COA flags DepEd’s P5.69 billion school feeding program

MANILA, Philippines — Schools in several regions failed to deliver the Department of Education (DepEd)’s P5.69-billion feeding program to students last year over lapses that led to the delivery of moldy, insect-infested nutribuns, rotting food items, unsanitary packaging and mislabeled manufacturing and expiry details, an annual state audit showed.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said that in 2023, Vice President Sara Duterte’s final year as DepEd secretary, the defective food items were reported in school division offices in Aurora, Bulacan, Misamis Oriental, Iligan and Quezon City.

State auditors said pests or insects were found inside the karabun/milky buns and squash nutribuns in the division of Aurora, home province of Duterte’s successor, Secretary Sonny Angara.

In Bulacan, the audit team found food items that were “either rotten, unripe or crushed.”

Misamis Oriental’s division office saw 1,001 pieces of nutribun returned to suppliers for replacement “due to the presence of molds and discoloration on the bread, one to two days before the expiry dates.”

Iligan’s division, meanwhile, saw the expiry date on the individually packed food as expiring three days earlier than the expiry label on the boxes they came in.

Meanwhile, Quezon City’s division complained of poor packaging and delivery of food items that were smaller or lighter than what the contract specified.

The COA also flagged Quezon City for distributing more than the required quantity to students while other food items were not distributed as scheduled.

Meycauayan and Bulacan, meanwhile, did not do feeding activities daily.

Aside from these, 21 division offices nationwide did not receive food products on time: Mandaluyong, Pasig, Ifugao, Baguio, Benguet, La Union, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, Camarines Sur, Zamboanga, Bukidnon, Valencia, Malaybalay, Tagum, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Agusan del Norte, Butuan, Cabadbaran, Surigao and Surigao del Norte.

DepEd’s school-based feeding program (SBFP), allocated with P5.69 billion, was intended to provide students with hot meals and milk to enhance their health and nutrition values to boost their school performance and health.

COA called out DepEd to reprogram unutilized funds from the SBFP, and for its failure to compel suppliers to deliver the products on time and with the exact specifications stated in the procurement.

“The interest of the government was not protected and the attainment of the program objectives and the safety of the intended beneficiaries were put to risk due to non-conformance with specifications,” the commission said.

“The excess/remaining balance of SBFP continuing and current funds shall be used for the following priority purposes: feed all learners present/enrolled in the school, prioritizing the lowest grade level and other secondary beneficiaries; extend the number of feeding days; cover funding deficiencies in the NFP (nutritious food products) and milk requirements,” it added.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), in which the Philippines has been ranked among the bottom countries for two straight years, highlighted the need to focus on the nutrition of students to help them maximize their abilities to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.

COA said DepEd’s guidelines on the SBFP were no longer followed, as schools simply gave out double rations and even gave food items to students not classified as undernourished to avoid food spoilage.

“The commitment to provide good nutrition to learners was not optimally achieved due to the deficiencies that hampered the successful implementation of the program,” COA said.

DepEd budget hearing proceeds

Despite torrential rains brought by Tropical Storm Enteng, the House leadership, and the committee on appropriations in particular, continued with its scheduled budget hearing of the DepEd under the new leadership of former senator Angara.

The new DepEd chief faced the panel headed by Rep. Zaldy Co of party-list Ako Bicol and answered all the questions raised by his former colleagues in the House – where he served as Aurora congressman from 2004 to 2013 – related to the agency’s proposed P748-billion budget for 2025.

Co assured DepEd the House leadership, under Speaker Martin Romualdez, will support the agency’s budget for fiscal year 2025 – always the largest among all government agencies – so that the “education system must be strategically calibrated.”

“It should focus not only on literacy, but developing problem-solving skills and critical thinking among our youth – equipping them for tomorrow’s challenges. Let’s support the President’s vision by helping the new secretary fulfill his mandate by supporting the DepEd’s 2025 budget,” he said.

“This will benefit millions of Filipino children and their families who put their trust in public school education and other government-led alternatives,” Co, president of the 55-member Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc., told the panel members and DepEd officials present.

He cited the current challenge DepEd is facing, specifically the results of the 2022 PISA which showed that among 81 countries, the Philippines ranked third from the bottom in science and sixth from the bottom in both mathematics and reading.

“Over the years, the National Expenditure Program has earmarked the biggest allocation to the DepEd, as mandated by our 1987 Constitution. And President Marcos recognizes that education is an investment in our nation’s future, in Filipino children,” Co said of DepEd’s “biggest trouble.”

Flexibility in Matatag vowed

Angara said in yesterday’s House hearing that DepEd would be “injecting flexibility” in the Matatag curriculum.

In her interpellation, ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro asked Angara to suspend the implementation of the Matatag curriculum – which was launched by Duterte in 2023 – citing the suffering that it has been causing the teachers.

Castro said that under the curriculum, high school teachers are given seven to eight loads which they have to teach for 45 minutes each daily.

“It is so long… The implementation of the Matatag curriculum was supposed to be in phases, but it has been implemented this school year and teachers are now suffering. They are having difficulty to cope up,” she noted.

Angara replied that while the 45-minute lesson is to maximize the “learning time for students,” they consulted with teachers on the issue.

“There is a need to inject flexibility in the curriculum. We are preparing a Department Order to inject flexibility,” he added, underscoring that this means going back to six teaching loads of one hour each, “depending on school setting.”

“We’re just going to hold one or two more consultations, but there is already a draft document on this. We listened to the concerns of the teachers,” he said.

The Matatag Curriculum is meant to decongest the current curriculum and to focus on the development of foundational skills such as literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills among younger learners.

OVP tried to suppress COA report?

Meanwhile, a chief of staff of Duterte reportedly attempted to “suppress” a COA report ordering the former education secretary to “return” a huge sum from the confidential funds in the DepEd’s budget allocation.

In a press release, Rep. Gerville Luistro disclosed that Duterte’s “undersecretary and chief of staff, attorney Zuleika Lopez,” wrote COA last Aug. 21 – or six days before the House appropriations committee held a budget hearing for the OVP – not to release the damning audit report.

The second district Batangas congresswoman said Lopez “advised COA against complying with the committee’s subpoena duces tecum for the Notice of Disallowance and audits of the OVP and Department of Education’s confidential funds for 2022 and 2023.”

“The OVP argued that releasing the audit reports would violate the ‘Constitutional Principle of Separation of Powers’ and infringe on the OVP’s ‘right to due process.’ The subject subpoena may not be validly enforced due to the nature of confidential funds,’” Luistro quoted the OVP as saying.

But Luistro refuted these assertions, pointing out that the principle of separation of powers is not absolute and has well-established exceptions. She further emphasized that Congress had provided the Vice President with ample due process to explain the findings in the contentious audit report.

“The principle of separation of powers ensures that no branch of government operates unchecked. But when it comes to the oversight of public funds, this principle must yield to the need for transparency and accountability,” the administration lawmaker argued.

“The VP was given every opportunity to explain the spending but chose instead to obstruct the process,” Luistro said, adding Congress has the constitutional responsibility to scrutinize the budgets of all agencies to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent appropriately and transparently.

Luistro hailed COA for upholding Congress’ authority to review the audit report, which ordered the Vice President to return P73 million out of the P125 million in confidential funds that were spent within just 11 days in December 2022.

She said the OVP’s attempt to stop COA from releasing the report is tantamount to “suppression of public information.” — Delon Porcalla, Sheila Crisostomo