DepEd, DPWH invited to accelerate construction of school buildings

DepEd, DPWH invited to accelerate construction of school buildings

The governor of Negros Oriental, Roel Degamo, has criticized the inability of the Ministry of Public Works and Roads (PTWH) to implement a $ 1 billion project to build classrooms in the city. province, which would have greatly reduced students' discomfort.

This issue was raised at the recent Regional Development Council (RDC) meeting 7 when the Governor learned that the Department of Education (DepEd) had an unspent budget of $ 179 billion. for the construction of school buildings in the country in the last three years.

However, the DPWH has made it clear that it is implementing school construction projects on an annual basis.

According to the DPWH, according to the current policy, the resources are directly transferred to them by the Department of Budget and Management after review and approval by the Ministry of Education.

With the complicated and time consuming route, RDC 7 has adopted a resolution asking DepEd Headquarters to consider other ways to speed up the implementation of its school construction program.

Region 7 of DepEd also explained that it had difficulties implementing the project.

Representatives stated that the 2018 General Appropriations Act provided for funds for school construction to be released directly and managed by DPWH.

On this point, Degamo suggested that if they could request that instead of entrusting the projects to DPWH, it would be the relevant local government units that would be responsible for managing the implementation of the project.

Evelyn Nacario Castro, chair of the DRC 7 social development committee, said the country had a backlog of about 80,000 classrooms to build.

It should be noted that in Central Visayas, 2,766 of the 13,057 classrooms allocated to the four provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor have not been built since 2014.

DPWH 7 director Edgar Tabacon said he would meet with all district engineers and division heads in the region to determine the number of classrooms to build.

JENNIFER C. TILOS / PIA7-NEGROS ORIENTAL