MORE than 200 city and municipal mayors from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao gathered at the Makabagong San Juan National Government Center to express full support for Senate Bill 1482, also known as the Classroom-Building Acceleration Program (CAP) Act, following its unanimous approval in the Senate.
The gathering, dubbed the “Mayor’s Dialogue on Accelerating Classroom-Building,” was held on January 28, 2026, shortly after the Philippine Senate passed the measure on third and final reading with a 22-0 vote.
The bill was also certified as urgent by Malacañang, allowing it to bypass the usual waiting period between readings and enabling the immediate transmission of funds for classroom construction under the proposed 2026 national budget.
Authored by Senator Bam Aquino, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, the CAP Act seeks to address the country’s persistent classroom shortage by empowering local government units (LGUs) to directly plan, construct, and monitor school facilities -- functions that were previously centralized under national agencies.
Aquino said decentralizing classroom construction is critical to meeting the country’s annual targets.
“I honestly think that the only way we can fulfill 25,000 to 30,000 classrooms for this year is if all of us build at the same time. If everyone builds simultaneously, we have a chance to meet the target. If only one agency handles this, it would be nearly impossible,” Aquino said.
The dialogue evolved into what participants described as a strategic “bayanihan” summit, serving as a roadmap for LGUs to take a more active role in addressing the classroom backlog.
According to data presented during the event, the national classroom shortage stood at 166,000 units in late 2025 and could reach 230,000 by 2028 without major reforms.
San Juan City Mayor and League of Cities of the Philippines president Francis Zamora echoed the senator’s position, emphasizing that local governments are better equipped to implement projects efficiently if allowed to work simultaneously.
He noted that with more than 1,600 municipalities and 149 cities nationwide, parallel construction could significantly speed up classroom delivery.
Under the CAP Act, funds for classroom construction will be directly downloaded to LGUs, allowing projects to proceed simultaneously across thousands of sites instead of waiting for a single national agency to conduct bidding and implementation.
This LGU-led model is also expected to reduce construction costs, bringing the average cost per classroom down to between P1.5 million and P1.8 million, compared to earlier estimates of P3.5 million per unit.
The measure also aims to improve monitoring and ensure that schools are built in underserved “last mile” areas, which local officials are more familiar with than national agencies.
Aquino told local officials that the proposed 2026 national budget — the largest in history at P1.34 trillion — provides strong financial backing for the reform, with P66 billion allocated specifically for classroom construction.
“What we need to reform will take time, maybe two to three terms or even two to three presidents. But we can start somewhere. Special provisions in the 2026 General Appropriations Act already allow LGUs to build even before the CAP bill is fully signed. We are ready to go,” he said.
The dialogue concluded with commitments from the Department of Education to provide technical guidance and oversight, while mayors pledged to prioritize land donations for annex schools to bring education closer to communities.
Aquino stressed the urgency of collaboration, saying the seriousness of the classroom shortage requires collective action to find lasting solutions.
Aside from addressing the education crisis, Aquino said the CAP Act is also designed as an economic stimulus.
The P66-billion allocation intended to fund the construction of 25,000 classrooms this year is projected to generate more than 100,000 jobs, providing a boost to local employment while helping close the country’s classroom gap. (ABC)