INVESTIGATION is still underway regarding the damaged books at the Department of Education (DepEd) main office in Pasig City, but an education official rues the lack of book storage facilities.

DepEd Instructional Materials Council Secretariat chief Socorro Pilor said they were forced to place the books "in the only available place."

What's your take on the Mindanao crisis? Discuss views with other readers

"DepEd has no storage facilities. We had to store the books in the only available place in the central office," Pilor said in a report to Education Secretary Jesli Lapus.

The education chief was in Baguio City attending this year's National Educators Congress when the incident came out in the media last Monday.

Lapus has immediately ordered a thorough investigation into the matter.

According to Pilor, the leftover cache of some 2,600 textbooks was temporarily stored in boxes and was awaiting shipment to needy public schools in the country.

DepEd Undersecretary for Programs and Projects Vilma Labrador said that only 420 books were damaged.

"Since the program started, many of the department's private sector donors had been generous support, and we actually distributed nine truckloads containing over 280,000 textbooks in our last estimate to many schools in the Bicol region," Labrador said.

For his part, Lapus said he is "very disappointed" with the incident.

"Although those 420 books are small compared to the 280,000 donated, these could have been used by 420 students who may not have it," Lapus said.

He added: "Precisely because we are working on less than ideal conditions, I have been relentlessly reminding our officials that wastage will never be tolerated, and that we should avoid problems like this in the future. DepEd is making sure that our limited resources are protected."

The books that were damaged after termites had found their way into the boxes were broken down as follows: Grade I (Science and Health) - 51, Grade II (Science and Health) - 46, Grade IV (Science and Health) - 314, and Third Year High School Chemistry - 9.

Every school year, the lack of textbooks was one of the problems facing the education department.

Last October, the Commission on Audit (COA) disclosed that DepEd, wasted millions of pesos in its 2007 budget either through non-utilization, misallocation or purchase of inferior equipment.

The commission reported that while the number of undistributed textbooks decreased from 2006 to 2007, a total of 1,275,056 copies of unused textbooks or manuals costing at least P57.3 million remained stored in school stockrooms or libraries in 2007. (AH/Sunnex)

For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete.

(December 4, 2008 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.