Phinma to build more school buildings for coming school year

PHINMA Corp.’s education unit has outlined its school expansion plan for the coming school year, including new campuses and buildings at some of its existing universities.

“Our students want to learn, no matter what. Their perseverance in the face of so many challenges inspires us to serve them better,” said Trissa M. Menardo, strategy chief at Phinma Education Holdings, Inc. in a press conference on Monday.

Phinma Education, a subsidiary of publicly listed Phinma Corp., is building a new seven-story building at the University of Pangasinan that it expects to be completed next year.

“Pangasinan is one of our biggest schools. We are now called Pangasinan Club 21 because we broke 21,000 [enrolled] students a few days ago,” said Phinma Education President and Chief Executive Officer Chito B. Salazar, Jr.

“Two of our schools broke 21,000 — Cagayan de Oro College and University of Pangasinan,” he added.

Because of the good turnout of students in Cagayan de Oro, Phinma Education built a second campus for its Cagayan de Oro College in Iligan City that started construction just this year.

Phinma Education is also building the second phase of its Araullo University San Jose campus in Nueva Ecija, the second building of its Republican College in Quezon City, and the second phase of its Rizal College in Laguna.

In the next month or two, the company expects the completion of its dentistry building as part of its goal to upgrade its dentistry program at Southwestern University Phinma in Cebu. The building is said to have technologically advanced facilities for its dentistry students. For the school year 2022-2023, Phinma Education is hoping to reach 36,000 new students and 124,000 total enrolled students.

“Enrollment is still ongoing for freshmen and classes for freshmen won’t start before August 1. And our total enrollment now is already at 105,000,” Mr. Salazar said.

Phinma Education started investing in education services in 2004 through the acquisition of Phinma Araullo University in Nueva Ecija.

At the stock market on Monday, Phinma Corp.’s shares ended unchanged at P19.20 apiece. — Justine Irish DP. Tabile