President Aquino Inspects New Buildings, Classrooms in Malolos Integrated School

President Benigno S. Aquino III on Friday morning inspected two new school buildings at the City of Malolos Integrated School here that were constructed under the Public-Private Partnership for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP).

Upon arrival at the school, located in Barangay Sto. Rosario, President Aquino proceeded to inspect a two-storey building with six classrooms and another two-storey building with 18 classrooms.

He was welcomed by Education Secretary Armin Luistro; Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center Executive Director Cosette Canilao; Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado; Vice Governor Daniel Fernando; Bulacan First District Congresswoman Ma. Victoria Sy-Alvarado; Malolos Mayor Christian Natividad; Chairman of Citicore Holdings Investment Corporation Michael Cosiquien; Chief Operating Officer of Citicore-Megawide Consortium, Inc. Edgar Saavedra; and Citicore-Megawide President Louie Ferrer.

Secretary Luistro and Citicore Chairman Cosiquien presented to the President a scale model of the two school buildings, signifying the turnover of 2,885 new classrooms constructed by Citicore-Megawide in Central Luzon under the PSIP.

The consortium designed, financed and constructed the classrooms under the PPP’s Build-Lease-Transfer arrangement, in an effort to address the nationwide shortage of classrooms.

Of the 742 classrooms constructed in the province of Bulacan, 59 are in Malolos-based schools, among them the Marcelo H. del Pilar National High School, Panasahan Elementary School, Malolos Elementary School, Balayong Elementary School, Santisima Trinidad Elementary School, Santor Elementary School, Longos Elementary School, Ligas Elementary School, Balite Elementary School, and the Catmon campus of the City of Malolos Integrated School.

The consortium will construct another 4,259 classrooms in 12 provinces across Central Luzon and the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Calabarzon) area.

With the President were Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson and TESDA Secretary Joel Villanueva. PND (ag)