VP Sara should take full responsibility — House leaders

Vice President Sara Duterte should take full responsibility for the whopping P5.6 billion in food supplies that went to waste during her tenure as Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd), House leaders said Sunday.

House Assistant Majority Leaders Jefferson Khonghun and Paolo Ortega made the remark in response to the recent Commission on Audit's (CoA) report, revealing that 21 School Division Offices (SDOs) reported delays and non-delivery of food items and pasteurized milk under the DepEd School-Based Feeding Program (SBFP).

"This is not a matter of politics, but of transparency and accountability. The public has the right to know what happened to the billions of pesos that should have benefited children in need," Khonghun said in Filipino.

Ortega concurred with Khonghun, contending that as the DepEd chief at the time, Duterte was obliged to explain the shortcomings of the department taking into account that the funds involved were that massive.

"About P5.6 billion worth of food was wasted and was not used by the children. As the leader of DepEd then, she should have ensured the proper implementation of the project. This is clearly a command responsibility," Ortega said in Filipino. 

Based on the 2023 CoA report on the DepEd, the final year of Duterte being its secretary, the department failed to optimally achieve SBFP's objective to provide good nutrition to the intended learners due to several deficiencies in the implementation of the program.

This includes the delivery of moldy, insect-infested nutribuns, rotting food items, unsanitary packaging and mislabeled manufacturing and expiry details to various schools.

The SBFP had a total funding of P5.69 billion, according to the auditing body.

In Aurora SDO, pests or insects were found inside Karabun or milky bun and E-nutribun (squash) during the inspection of food commodities.

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

Meanwhile, in Misamis Oriental SDO, "1,001 pieces of E-nutribun delivered from September 2023 to January 2024 were returned to the suppliers for replacement due to the presence of molds and discoloration on the bread, 1 to 2 days before the expiry dates."

"Some items were delivered in poor condition, as some packaging diffused with no reasonable amount of air to maintain their freshness and when pressed with considerable extent of strength, the packaging likewise diffuses," state auditors said.

In Iligan City SDO, the packaging of the food items had “irreconcilable expiry dates" while others had manufacturing dates that were “not easily discernible,” contrary to the terms of the contract, CoA added.

Duterte headed the DepEd for nearly two years until her abrupt resignation on 19 June. 

She was later replaced by seasoned lawmaker Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara, who officially took over the post on 20 July. 

Khonghun and Ortega, however, stressed that Duterte is still required to confront the lapses she incurred during her time, which not only squandered P5.6 in government resources but also deprived students in need of essential nutrition.