DepEd to PPP contractors: Build P16.28-B classrooms with integrity

The Education Department signed on Monday two contracts amounting to P16.28 billion for the construction of 9,301 classrooms for use by June 2013.

 

DepEd forged its build-lease-transfer pacts with the proponents as part of the public-private partnership (PPP) of the Aquino administration.

 

Education Secretary Armin Luistro reminded the proponents to produce schoolbuildings that "will last beyond 2016...be built with integrity."

 

He asked them to "not cut corners, not give incentives to any DepEd or local official..."  

 

The PPP for School Infrastructure Project or PSIP is the second PPP program of the national government to be awarded.

 

BF Corporation and Riverbanks Development — as a consortium — got the contract to design, build and maintain 2,157 new classrooms in Region 1 for P3.45 billion.

 

The consortium of Citicore Investment Holdings and Megawide Construction Corporation was awarded the contracts for a total of 7,144 classrooms in Regions III and IV for P12.83 billion.  

 

Luistro expects turnover by June next year or "even earlier."

 

The proponents will lease the buildings to the DepEd for ten years.

 

The national government has committed annual lease payments of P1.628 billion for those ten years.

 

DepEd officials said more PSIP contract packages are in the pipeline — with one targetted for awarding before this year ends.

 

Luistro said contractors based in the Visayas and Mindanao may be among the prospective bidders because of their familiarity with the project sites in those next PSIP areas.

 

DepEd officials clarified that Regions 1, 3 and 4-A were in the first packages because the two-storey design were fit for these regions--and not in Metro Manila where four-storey buildings are the fitting mode. — RSJ, GMA News