THE P3.86-BILLION second phase of the country’s public-private partnership (PPP) school project is now halfway through, data from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) showed.
A total of 2,211 classrooms — which make up 50.63% of the PPP for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP)-Phase 2 total project — are now “completed or substantially completed,” according to a May 10 project brief from the agency.
An additional 1,212 classrooms or 21.26% are currently ongoing construction.
Meanwhile, the remaining 944 classrooms or 23.84% are still under “various pre-construction phases.”
The PSIP Phase II involves designing, financing, and construction of one-storey, two-storey, three-storey, and four-storey classrooms, including furniture, fixtures, and toilets in 1,735 public schools in five regions, according to a project brief from the PPP Center.
The classrooms will be built in the Cordillera Administrative Region; Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon in Luzon; as well as Northern Mindanao and Caraga in Mindanao.
The contract was awarded to the Consortium of BSP & Co., Inc. and Vicente T. Lao Construction as well as Megawide Construction Corp. in September and October 2013, respectively.
In a Feb. 11 briefing, former PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao said the project was targeted for completion by May this year.
The PSIP’s P16.43-billion first phase, awarded to Citicore Holdings Investment, Inc.-Megawide Construction Corp. and BF Corp.’s Bright Future Educational Facilities, Inc. on Oct. 8, 2012, were completed in December 2015 after an almost two-year delay.
Ms. Canilao had attributed the delay to the “inaccessibility” of project sites, with Megawide explaining that they were situated “remotely” from one another while construction efforts were further hampered by weather conditions.
The 9,296 classrooms were built in Ilocos Region, Central Luzon, as well as the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon growth cluster. These will benefit more than 400,000 students.
So far, contracts for 12 PPP projects cumulatively worth some P217.4 billion have been awarded since the flagship program was launched in the third quarter of 2010, or at the start of the term of the current administration.
Aside from the PSIP Phases 1 and 2, Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway and AFCS, these are the P2.50-billion Southwest Integrated Transport System (ITS) Project, P4-billion ITS South Terminal Project, P8.69-billion Modernization of Philippine Orthopedic Center project, P15.86-billion second phase of the NAIA Expressway Project, P17.52-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport Passenger Terminal Building, P24.4-billion Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project, P55.51-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway, and P64.9-billion LRT-1 Cavite Extension and Operation & Maintenance project.
15 May 2016
By Daphne J. Magturo
