00:00The wanton and massive fleecing of taxpayer money and government funds was not merely confined to flood control projects.
00:07The fix was also in school building and classroom construction.
00:11Hence, the transfer of the authority to disburse and spend the funds for classroom and school building repair
00:17and construction from the DPWH to DepEd and or local government units.
00:22But in today's Senate hearing, Senator Rafi Tulfo also made it clear how he intends to blacklist all erring contractors
00:29who built substandard classrooms, as our Luisa Arispe reports.
00:37Substandard construction of classrooms in school buildings.
00:41This was one of the hot topics last year, which is why under the 2026 budget,
00:46the repair and maintenance of schools will now go directly to LGUs or the Department of Education.
00:51But during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Basic Education,
00:55Senator Rafi Tulfo is pushing to blacklist erring contractors and private companies
01:02previously involved in the first and second batches of the Public-Private Partnerships or PPP for School Infra Projects.
01:10According to Senator Tulfo, he has received complaints that some of them have a history
01:15of projects that are either unfinished, delayed, or substandard.
01:19We can no longer afford to incur unreasonable delays,
01:23substandard construction, and the awarding of projects to unqualified contractors.
01:31Dapat mablock please ang mga non-performing private companies.
01:35Dapat meron tayong ginagawang thorough screening or vetting
01:39to ensure na itong sasali sa programang ito na napakaganda,
01:45eh hindi tayong maisahan.
01:46Tulfo further insists, there are schools that are easily damaged.
01:51Namamonitor natin, pagdating sa Bagyo, ito yung unang nililipad, itong unang binabaha.
01:56So dapat, we have to be very careful na talagang quality yung classrooms na binibuilt natin.
02:01Dapat admitted that many schools were indeed turned over to them, despite being problematic.
02:07But for now, they have a list of contractors and private companies
02:10with existing complaints on their construction projects.
02:13Yung iba pong na classroom na tinurn over ay hindi po maayos.
02:19So, ang naging response po namin, Mr. Chair, is increase the transparency
02:23and increase partnerships with civil society, parent-teachers association.
02:29Kasi tinurn over po siya sa DepEd at pinirmahan, eh.
02:32Kahit na may problema.
02:33So, yung pong nire-raise po ninyo, na-turn over po siya.
02:37Pag tinurn over mo, makikita mo, hindi mo na alam na may problema yun until nagkabagyo tapos nilipad, di ba?
02:42I mean, di naman engineer yung mga PTA na makikita talaga nila.
02:46So, we would like to see that data.
02:48Obviously, the success or the continuation of this program,
02:52it means that dapat the majority of the 13,000 maayos.
02:56Eh kung 70% yung failure rate natin, eh ba't natin itutuloy?
02:59Tulfo added that maintenance should also be included in the future contracts,
03:04a point agreed on by Committee Chairman Senator Bam Aquino and the DepEd.
03:09There were complaints that I received na itong mga toilet or CR na nagkakproblema sa plumbing,
03:15na nagkakproblema sa bubong, na tumutulo, ding-ding, tumutulo.
03:19Hindi na, walang kinalaman estudyante dyan.
03:21At walang kinalaman sa where and where and where yan.
03:23Bago pa lang, two years pa lang, sira na agad.
03:25We will include that feature.
03:27The next PPP na gagawin is jumping off the learnings from the previous PPP.
03:32So, yung maintenance nakapasok na, yung standards nandiyan na kahit yung mga ibang kagamitan nakapasok na rin siya.
03:39So, even though we finished that PPP in 2018, itong susunod, magagamit niya yung mga learnings doon
03:47para yung next na gagawin, di hamak mas maganda rin, mas maayos.
03:52Luisa Erispe from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.
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