Tough days ahead for Taguig public schools

Public school students in Taguig City may have to live with the heat, darkness and thirst while attending classes.

This as public elementary schools in the city are in danger of losing electric and water supply as Department of Education (DepEd) officials have yet to properly release funds for paying the bills.

School principals said they were worried about the consequences of the "improper release of funds" and lack of action from the DepEd despite their constant appeal.

Upper Bicutan Elementary School Principal Dr. Evangeline Ladines, president of the Philippine Elementary School Principals’ Association—Taguig Chapter, said their Division Superintendent Rolando Magno could have violated DepEd’s memorandum No. 290 last year when it ordered the release of the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) fund.

Under the memorandum, school division superintendents are given full discretion on the use of the MOOE fund but principals can demand their share, especially if it is for operating expenses, including payment of electric and water bills.

"There is definitely an abuse in the disbursement of our MOOE funds," Ladines stressed in a statement.

Ladines said the DepEd has allocated P6.7 million for all 28 schools in the Taguig-Pateros division this year, which should have been released last July 1.

Fe Ochoa, the principal of the Tenement Elementary School, has also complained of the insufficient fund allocation for service training in their school.

She lamented that they are forced to shoulder expenses for service training because only five percent of their budget has been allocated to the program.

Some P6.5 million in MOOE funds were released last year for the school division but the city government still shouldered the bills for all the schools through its Local School Board’s Special Education Fund.

The principals alleged that Magno’s appropriation was based on the schools’ common needs despite the differences in their population and specific needs.

The city government also said in a statement that it would no longer shoulder the electric and water expenses of public schools to give principals full responsibility in handling the funds. — Edu Punay