Most Daragueños put a premium on acquiring an education. This is manifested by a significantly high literacy rate of 96.08%. Sad to say however, there remains a small number of Daragueños who are illiterate or have not completed even elementary level of education. It is necessary therefore to have a comprehensive view of the current educational status in terms of facilities, enrollees, teachers and classrooms. The limitation of this planning exercise is on the quality of public elementary and secondary in the municipality. With this strategy, the responsibility of the Local Government of Daraga shall then be fulfilled which is to provide every Daragueños ready access to basic education.

Current educational facilities show that 1) For both public and private elementary schools almost every barangay in the municipality has an elementary school except for Barangays Ilawod, Kimantong, San Roque and Sipi in the Urban Area and Dinoronan, Mayon and Pandan in the Rural Areas. Aside from classrooms, Public elementary schools have minimal facilities with either shop, library, sports, administrative office, clinic, comfort room and playground and some with Day Care Center, DSWD Classroom, Music Room, H.E. Building, Garden and Stage.

Private elementary schools are situated in the Urban Area and have almost complete basic facilities with additional facility of either Botanical Garden & Mini-Zoo, Quadrangle, Stage and Social Hall. Five (5) Public Secondary Schools are situated in Barangays Anislag, Lacag, Salvacion and San Vicente Grande in the Rural Area and in Barangay Sagpon are situated also at Barangay Sagpon. Other than classrooms, facilities such as laboratory, shop, library, sports, administrative office, clinic, comfort room and playground are either lacking or inadequate for these public secondary schools.

In contrast, the three (3) Private secondary schools have almost complete facilities with addition of Mini-Theatre; and 3) One (1) Public School which is the Bicol University in Barangay Sagpon and Three (3) Private schools made up of the Bicol College, St. Gabriel College and Immaculate Conception College located in Barangay Sagpon, Sipi and Market Site respectively have complete facilities for classrooms, laboratory, shop, library, sports, administrative office, clinic, comfort room and playground with addition of either Mini-Theatre or Social Hall for Tertiary Schools.

Focusing on the current Student-Teacher and Student-Classroom Ratios for Public Elementary Schools shows that they are both within the Standard ratio of 1:50. These trends are even much lower for private elementary schools that are attributed to rising cost of school admittance.

Current conditions of schools show that 1) almost all of the Public Elementary Schools within the municipality needs immediate repair of their classroom and other important school facilities. Private elementary schools on the other hand are in good condition; 2) Two (2) Public secondary schools namely Anislag and Malabog High School needs repair while the other three (3) Public secondary schools, Lacag, San Vicente Grande and Daraga High School are in good conditions. Most of the Private secondary schools are also in good condition and 3) The tertiary schools within the municipality are all in good condition.

 

For Primary Health Care Facilities, there are: Two (2) Rural Health Units located at Barangays Market Site and Anislag and Barangay Health Stations at Barangays Alcala, Malabog, Cullat, Pandan, Lacag, Inarado, Peñafrancia, Bascaran, San Ramon and San Vicente.

Transportation plays major supporting role in the social and economic development of a locality. It provides the means by which people and goods can circulate to and from any direction. The Municipality of Daraga possesses a transportation system that supports its present functional role particularly in terms of economic development. Reasonable assessment is necessary to effectively enhance transportation system within the municipality.

The Municipality of Daraga has a total road network of about 129.01 kilometers. This is categorized either as National Roads, Provincial Roads, Municipal Roads and Barangay Roads. These barangay roads comprise the bulk of the municipality road network system. About 24.97% are concrete paved while the remaining 75.03% remains in Asphalt, Gravel or Earth fill pavement conditions. There are about 25 bridges within the municipality and 66.22% of that are within barangay roads while the other bridges are part of national, provincial of barangay roads.

The Philippine National Railways passes through the Municipality of Daraga regularly on its way to Legazpi City or to Manila. It has a station in barangay Market Site where the arrival and departure schedule is 5:14 AM and 3:30 PM respectively. However, station facilities needs further improvement.

Land transport vehicles within the municipality are already numerous, private vehicles outnumbers public utility and government vehicles. This number of transportation mode tends to increase annually, such increase is already felt in the urban area wherein traffic congestion particularly during peak hours is experienced.

Bus and Jeepney Terminal and parking facilities are mostly situated in barangays Ilawod, Market Area, Sipi and Bañag. However, these facilities are deemed small in terms of capacity to accommodate significant number of vehicles. Furthermore, most of these terminals are not ideal in location, contributes to traffic congestion and cannot contribute strategically to the economic development of the municipality.

In terms of land distribution and utilization, the current municipal road networks are spread-out among the urban and rural areas. For rural road networks, its total length of about 187 kilometers can be considered as adequate since current required rural road network shall be based on standard of 1.50 kms. per 100 hectares of arable/agricultural lands. For urban road networks, its total length of about 67 kilometers are likewise considered as adequate for current required urban network based on standard of 2.4 km. per 1000 urban population. However, these current road networks need repair or upgrading in order to make them passable. Still, it is necessary also to construct or open new roads within the municipality to further enhance social and economic development.

Alternative transportation modes such as 1) Sea transport, which includes port facilities, are not applicable to the municipality given its geographical location; and 2) air transport are situated in adjacent Legazpi City where a domestic airport is situated. 

Communication is an avenue for free flow of information and news that is of benefit to people. An efficient communication system is significant for the development of a locality. Reasonable assessment of the current level of efficiency of available communication facilities is necessary in order to improve its services.

The municipality of DARAGA enjoys the services offered by Bayantel, Digitel and Matelco in terms of telephone services. These private telephone companies maintains extensive number of individual telephone connections for variety of usage such as residential, commercial institutional among others, their telephone services covers the entire urban area and extends to the outlying barangays. Only Bayantel and Digitel offer sophisticated technology in telephone services.

Telegraph/Telex/Telegraphic Transfer service is offered by the Telecommunication Office (TELOF) which is under the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC). Private telegraph/telex/telegraphic transfer services are not available within the municipality. Private telecommunication companies based in Legaspi City offer most of these services.

The municipality maintain postal services and facilities which includes 2 Post Offices, 42 Mail Boxes, Stamping Machine (Meter), 2 Postal Stations/ Circuits (Barangay Post Offices) and 12 Mail Transport Vehicle (Motorcycles). The current number of Letter Carrier is insufficient to serve the needs of Daraguenos based on the standard of 1 Letter Carrier per 5,000 population. Its Main Post Office situated in Barangay San Roque of the Urban Area needs to be improved.

Cellular & Mobile Phone services provides such as Smart, Mobiline and Globe Telecom offers alternative telecommunication services not only in the Municipality of DARAGA but also in adjacent municipalities of ALBAY province inclusive of Legazpi City. Other types of communications services are not available within the municipality such as public mobile phone services, paging services, trucking services, wireless local loop services, satellite communication and even weather monitoring stations. These Cellular mobile Phone Service providers have already significant number of subscribers for their talk and text messages.

Broadcast Media available are not based in the municipality. Signals from local radios and televisions are sourced from Legazpi City. Their signals not only are received in the municipality but also in adjacent areas. Another type of broadcast media available in the municipality is cable Television offered by DCTV with base in the municipality. It offers variety of cable television programs to its subscriber.

For print media, these are no private publications operating in the municipality. What are received in the municipality are those print media from national and local tabloids either coming from Metro Manila and from Legazpi City.

Power supply is a basic facility for a given locality. It is essential that ample supply of electricity should be available for diverse usage of a growing population such as for residential, commercial, institutional, industrial and public lighting. Any planned development should always consider demand for power supply. The efficiency of local power supply services should be assessed reasonably in order to plan for its enhancement for the benefit of consumer.

Within the Municipality of Daraga, a significant number of households both in urban and rural barangays, relies on electricity for lighting purposes. Other households resort to kerosene (Gaas), LPG, Oil and other sources for lighting. This is a concern that needs particular intervention on the part of the Local Government of Daraga particularly in the rural barangays.

In terms of supply of electricity, both urban and rural barangays are already energized to some extent. For urban barangays, 100% of the households are already, only about 80.38% of the households enjoy the comforts brought by electricity. There still remain households without access to available power supply. For those rural barangays without electricity efforts should be undertaken to install power supply transmission lines.
 

Water Supply, same as electricity demands public interest. Lack of it will certainly affect daily activities of the population measured in social and economic gains. A reasonable assessment is necessary in order to enhance delivery of water supply.

The Municipality of DARAGA provides current levels of water supply corresponding to Level I, Level II and Level III systems. Each system provides water supply to household consumer within its services area and capacity. However, these different systems should be further enhanced based on projected population demand.

For Level III water system, the DARAGA Water District is the sole service provider and serves Barangays Tagas, Kilicao, Binitayan, Bañag, Cullat, Busay, Malabog, Poctol, Maroroy, Market Site, Ilawod, Kimantong, San Roque, Bagumbayan, Sipi, and Sagpon. It derives its water supply source from Bitoy Spring, Budiao Spring No. 1, Budiao Spring No. 2 and 4 wells and 7 pump stations. Average capacity is between 15lps to 37lps. Other type of facilities includes a Grand Reservoir in Barangay Busay. Majority house connections are that for Residential, Commercial or Industrial.

Level II Water System are available in Barangays Bagumbayan, Bongalon, Cullat, Kimantong, Lacag, Malabog, Maroroy Salvacion, San Rafael, San Roque, Market Area and Ilawod. It has limited capacity and number of communal faucets. Likewise, the number of household population served is minimal vis-a-vis number of household population unserved.

Level I Water system, includes shallow wells, deep wells and improved springs located in Barangays Alcala, Alobo, Balinad, Bañadero, Bascaran, Bigao, Binitayan, Bongalon, Budiao, Burgos, Busay, Canarom, Cullat, De la Paz, Dinoronan, Gabawan, Gapo, Inarado, Kidaco, Kilicao, Kimantong, Kinawitan, Kiwalo, Lacag, Mabini, Malabog, Malobago, Maopi, Matnog, Mayon, Nabasan, Peñafrancia, Sagpon, Salvacion, San Rafael, San Ramon, San Roque, San Vicente Pequeño, Sipi, Tabon-Tabon, Tagas, Talahib, Market Area and Ilawod. However, this type of water system has also limited capacities and number of household population served. There is a need to further improve these water supply systems in order to serve effectively the intended consumers particularly those in the Rural Barangays.

Other water sources within the municipality include undeveloped springs, open dug wells and rainwater collectors. These other water sources can be found in Barangays Busay, Canarom, De la Paz, San Rafael and San Roque. However, most of the household population resorts to open dug wells for their domestic uses. These water sources particularly undeveloped springs should be given priority in improving water supply services within the municipality.

Existing surface water within the Municipality are generally classified as Class D for falling within this category. Such surface waters which are not only source of water supply but drainage channels as well. These surface waters include Yawa River, Maroroy Creek, Quilicao River, Busay Creek, Gulang-Gulang Creek, Pandan Creek, Quillarena River, Bongalon River, Daraga Market Site Creek, Binitayan River, Patagok River, Bagumbayan River and Dinoronan Spring.
 

Household disposal of garbage or solid wastes within the municipality is mostly through burning by about 62.82% of the total households particularly in the rural areas. Collection by garbage trucks is done in the urban areas for about 11.72% of the total households. Other modes of disposal are either thru dumping in individual pits (not burned), composting, burying, feeding to animals and others which constitutes the remaining 25.46% of the total households. The present Municipal Dump Site at Barangay Peñafrancia is only temporary and deemed not suitable in its location. As discussed in the housing needs of households within the municipality, about 48.58% of the total households have access to sanitary water-sealed toilet facilities. The remaining 51.42% of the total households have no sanitary toilet facilities and uses either closed pit (antipolo type), open pit, others (pail system, etc.) or none at all.