SENATOR Grace Poe on Tuesday questioned the bigger allocation of government funds for the construction of multi-purpose halls despite the shortage in school buildings in the country.

During the Senate Finance Subcommittee A’s deliberations on the P822.2-billion proposed 2024 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways, Poe noted that P41.19 billion was set aside in next year’s budget for building multi-purpose halls, while there is a nationwide backlog of 159,000 classrooms.

“The budget allocated for multipurpose buildings is bigger than the allocation for building classrooms,” Poe said in Filipino.

She said the DPWH, as the implementer of government infrastructure projects, should have a say over which structures should be prioritized by local government units.

DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan said that the allocation for the multipurpose projects is the consolidated priority projects of all legislative districts.

“This is part of their what we call local infrastructure project that are allocated for members of Congress to prioritize and this is what we have consolidated,” Bonoan said.

Poe answered “Hindi ba dapat may say din ang DPWH na sabihin na sa distrito ninyo parang mass kailangan ninyo ng classrooms kesa multi-purpose buildings. Don’t you have that discretion?”

“We can always suggest, but at the end of the day, to be candid about it, its actually the priorities for the district,” Bonoan replied.