DPWH eyes to finish repairs of school buildings before August 22 school opening

(FILE) STILL IN DISREPAIR It has been four months since Typhoon Odette (international name: Rai) battered Caraga region but buildings and classrooms at Aurelio Elementary School in San Jose, Dinagat Islands province, have yet to be repaired. —ERWIN M. MASCARIÑAS

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on Wednesday said it intends to finish the repairs of school buildings damaged by typhoons and other calamities before the new school year starts in August.

DPWH Sec. Manueal Bonoan, in an interview over ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo, explained that apart from the repairs, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. also instructed him to speed up the construction of new school buildings during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.

“There had been areas affected by damaged school buildings because of typhoons and calamities, and we have to repair them immediately before the start of the school year,” said Bonoan.

“This was presented by [Education Sec. Vice President Sara Duterte] and actually may mga backlog na (we have backlogs of) school building programs because of the requirement na face to face classes,” he added.

Because of this, Bonoan said the DPWH is also targeting to build modular type school buildings to speed-up the construction of new buildings in typhoon-prone areas by next year.

“Ang [instruction] po ni Presidente sa’kin kahapon is look up other innovative structures na pwedeng gamitin, pwedeng modular type of school building para mas mapabilis ‘yung pagpapatayo ng school buildings especially sa mga calamity prone areas in the eastern seaboard,” said Bonoan.

(The instruction of the President to me yesterday is to look up other innovative structures that can be used, like a modular type of school building, to speed up the construction of school buildings especially in calamity prone areas in the eastern seaboard.)

Modular-type buildings, said Bonoan, are pre-fabricated buildings that only need to be assembled using steel-type frame materials.

“This will be more resilient actually sa mga (in) typhoon areas,” he said.

When asked how many schools are targeted to be constructed within the year, Bonoan said that he will have to check the Department of Education’s (DepEd) requirements first.

“But we will do whatever we can during the rest of the year, buy kagaya ng instructions ni Presidente, by next year we’ll try our best na gawin namin ‘yung modular school building program sa pangangailangan ng DepEd,” said Bonoan.

(But we will do whatever we can during the rest of the year, but as instructed by the President, by next year we’ll try our best to do ‘the modular school building program’ as required by DepEd.)

According to the DepEd, school year (SY) 2022 to 2023 will start on August 22 and will end on July 7, 2023.

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