DPWH built only 10 out of DepEd's target 5k classrooms in 2020

On Thursday, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian disclosed that there were only 10 new classrooms built in the country out of 5,174 target of the Department of Education (DepEd) for 2020. 

To date, I inquired from DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways), they only built, so far, 10 classrooms,

he said. 

The DPWH is the agency tasked to implement the school building program funded under the DepEd’s budget. 

During the Senate debates on the proposed budget of DepEd, Gatchalian presented a graph which showed the highly questionable absorptive capacity of DPWH in terms of building classrooms. 

Gatchalian’s presentation showed that in 2018, only 11 of the 28,170 target classrooms were completed. And in 2019, only 180 classrooms were built of the 4,580-target. 

It's not really the fault of DepEd but the absorptive capacity of the DPWH, in so far as building classrooms, is highly questionable. It seems to me, it takes them about two years to build classrooms from start to end,

he said. 

The senator noted that in a previous committee-level hearing on the budget of the DPWH, senators were told that the agency only received the DepEd funds for the construction of these classrooms last June. 

And it took them close to about three or four months from getting the funds all the way to building and constructing and they only have 10 classrooms to date,

Gatchalian said. 

Gatchalian recommended the deduction of funds under DepEd’s school building program and his recommendation was accepted by the finance committee. 

Under the 2020 budget of the DepEd, P24.5 billion was allocated for the construction of basic education facilities. 

Senator Pia Cayetano, sponsor of DepEd's budget, said the fund for basic education facilities were decreased from P29.5 billion in the 2020 General Appropriations Act to P14 billion in the Senate Finance Committee report.