The Senate Committee on Basic Education is set to launch an investigation into how the government’s ₱67-billion classroom construction program under the 2026 national budget is being rolled out, panel chairperson Senator Bam Aquino announced on Friday, July 17.
The announcement followed Aquino’s inspection of Kasiglahan Elementary School and Kasiglahan Village National High School in Montalban, Rizal.
During the site visit, the lawmaker discovered that two campus buildings were condemned as structurally unsafe after deep cracks were discovered along the hallways and inside classrooms.
According to the senator, the compromised structures were finished in 2013 but were later declared unfit for occupancy in 2019 and 2023, despite being covered by a 15-year structural warranty.
“We will track down the people who built that. It hasn’t even been six years, yet it’s already unusable. That simply won’t do. That amounts to a holdup; it’s as if we were robbed,” Aquino said.
“Whoever is responsible, I hope their conscience moves them to fix it,” he added.
Local school officials also shared with Aquino that both campuses desperately require extra facilities to keep up with an expanding student population, which has grown due to the influx of relocated families moving to Montalban. To cope with the facility deficit, the two institutions currently run dual-shift schedules to manage more than 13,000 enrolled students.
Speaking in a separate interview, Aquino confirmed that the Senate panel has scheduled a legislative hearing for Thursday, July 23, to scrutinize the current progress of state-funded school construction.
Aquino, who was instrumental in pushing for the ₱67-billion earmark in the 2026 budget, noted that the funding was set aside to build 25,000 new classrooms to help chip away at the country’s broader shortage of 166,000 school units.
“We will conduct a hearing regarding the Classroom Acceleration Program so we can find out where the ₱67-billion allocated for classrooms has gone. Let’s see if we can still catch up within the year,” Aquino said.
“It has been seven months—the rainy season is already here—but we want to see this fund still utilized for classrooms for the youth. It is very evident that there is a critical need for them,” he added.