Senate: 22,781 new DepEd classrooms being built as of June

The Senate finance committee learned from the Department of Education Thursday that 22,781 classrooms were built in the first six months of the year using funds from the P1 billion budget set aside for the DepEd school building program for 2012.   Senator Franklin Drilon, finance committee chairman, said 31,561 more classrooms are programmed for completion before the year is out.   "We need 66,800 more classrooms to fill in the gap," said Drilon, citing DepEd figures.   "I'm generally satisfied with the way the DepEd is being managed and led by Sec. Armin Luistro," he also said. Public-private partnership   Drilon’s assessment of the progress of how the DepEd is addressing the classrooms backlog follows the education agency’s disclosure Wednesday last week that it has received bid submissions for its Public Private Partnership for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP).   “Of the six pre-qualified PSIP bidders, two groups submitted technical and financial proposals,” the DepEd said in a news release.   The proposals came from the BF Corporation-Riverbanks Development Corporation Consortium and from Citicore Holdings Investment, Inc.- Megawide Construction Corporation Inc.   The first phase of the PSIP comprises three contracts: the first is for the construction of 2,157 classrooms (with furniture, toilet and fixtures) for 666 schools in the Ilocos Region; the second for 2,885 classrooms for 592 schools in Central Luzon; and the third for 4,259 classrooms for 946 public schools in Southern Luzon.   A total of 9,301 new classrooms will be built for 2,204 schools in Luzon under the PSIP.   DepED expects to award the PSIP contracts in August 2012 and construction will commence this year.   After the classrooms are built, there will be a 10-year lease period wherein DepEd makes annual payments to the winning bidder while the latter undertakes shoulders periodic maintenance of the structures every 4.5-5 years.   “With all systems going under the PSIP scheme, I am confident that we will be able to achieve zero backlog in classrooms by 2013” the DepEd news release quoted Education Secretary Armin Luistro as saying. — AE/ELR, GMA News