Building classrooms

The moral mayhem over the pork-laden 2025 national budget brings up the question of whether we can trust the government to properly invest in the things we need to get our people out of poverty and the country out of a death spiral.

- BOO CHANCO

Not only are our officials more inclined to use our taxes to fatten their wallets, when they do build infrastructure like school buildings, the cost is always more than it should be. Sobrang patong for the share of our officials, both national and local.

Years ago, then senator Franklin Drilon signed a P50-million deal with the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII) to build cost-effective public-school buildings in the provinces of Benguet, Bulacan, Laguna, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Zamboanga and Davao, among many others.

The project was funded by Drilon's Priority Development Assistance Fund, a rare good and transparent use of pork barrel funds.

Starting in 2002 up to 2011, the Drilon-FFCCCII school-building program had built about 1,400 classrooms all over the country.

Drilon said through his partnership with the private sector, they built cost-effective school buildings that only cost P650,000 per building with two classrooms. That amount would only build one classroom under the DepEd. He called on the Commission on Audit to look into what appears to be a huge disparity between the cost-effective school building program he initiated in partnership with the private sector and that of DepEd.

Last month, former Vice President Leni Robredo inaugurated a two-classroom building at the Morada Ramos Elementary School in Barangay Carolina in Naga City, thanks to Western Guaranty Corp., a generous partner of Angat Buhay foundation. Angat Buhay builds classrooms at a cost of just P800,000 while DepEd classrooms cost between two million and three million pesos.

Question: With more classrooms to build, DepEd/DPWH-built schools should be cheaper. Why are these more expensive?