KIKO DEMANDS EXPLANATION ON COA REPORT
"Who will answer for these grave priority mismatches?"

Dismayed by the findings of the Commission on Audit on various anomalies at the Department of Education, Senate Majority Leader Kiko Pangilinan today called on education authorities to explain the priority mismatches on school buildings, armchairs, tables and text books, and the irregularity on the Food for School Program of government.

"Paano maaayos ang mga problema sa edukasyon kung mismong ang DepEd nagkukulang? Someone has to explain these irregularities, and explain it fast. DepEd owes the public an accounting. Who will answer for these grave priority mismatches?" Kiko lamented.

COA reported that DepEd built 22 school buildings for P28.67M in low-priority areas, thereby violating its own school building policy.

Senator Pangilinan, whose major advocacy is the School Building Project being carried out in partnership with the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCII), said "it is bad enough that the P28.67M which built only 22 school buildings could have constructed more or less 95 classrooms under the FFCCII and my Office's school building project. But to have these school buildings constructed in low-priority areas while other communities struggle to put a roof over school children's heads is simply unacceptable. It is appalling!"

The COA report also stated that 1,573 elementary schools and 181 high schools did not benefit from the tables and armchairs project of 2004 and 2005 as they should, while 844 schools with adequate seats received 43,140 tables and 31,514 armchairs.

DepEd's Food for School Program is also in hot water for distributing 2.24 million kilos of well-milled rice and other varieties instead of iron-fortified rice to students. There were also reports of delivery shortages in Malanday Elementary School and in Eastern Samar.

"Who's calling the shots here? Who's letting such huge allocation mistakes happen? No matter how much money we add to the DepEd, if its authorities will continue to lose tax payers' money to incompetence or corruption, then we will never see the day when every child in this country is given the best education we can offer," Kiko ended.