Davao LGU sets aside P54M to build USEP annex

By Antonio Colina IV 

DAVAO CITY – The City Government of Davao will set aside P54 million to construct an annex buildings of the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) in Barangay Malabog, Paquibato District to get more children from poor families to proceed to higher education, Mayor Sara Duterte said.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte
(FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

Duterte said that the budget for the construction of the building would be sourced from the 2020 budget of the City Government, which she hopes to see being completed by next year or 2022 at the latest.

She said that the expansion came after Task Force Peace 911, which was created to take the lead in the implementation of a comprehensive peace-building program of the local government for conflict-affected areas of the city, found out that there is a need to put up a college in Paquibato to get more senior high school graduates to study college.

It is high time to put up higher education institution in Paquibato, as its presence would encourage more students, who are constrained financially to afford the expenses of going into college in downtown, according to Duterte.

She added Paquibato was chosen to host the USEP-Annex as it aligns with the university’s mandate to reach out to the students in conflict-affected areas.

“It’s on track, and this project – the USEP-Annex- is already moving,” she said.

The Peace 911 was the successor of the defunct Davao Peace Committee, the local peace panel created to hold localized peace initiative with the New People’s Army operating in the hinterlands of the city.

On December 23, 2019, the mayor asked the Duterte administration to exclude the city from the coverage of the GRP-NDFP peace talks, as it would only dampen the gains of the “Peace 911” in all 13 barangays of Paquibato District and Barangay Dominga in Calinan District.

“To be covered by the ceasefire or the peace negotiations will only disrupt and threaten the gains of our process of peace and development in these communities formerly controlled by the terrorists,” she said.

She claimed that Peace 911, a comprehensive peace-building program of the local government for conflict-affected areas of the city, had successfully removed the remaining communist guerrillas operating in Paquibato District and Barangay Dominga.

She said the civilian-led Peace 911 capacitated the Lumad farmers on farming and marketing, and linked them directly to buyers for their produce through the so-called “Peace Economy.”