NANINIWALA si Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture Chairman Sherwin Gatchalian na mas magiging epektibo at mabilis ang pagtatayo ng school buildings kung ide-decentralize ito sa mga lokal na pamahalaan.

Sinabi ni Gatchalian na sa nakalipas na administrasyon, ipinatupad ang ganitong sistema at naging mabilis ang pagtatayo ng mga gusaling pampaaralan.

“There’s a very good program that the past administration actually implemented. I have to give credit where credit’s due. I have to credit Brother Armin Luistro. He launched what they call a counterpart program in building of the classrooms,” pahayag ni Gatchalian.

Sinabi ng senador na ang problema sa ngayon, lahat ng itatayong gusali ay nakasentro sa Department of Public Works and Highways.

“The problem of building classrooms right now is that everything is centralized to DPWH. So the budget is from DepEd and then DepEd gives it to DPWH and DPWH builds all the classrooms nationwide. And that is centralized,” paliwanag ng senador.

“What Brother Armin did in the past is to give it to the local government units provided that the local government units come up with the 50% so hati tayo. I’ll give you the 50% and you produce a 50% but you build the classroom. So in effect, he decentralized the building of classrooms,” dagdag ng mambabatas.

“I think we should repeat that program. It’s a very good program and it can improve the phase of building classrooms,” giit pa ni Gatchalian.