DepEd adopts safeguards to protect savings from cost-sharing deal with LGUs

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education has quickly adopted safeguards to protect savings it will generate from their innovative 50-50 classroom construction cost sharing deal with local government units (LGU), ensuring that these will still be used to address shortages in other resources such as teachers, textbooks and school furniture.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro, in his Memorandum Order No. 20, said that DepEd will only authorize the use of savings generated from the School Building Program (SBP) if it is contained in the Special Provision of the DepEd Budget under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for the corresponding fiscal year.

DepEd, it will be recalled, expects huge savings for the construction of school buildings from their 2010 budget of P4.9 billion, with the partnerships Luistro has forged with the Leagues of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) for a counterparting scheme.

“With the pledge of the local government units to help the department in building more classrooms, we anticipate that we would have a remarkable increase in the department’s savings, which can then be used to address other shortages such as teachers, textbooks, school seats, and water and sanitation facilities,” Luistro said.

“With the increased savings, we should also be stricter in realigning funds under SBP for other purposes,” noted Luistro.

Albay signs 1st 50-50 cost-sharing pact with DepEd

The province of Albay, headed by its governor Jose Clemente “Joey” Salceda, will be the first local government unit (LGU) to implement the 50-50 cost sharing arrangement with the Department of Education (DepEd) to build classrooms throughout the country and address the acute shortage of 150,000 classrooms in public schools.

Salceda, the other day, signed with Education Secretary Armin Luistro, a first of its kind memorandum of agreement worth P86 million for the construction of 112 school buildings, aimed to solve classroom shortage and strengthen the province’s educational program.

Under the terms of the MOA, Albay will shoulder P43 million, while DepEd will shell out the remaining P43 million for the classroom construction program.

The 112 school buildings will be composed of about 142 classrooms in 42 sites, and will be completed before start of June opening, Salceda said. 

The 50-50 cost sharing cooperation arrangement is good for three years instead of seven years if DepEd were to depend solely on its organic budget. The agreement is projected to solve the entire classroom deficit in Albay.

Albay, under Salceda, a respected economist and financial analyst before entering public service, has prioritized education.