High School that was started in 2018 but remained unfinished for some time for lack of budget.
Reminding school officials, barangay councils and parents present of his allocating half of TGP’s funding allocation to Catanduanes despite the post being national in scope, Rep. Teves stressed that this is in furtherance of the partylist group’s advocacy to help develop the youth, especially in their education, by helping reduce the classroom backlog as well as class sizes from the former 60 students to about 40 per classroom.
Citing schools as second home of students, he disclosed that he is one of the principal sponsors of a bill supporting BBM call for every school to have one teacher with a background in psychology to assist in guiding the youth and caring for their wellbeing.
He also expressed support for Congress’ proposals to regulate the youth’s social media activities, including Facebook and violent video games.
The congressman likewise said he uses his positions in the House to secure assistance from the national government, with officials of agencies recently meeting him for breakfast at his office during the budget hearings.
To help reassure parents of students from other towns of their safety during calamities, Teves said he has called for the construction of an evacuation center right inside the Catanduanes State University campus.
Rep. Teves bared that during the budget hearings, he learned of a P358 million allocation for dredging heavily silted rivers and immediately recommended that Bato river be included in the list in order to prevent flooding along the national highway.
Wishing that personalities should engage in partisan politics in 2028, he reiterated his call for everyone to unite and focus on public service for now.
Hinting that the House proposal for the postponement of the barangay elections to November 2028 would be approved eventually, he urged the people to wait a little longer to replace their village officials.
Present during the event were Virac Mayor Sinforoso Sarmiento Jr., OIC-HRMO Remelito Cabrera who represented Gov. Patrick Alain Azanza, CDS Sarmiento, Virac North District Supervisor Elias Abundo, Calatagan Proper Barangay Captain Antonio Reyes, Calatagan Tibang Barangay Captain Maristela Ubalde, Calatagan HS Principal Edgar Sarmiento, and Calatagan ES Master Teacher II Edna Marquez, who represented Principal Mary Jean Valenzuela.
According to Marquez, the school has the third largest number of pupils at 533 after Virac Pilot Elementary School and Juan M. Alberto Memorial Elementary School.
However, it has only 15 classrooms, with four of its existing rooms divided into two to make room for pupils and its stage converted into a classroom.
The school has no faculty room, library, home economics room, laboratory, computer room and principal’s office, with the school head staying at the former school stage that has been converted into an office.
In contrast, the nearby high school has a total of 55 classrooms for its 1,023 junior HS students and 504 senior HS students.