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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DPWH urged to speed up construction of classrooms, school buildings nationwide

DPWH urged to speed up construction of classrooms, school buildings nationwide

Published Nov 17, 2022 10:28 am

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should expedite the construction of classrooms and school buildings nationwide as it had a P3.1-billion allocated under its School Buildign Program for the current year.

At the continuation of the Senate’s deliberation on the P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian noted that of the P3.1-billion amount, only P30-million has been disbursed, or less than one percent of the total appropriation.

“In the past, we have seen that a lot of the school building program has been delayed and it’s because of the transfer of funds from the Department of Education (DepEd) to DPWH, and then from DPWH, they will construct and normally it takes one year to construct a classroom or a school building.” said Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education during his interpellation on the proposed 2023 budget of the DPWH.

Gatchalian then asked the DPWH to submit its proposal on how to speed up the construction of school edifices and classrooms in the country.

According to the DPWH, it received a total of P2.78-billion to date for the School Building Program. Last June, the agency received a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) of P409-million for the said program.

The DPWH also received last October a SARO of P2.64- billion. Bidding is on-going for the construction of these classrooms.

But during the deliberations on the proposed budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) for 2023, officials cited there is a shortage of 167,901 classrooms nationwide based on the 2019 National School Building Inventory.

More than P419-billion is needed to construct these classrooms.

To address the shortage of classrooms nationwide, Gatchalian proposed the implementation of a counterpart program, where the DepEd and the LGU will share the funding requirements at 50 percent each. But LGUs would be given the task to construct the classrooms and school buildings.

Gatchalian said a similar program was implemented during his term as Mayor of Valenzuela City.

“Aside from the General Appropriations Act (

Related Tags

2023 national budget deped school buildings Classroom shortage Sherwin Gatchalian DPWH
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