CHIZ QUESTIONS
DEPED’S
SCHOOL BUILDING
PROGRAM
Senator Chiz
Escudero said the Department of Education (DepEd) failed to construct a single
school building to date despite an allocation of more than P40 billion for its
construction program under the 2015 national budget.
“We allocated over
P40 billion for the school building program for 2015 pero ni isa, June na, wala
pang nagagawang school building under the 2015 budget,” Escudero told a news
forum in Manila on Wednesday.
The senator cited
the DepEd as among the government agencies that lacked absorptive capacity to
spend, thus contributing to public underspending which was largely blamed for
the disappointing economic growth in the first quarter.
At the same time,
Escudero expressed his strong opposition to the public-private partnership
(PPP) project being undertaken by the DepEd for the construction of new
classrooms, saying it was more costly for the government.
“I’m against the PPP
for classrooms kasi may pondo naman tayo e. Bakit mo gagamitin pa sa PPP ‘yung
classrooms?” he pointed out.
Escudero said he did
not see the need to contract out the building of classrooms under a project
which the government could have easily implemented itself.
He added that the
government was at the losing end of a deal that gave contractors a return rate
of 10 percent, considering that it could borrow three to four percent from
others.
“The mode of PPP for
classroom is actually a more expensive way of borrowing to construct
classrooms, when in fact we have sufficient funds to construct our own
classrooms,” Escudero stressed.
Escudero said that
engaging in PPP would not address the risk of corruption in infrastructure
projects.
“Kung korapsyon pala
ang problema e ‘yun dapat ang i-address mo. Huwag kang uutang ng mas mataas,”
Escudero said. /MP
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