Senate President Pro Tempore Ping Lacson pushed for safeguards to make sure that a bill seeking to accelerate the construction of classrooms and school buildings will not be marred by conflict of interest – or worse, create another “Napoles.”
Lacson emphasized that while he fully supports the initiative to accelerate the construction of classrooms and school buildings, there are issues on the extent of participation of non-government organizations (NGOs) and civil society groups (CSOs) that need to be resolved.
“I have no objection to allowing NGOs to be active partners in the school building program of the government.”
“If we involve NGOs and they will actively participate in bidding, monitoring, etc., (there is the) conflict of interest. Probably (we can include a) caveat, that provided they will not monitor themselves. At the proper time maybe we can use the proper language to clarify that particular issue. But I have no objection to allowing NGOs to be active partners in the school building program of the government,” the veteran legislator said in his interpellation of Senate Bill 1482 authored by Senator Bam Aquino.
The seasoned lawmaker noted that under the Government Procurement Act of 2024 (RA 12009), NGO participation is limited – where the procuring entity may enter into an agreement with an NGO “when an appropriation law or ordinance earmarks an amount to be specifically contracted out to NGOs.”
But the senator said RA 12009 also limits the role of CSOs or people’s organizations as observers throughout the procurement process to avoid conflict of interest.
“Baka ma-Napoles tayo dito. How do we resolve this issue?”
“There goes the problem. Kasi kung i-involve natin ang CSOs sa construction ng building, one way or another, indirectly or directly, at na-interchange ang definition ng NGO and CSO, baka ma-Napoles tayo dito. How do we resolve this issue?” he said.
Lacson was referring to the pork barrel scam involving trader Janet Lim-Napoles, who in the 2010s used a network of fake NGOs as conduits to steal billions of pesos in public funds.
Also, Lacson sought clarification on the status of P54.883 billion remaining under the P91.279-billion Basic Education Facilities Fund (BEFF) from 2022 to 2025, as only P36 billion was spent for 7,172 completed and 4,962 ongoing classrooms during that period.
The BEFF covers, among others, the construction, repair and rehabilitation of school buildings; fixtures and utilities including water and electrical utilities.
In reply, Aquino noted that only the DPWH could build classrooms from 2022 to 2025 – which was why his bill sought to remove this responsibility from the DPWH and allow local government units and participating NGOs to take on the task.
He added that while the fund for 2025 can be realigned, he can check the status of the fund from 2022 to 2024.
Aquino added that while the DPWH’s standard cost per classroom is P3.5 million, LGUs can construct classrooms at P1.5 million to 2 million each, while CSOs can do it for P800,000 to P1.3 million.
