Robbed

This is how we are robbed of our future.

- ALEX MAGNO

In one year, the BBM administration managed to build only 22 classrooms this year. The classroom backlog runs into the hundreds of thousands.

Vince Dizon made this frank admission. Only 22 classrooms. The target was to build 1,700 classrooms — a modest goal considering the previous administration was able to build tens of thousands every year.

In his State of the Nation Address, Marcos boasted of an incredible number of classrooms built. That is as empty as his previous boast about 5,500 flood control projects being completed.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara attributes the severe underperformance to the preoccupation of DPWH personnel for other projects. Which is not to say that building classrooms is not profitable for the looters. It is just not profitable enough during a time when ghost flood control projects and kickbacks are delivered in cartons.

Private foundations helping to build classrooms say the typical DPWH-built classroom was over three times more costly that what private sector groups build. A typical DPWH classroom costs about P8.8 million each. A better one built by private charities typically costs P2.7 million.

At the rate the DPWH is building classrooms, it will take forever to close the classroom gap. The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids at Giza at a much shorter time — and with no kickbacks.

By the time the DPWH closes the classroom gap, the demographics have changed. Our population growth rate will have dropped from the current high. There will be less pupils to enjoy the facilities the current generation of students direly need.