Up to 240 mayors gathered in San Juan City to push for faster classroom construction as local governments take a more direct role in solving the country’s worsening classroom shortage.
The dialogue, hosted by San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora, brought together city and municipal leaders with Education Secretary Sonny Angara and Sen. Bam Aquino to implement the Classroom-Building Acceleration Program Act.
Aquino warned that the current classroom gap of 166,000 could rise to 230,000 by 2028 if construction is not sped up, noting that only 99 classrooms were built in 2025.
He said P66 billion has been allocated this year to build about 25,000 to 30,000 classrooms, with LGUs expected to play a major role alongside the DPWH.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education urged the public to ignore fake news about class suspensions and rely only on official DepEd announcements.
Source: PhilNews24 | January 29, 2026
