The House Committee on Appropriations chaired by Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co resumed on Tuesday its review of the budgetary performance of the Department of Education (DepEd) from previous years up to the first quarter of 2024.
The hearing, presided over by committee vice chairperson and Davao de Oro Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora addressed critical issues affecting the Philippine education system, including lapsed budgets, unfilled teaching positions, delays in learning material delivery, classroom shortages, and the status of the DepEd enterprise resource planning system.
"Addressing these issues is vital to ensuring that the education system functions effectively and meets the needs of students and educators alike," Zamora emphasized.
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro expressed concern about the significant number of unfilled teaching positions, noting that over 20,000 positions for Teacher 1 to Teacher 3 remain vacant.
DepEd OIC Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral assured that steps are being taken to address the issue.
"As early as November 2023, we issued a catch-up plan on how these positions can be filled," he stated.
Cabral reported that 9% of the positions have been filled, with 22% at various stages of appointment, adding that a monitoring system has been established to track compliance across all regions.
"To date, for 2024, we have about 30% of positions already filled, indicating that the regions are taking steps to address the vacancies," Cabral said.
He stressed the importance of continuous monitoring to meet deadlines, "We have specifically stated in our memorandum that all these items, whether newly created or previously unfilled, should be filled by August. This ensures that the budget allocated for these positions is fully utilized by the end of the fiscal year."
Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin raised concerns about DepEd's budget performance for school furniture and learning tools in science, math and technical-vocational equipment.
The budget for learning tools and equipment was P2.8 billion for 2023 and P3.9 billion for 2024, with P2.7 billion allocated for both 2021 and 2022.
For school furniture, the budget was P1.8 billion in 2021, P1.1 billion in 2022, P1.8 billion in 2023, and is projected at P2.4 billion for 2024.
DepEd Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III explained that these items are distributed based on yearly construction allocations, with delivery from procurement to end-users taking 120 calendar days.
Garin also questioned changes in DepEd's process for delivering learning materials, suggesting it created a system with unclear accountability.
"In other words, DepEd created a system, a process where accountability cannot be pointed directly," she said.
DepEd Undersecretary Omar Romero stated that in 2021, DepEd contracted a central logistics company to streamline deliveries, but this proved inefficient as the company struggled with collecting and delivering goods.
DepEd has since reverted to the "bundled mode," where suppliers deliver directly to schools.
Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said that the centralized delivery system was initially proposed to address logistical challenges exacerbated by COVID-19.
Garin lamented DepEd's track record for distributing school supplies so that more students could utilize the materials during that year.
"Because when we allocate budget, the President, the members of Congress, even the DepEd officials and the executive, ang tapang-tapang natin mag-announce -- 'Andiyan ang ating mga school furnitures. We have textbooks, ready ang mga kailangan niyo,' -- pero ang totoo, we cannot walk the talk because somewhere along the way there is a problem and nobody seems to really push for a solution," Garin concluded.
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