DepEd set to award 2 classroom contracts

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Education (DepEd) will finalize next week the award of contracts to two winning contractors for the construction of over 4,000 public school classrooms.

The two contracts comprise part of the second public-private partnership (PPP) project meant to plug the shortage of public school classrooms in the country.

The DepEd was hoping to give out five contracts to build 10,679 classrooms in various regions of the country but other bidders did not qualify. One of the area packages did not receive any bid at all.

This means that less than half of the total classrooms supposed to be built under the PPP for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP) II will be built by private contractors. The government may have to build the rest.

Education Assistant Secretary for legal and legislative affairs Tonisito Umali, who sits in the bids and awards committee, said they will sign early next week contracts with Megawide Construction Corp. and the consortium BSP and Co. Inc. and Vicente T. Lao Construction.

Megawide bagged a P2.25-billion contract to construct 2,240 classrooms in 928 schools in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Cordillera regions.

The consortium BSP and Co. Inc. and Vicente T. Lao Construction, meanwhile, bagged a P1.603-billion contract to construct 1,930 classrooms in 750 schools in the Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions.

Megawide and its partner Citicore Holdings Investment Inc. earlier bagged part of the P16.2-billion PSIP I contract. Part of the PSIP I contract went to the BF Corp.-Riverbanks Development Corp. consortium.

Worth a total P8.8 billion, PSIP II calls for the construction of 10,679 one-story and two-story three-story and four-story classrooms, including furniture, fixtures and toilets in 5,167 public schools in 14 regions nationwide under a build-transfer scheme.

The contract was divided into five packages: two in Luzon, two in Mindanao and one in the Visayas.

DepEd awarded a P16.2-billion PSIP I contract in October last year. It called for the construction of 9,301 one-story and two-story classrooms in 2,204 public schools in the Ilocos, Central Luzon and Calabarzon regions.