Many school buildings appropriated in its 2012 budget not yet constructed: VG Pelaez

By LITO RULONA ,
Correspondent

MISAMIS ORIENTAL still has so much catching up to do in constructing school buildings and classrooms appropriated under its 2012 budget, an official bared recently.

At least 137 out of 872 school buildings and 322 out of 1,930 classrooms under the 2012 General Appropriations Act (GAA) through the Public-Private Partnership of the   Department of Education in Misamis Oriental were either unimplemented or in doubtful quality in the construction of school buildings, said Vice Gov. Joey Pelaez in his privilege speech during a special session held at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) on Wednesday afternoon.

Pelaez said in the province of Misamis Oriental alone, 30 out of 137 school buildings allocated to the province from the 872 school buildings to be constructed under DepEd’s Public-Private Partnership for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP) since 2012 was not implemented.

“Under PSIP Phase 2 Package E, with the com-pletion date of 12 April 2015, have yet to start construction, 57 have remained unfinished and substandard, while the remaining 50 are of doubtful quality,” he said.

In the first district, schools found defective and unfinished were in Salagsag Elementary School, Salay Central School, Salay National High School, all in Salay and Binitinan Elementary School, Camuayan Elementary School, and Dumarait Elementary School, all in Balingsag.

In the second district, schools found defective and unfinished were in Bobon-tugan National High School and Jasaan National High School, both in Jasaan; Opol Central School, Mo-lugan Central School and Molugan National High School, all in Opol; Maputi Elementary School, Linang-kayan Elementary School and Naawan National High School, all in Naawan.

He said the project PSIP 1 and 2 were bidded in 2012 to immediately address the immense shortage of public school buildings which was has been a long standing and recurring problem in the country.

He claimed that many school buildings constructions under the PSIP Phase 2, which should have been completed in April 2015 pursuant to the timetable and requirements agreed on by the national government and the contractors, are still underway, or have stopped, or have yet to be implemented at present, incurring unreasonable delay in implementation.

According to the records presented during the session is that the winning bidder of the school building constructions under the PPP project is the BSP and Company, Incorporated and Vicente T. Lao Construction.

The vice governor in his statement claimed that many of the project were subcontracted to many contractors, suffer from substandard construction materials, lack of electricity and wirings, weak structural walls, cracked floors, collapse ceilings, unusable washrooms, rusted metal panels, unattached roofs and lack of proper ventilation.

“We received complained that the school principal complained that during the construction process the subcontractors used the school water and electricity with full commitment to pay or refund for the same, but no payment or refund was made,” Pelaez said.

He said unfinished and substandard school buildings constructions are exposing schoolchildren, as well as teachers, to danger and unsafe learning environment because of abandoned construction materials such as sand and gravel, cement, nails, wood, steel, plastic and wires, laying chaos and disarray in school grounds.

He called on the national government agencies concern especially the DepEd, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Public-Private Partnership Center, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), including the House of Senate and Representatives to investigate these unreasonable delays in and doubtful quality of school buildings construction in the province of Misamis Oriental.