Mayors, DepEd push faster classroom construction

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January 29, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Up to 240 mayors convened in San Juan City yesterday to discuss accelerating the construction of classrooms as local governments move to take a more direct role in addressing the worsening classroom shortage.

The Mayor’s Dialogue on Accelerating Classroom-Building in Cities and Municipalities, hosted by San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora, brought together local chief executives from cities and municipalities alongside Education Secretary Sonny Angara and Sen. Bam Aquino, chairman of the Senate committee on basic education.

Of the 240, 45 are city mayors while 195 are municipal mayors.

Zamora said the Classroom-Building Acceleration Program Act marked a “historic shift” by empowering local government units (LGUs) to build classrooms on their own, instead of relying entirely on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Aquino said the classroom gap remains severe, citing data from the Second Congressional Commission on Education.

“According to EDCOM 2, our classroom gap is 166,000. If we don’t build more, this will balloon to 230,000 by 2028,” Aquino told reporters. “We really need to focus on this problem.”

He noted that only 99 classrooms were built in 2025.

To help close the gap, Aquino said P66 billion has been allocated this year to build around 25,000 to 30,000 classrooms.

He said a portion of the funding would still go to the DPWH, but LGUs are expected to play a major role in clearing the backlog.

Angara said the DPWH would remain responsible for classrooms that were unfinished from 2017 to 2018.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education (DepEd) yesterday cautioned the public amid the fake news circulating on social media about the suspension of face-to-face classes from Jan. 28 to 30.

The DepEd reminded parents and learners to be critical of the information they see online.

“Do not follow online accounts spreading false information. For accurate and official announcements regarding basic education, please refer to the official DepEd Philippines social media pages,” the department said.