Press Release
06 March 2013
The ground breaking for the country’s first PPP social infrastructure project on school building was formally held for the first classrooms to be constructed under the PPP for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP) Phase I of the Department of Education. The two storey-four classroom school building to be constructed by the project’s private sector partner Citicore-Megawide Consortium is the Pantay National High School in Sitio Pantay, Barangay Dalig, Teresa in Rizal.
Public-Private Partnership Center Deputy Executive Director Ferdinand Tolentino reiterated the Center’s commitment to continue to help Implementing Agencies like the DepEd to successfully pursue their PPP Projects.
‘This is the first PPP project for social infrastructure to start construction and this project is important in addressing the lack of classrooms,” Deputy Executive Director Tolentino noted. “Everyone has been asking when our PPP projects will start construction. Today, we are having our first here in Pantay, Teresa in Rizal,” he added.
Under the PSIP Phase I of the DepEd, more than 4,000 classrooms will be built in CALABARZON alone where 1,000 classrooms will be constructed in Rizal. The Education Department will also hire 61,510 teachers.
Diosdado San Antonio, OIC Regional Director for CALBARZON of the Department of Education said, “this is the first time that the Department of Education is able to fast track the critical gap in resources that are essential in making sure we are able to deliver quality education.”
Engr. Oliver Hernandez Director of DepEd’s Physical Facilities and Schools Engineering Division (DepEd-PFSED) cited the project as government’s response to the perennial classroom shortage which the department faces. Engr. Hernandez also noted that with the new technology that will be used in building the very first PSIP I classrooms in Teresa, Rizal it will only take about a month’s time to complete it.
Under the PSIP Phase I, project proponents Citicore-Megawide Consortium and Bright Future Educational Facilities, Inc. will construct about 9,300 one-storey and two-storey classrooms including fixtures and furniture for various sites in Regions I, III and IV-A.
Under the Build Lease Transfer scheme, lease payments for these school buildings shall be paid by the government in 10 years.
The PSIP’s Notice to Proceed (NTP) was approved by the Department of Education last February 5, 2012. However, NTPs for the construction of the school buildings will be issued out separately for each site.
According to DepEd the entire 9,300 classrooms under the PSIP I project will be finished by February 2014.
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