Congress taps Tsinoy businessmen to build schools

For the first time, Congress is tapping cost-effective non-government organizations (NGOs) in building schools to bring down their cost significantly so that more classrooms could be built.

House Deputy Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas said yesterday starting this year, the construction of P250-million worth of new classrooms would be "outsourced" to NGOs led by the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII).

The federation groups Filipino-Chinese or Tsinoy businessmen. Gullas, who represents Cebu’s first district in the House, said FFCCCII and other NGOs would build a total of 1,100 classrooms, each with a floor area of 49 square meters, at a cost not exceeding P225,000 per unit.

"We are definitely encouraging the participation of NGOs, particularly those with the capability and proven track record, in the construction of public school buildings," said Gullas, who represents Cebu’s first district in the House.

"Hopefully, taxpayers will get more value for their money through this scheme. This should lead not only to more classrooms being built but also to longer-lasting structures," he added.

In the recently approved P46.4-billion 2006 supplemental budget, Congress appropriated an additional P1 billion "for the construction, repair, rehabilitation, and completion of school buildings."

Of the P1 billion, half or P500 million would be for the "rehabilitation, repair and retrofitting of school buildings," the other half would be for the construction of new classrooms.

Out of the second half, P250 million would be "made available" to FFCCCII and other NGOs.

FFCCCII, through its Operation Barrio School program, has been building classrooms using donated private funds. This time, however, it will be using taxpayers’ money.

For several years now, the federation has also been using funds made available by Sen. Franklin Drilon, who has been appropriating his pork barrel funds for the construction of new school buildings. Drilon found out that FFCCCII builds classrooms at half the cost it would take the Department of Public Works and Highways to construct them. According to him, corruption, from the level of the barangay where the classroom would be built, up to the DPWH, increases the government’s cost.

Apparently, it was Drilon, who now chairs the Senate committee on finance, who included the "outsourcing" provision in the supplemental budget bill. It was the first time that such a requirement is written in the budget law.