AN administration lawmaker yesterday urged Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte to act on a 2021 Commission on Audit report flagging the Department of Education’s (DepEd) failure to equip with furniture such as desks and chairs more than 75 percent of almost 11,500 classrooms in the country despite having been allocated a hefty fund of almost P9.5 billion under the national budget.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said Duterte has to look into the Dep Ed’s low accomplishment rate last year for its Basic Education Facilities Fund (BEFF) “in the hope that the Department could, on her watch, put on the front burner the overdue makeover of almost 9,000 classrooms.”
Citing the COA’s audit report, the lawmaker said the repair of the classrooms was already included in the BEFF’s P9.467-billion outlay in the 2021 national budget.
“Considering her solid record as a down-to-earth local chief executive when she was mayor of Davao City, I am sure Vice President and Secretary Inday Sara will not let this setback slide,” he said.
The COA report showed that only 2,689 or 23.45 percent of the 11,468 classrooms funded for repair in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of the annual national budget were actually mended last year.
“It was apparently a matter of low absorptive capacity and not a funding issue given that nearly 80 percent of the repair budget had been obligated to the DepEd last year,” said Villafuerte.
The same audit report said that as of December 31 last year, a total of P7.483 billion or 79.04 percent of the BEFF budget had been obligated, leaving only P1.984 or 20.96 percent of the total allocation unused.
Villafuerte noted that in his province alone, the DepEd failed last year to repair more than 1,800 classrooms in Iriga City and 35 other municipalities, even if the refurbishment of these facilities was already included in last year’s allocations for the BEFF and QRF (Quick Response Fund) for school repair and provision of new furniture for both students and their teachers.
He said that in CamSur, a total of 1,405 classrooms in 296 schools in 35 municipalities were supposed to have received a combined BEFF allocation of P451.66 million last year for repair, but none of these projects was funded.
For instance, he said, the capital town of Pili was supposed to have received P32.59 million from the BEFF for the repair of classrooms in 16 schools, but none was repaired because of no fund release from the DepEd.
He said that Buhi and Bula towns had the biggest number of unfunded repair projects, as they were supposed to have received, respectively, P32.43 million for the repair of classrooms in 30 schools and P25.3 million for fixing classrooms in 21 schools.
As for the QRF, Villafuerte said 121 schools in Iriga City and 22 municipalities were supposed to have received P560.35 million from this separate Fund for the repair, rehabilitation or replacement of classrooms, but none of these projects was funded last year.
