Some 190,000 public elementary school pupils here will soon have free school supplies, uniform, shoes, and food, Mayor Edgardo Labella said after signing an ordinance on Tuesday.

With the measure, Labella said there is no more reason for parents not to send their children to school because the supplies and uniforms will be provided by the city government.

He said the PHP500-million fund for the program has been included in the proposed 2020 annual budget.

At least PHP350 million will be allocated for the school supplies, uniforms and shoes while PHP150 million will fund the feeding program for the schoolchildren, he said.

“This is our way of bringing the government closer to the people, to our respective constituents to our respective barangays,” Labella said in his message after signing the ordinance authored by Councilors Raymond Alvin Garcia and Alvin Dizon.

The mayor said helping the city’s schoolchildren is one of his 10-point socio-economic agenda.

Under the ordinance, the distribution of school supplies will be done at the start of every school year beginning in June 2020.

“This provision that (benefits) our public school children in elementary, I think it is high time that we should provide free school supplies. In addition, free school uniforms and even shoes, because we noticed that there are many children of school age that were not able to go to elementary schools because of poverty especially from the depressed areas,” Labella said. (PNA)