MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education and the Department of Public Works and Highways have received an additional P2 billion from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. for the construction of 1,500 new classrooms in different areas of the country.
PAGCOR chairman and Chief Executive Officer Cristino Naguiat Jr. said the additional funding will further widen the reach of the project and will benefit more schools in far-flung areas.
With the latest contribution of the state-run gaming corporation, the government's school building program has reached P7 billion.
"While the classrooms donated by PAGCOR improved the learning conditions of many students, numerous buildings are still needed to completely address the problem on classroom shortage," Naguiat said.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro said that although the 66,800 classroom backlog in 2010 has already been solved, DepEd still has to address the need for annual repairs and replacements of classrooms that were built 30 to 50 years ago.
"We have around 500,000 old classrooms that need to be either repaired or replaced. Since we can’t repair or replace the entire 500,000 in one year, we have to prioritize which of these old classrooms urgently need attention," he said.
Meanwhile, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson reported that in the initial P2 billion released by PAGCOR last April 2013, DPWH has already completed around 75 percent of the total number of classrooms for construction.
"By 2015, we target to complete 1,070 classrooms. Hopefully, by 2016 we will complete all classrooms to be built using the additional P2 billion allocation that we received from PAGCOR," he said.
Apart from the ongoing classroom construction, the DPWH has already repaired around 700 classrooms that were damaged by supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013 using the funds released by PAGCOR.
Around 1,293 classrooms in Yolanda-hit areas are either under construction or under procurement.
Since the project was launched in 2011, the school building program of PAGCOR, DepEd and DPWH has so far completed a total of 906 classrooms in 201 sites nationwide, while 630 classrooms in 123 sites are under construction using the initial P5 billion funding.
Included in the buildings to be constructed are the 91 classrooms in Bohol which were damaged by the earthquake in October 2013.
Among the areas with completed classrooms include Baguio, Benguet, Ilocos, Pangasinan, Isabela, Cagayan, Nueva Viscaya, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon Province, Antipolo, Rizal, Oriental Mindoro, Romblon, Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, Bacolod, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Samar, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Bukidnon, Davao City, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Sultan Kudarat.