On Monday September 2nd, the Philippines Education Department received bids for the second phase of the school program (PSIP II). The PSIP II involves the designing, financing, and constructing of around 10,679 one-storey and two-storey classrooms, including furniture, fixtures and toilets, in 5,033 public schools in 14 regions nationwide.

School in the Philippines

Only two bidders, Megawide Construction Corp. and the BSP & Co.-Vicente T. Lao Construction consortiums submitted bids for contracts A and E respectively. No bids were submitted for contracts B, C and D, which cover the remaining 6,309 classrooms.

Megawide Corp offered P2,255,923,096 (US$51 million) for contract A, keeping under the ceiling set by the government. The package involves the construction of 2,440 classrooms in 982 schools in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Cordillera regions.

BSP & Co.-Vicente T. Lao, meanwhile, bid P1,603,397,790 (US$36 million) -- also under the cap -- for package E covering 1,930 classrooms in 750 schools in the Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions.

There were no bids for contracts B covering MIMAROPA and Bicol; C for Western, Central and Eastern Visayas; and D for the Zamboanga Peninsula, Davao and SOCCSKSARGEN regions.Four firms had been qualified for the project:

• Megawide Corp.,
• BF Corporation,
• DM Wenceslao & Associates -DATEM, and
• Vicente T. Lao Constructors/BSP & Co. Inc.

D.M. Wenceslao-DATEM later withdrew while Megawide and BSP & Co.-Vicente T. Lao were the only ones that passed a technical evaluation.Each of the packages of the Project consists of the following activities:

1. Upfront financing of the design and construction of the project;
2. Preparation of the detailed engineering design (DED);
3. Construction of project facilities;
4. Transfer of project facilities and ownership of these assets to theDepartment of Education after construction.