Department of Education, 04 April 2013
The Department of Education’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP), which aims to address shortages in public school classrooms through partnerships with the private sector, has made it as the lone entry from the ASEAN to the internationally-acclaimed Partnerships Awards 2013.
The PSIP is a qualifier for the ‘Best Pathfinder Project’ category. Previous winners were mostly from Europe and the Americas. The awarding ceremony will take place at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London on 23 May 2013.
Partnership Awards is an annual event organized by the United Kingdom-based Partnerships Bulletin and PPP Bulletin International to recognize and reward outstanding achievements in PPP worldwide.
PPP Center Executive Director Cosette Canilao said that, “The shortlisting of DepEd’s PSIP to the Partnerships Awards 2013 is a recognition from the global PPP community that we are on the right path.”
The ‘Best Pathfinder’ category is a recognition given to public infrastructure projects that demonstrate the best ‘first of its kind’ in a sector or region.
“We are being noticed for doing things that we are supposed to do for generations of learners.Being included in the shortlist is already like an icing on the cake ,” said Education Secretary Br. Armin A. Luistro FSC.
For this year, only entries and nominations for deals signed between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2012 were accepted. Industry professionals representing both the public and private sector will judge the entries.
The DepEd’s PSIP is the Philippine’s first PPP social infrastructure project. It aims to supplement the current initiatives and program of the government to address the current shortage of public school buildings nationwide.
About 9,301 classrooms will be built in various sites in Regions I, III and IV-A under the PSIP. Structured under a Build-Lease-Transfer (BLT) scheme, the government shall issue annual lease payments to the private proponents for a period of 10 years.
As of 15 March 2013, the DepEd has issued Notices to Proceed for over 830 of the total 2,496 classroom-buildings. It is expected that the construction of school buildings will be completed by January 2014.
To further supplement efforts to address classroom backlogs in the country, DepEd is now bidding the second phase of PSIP. With PSIP-II, 10, 679 classrooms, including furniture and toilets, will be constructed in 5,146 public schools in 14 regions nationwide under a Build-and-Transfer agreement.
To date, there are 4 pre-qualified bidders for PSIP-II, which include Bright Future Educational Facilities (BF Corporation) and Riverbanks Development Corporation Consortium, D.M. Wenceslao & Associates and DATEM Consortium, Megawide Construction Corporation, and BSP & Company and Vicente T. Lao Construction Consortium. The bid submission date for PSIP-II is scheduled in June 2013.
Partnerships Bulletin and PPP Bulletin International are involved in magazine publication and websites that provide in-depth updates on partnership working in both the public and private sector.
