Manila Bulletin, 25 October 2013
Manila, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday announced that the first batch of school buildings under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for School Infrastructure Project Phase 1 (PSIP 1) has finally been completed.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro made the announcement in a turnover ceremony at San Jose del Monte National Trade School (SJMNTS) in Bulacan where DepEd accepted around 500 classrooms to address the needs of students in Regions 3 and 4A.
The PSIP 1 aims to supplement the DepEd’s efforts to address classroom needs. Luistro said the partial turnover of completed classrooms is part of the continuing effort to steadily close the gap of the 66,800-classroom backlog recorded in 2010. “With the help of the private sector we are confident that we can deliver our commitment to public school students,” he said.
During the turnover, Luistro noted that the PSIP I “is the first successful public-private partnership project in the country.” PSIP, he added, “enables the government to fast-track the construction and delivery of classrooms within the fiscal ceiling and improve and introduce innovations in the design, methods, and materials for classroom construction.”
Over 120 units of one-and two-story school buildings were completed by one of the winning contractors, the Megawide Construction Corp. They were turned over in a ceremony at SJMNTS where delegations from the recipient schools on Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pampanga, Bataan, and Bulacan gathered.
