Hasten classroom bill OK — senator

A SENATOR on Thursday has called on the President to certify as urgent a bill seeking to fast track the construction of local classrooms to address backlogs.

In a statement, Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV said that Senate Bill No. 121, the proposed Classroom-building Acceleration Program (CAP) Act, would allow local government units (LGUs) to help expedite the construction of classrooms.

“Our call for the Classroom Acceleration Program Bill is to give it to the LGUs. We are hoping that the president will certify the bill as urgent so that we can build classrooms for our youth together,” he said in Filipino.

The proposed measure seeks to decentralize the construction of local classrooms by expanding the mandate beyond the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to include LGUs and non-government organizations (NGOs) with a proven track record.

“Local government units, NGOs with a track record, all working together so that we can address our huge problem in education,” Mr. Aquino said.

In a Senate hearing on Monday, the DPWH said that it had constructed only 22 classrooms out of the 1,700 target for 2025.

“It is important that we place the responsibility of building a classroom on groups and people who can actually do it quickly and at the right price,” the senator said.

The Education department said that the country has a classroom backlog of 165,000, projecting that it would take 55 years to complete the backlog. — Adrian H. Halili