Not only flood control but also classroom control projects?
Education Secretary Sonny Angara said that over 1,000 unfinished, unusable classrooms across the country were turned over to the Department of Education (DepEd). It is said that DepEd controls the funds for the construction of classrooms. But, surprisingly, “special provisions” in the current budget rules specify that only the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) can handle the bidding for the construction of the classrooms.
According to DepEd, the country still has a backlog of 165,000 classrooms, yet only 4,000(?) of them are slated for construction. It is no wonder that in some remote areas, classrooms are lacking. And some teachers were forced by circumstance to hold classes even under an acacia tree and pupils were asked to bring their own “bangkito” (stool).
While the DPWH was the bidding agent, contractors were the ones who actually constructed the DepEd classrooms. Thus, based on the said unfinished, unusable classrooms, it is not difficult to figure out the same pattern as in the case of flood control projects. Angara said the classrooms, though not ghost projects, were like “aswang,” as many flood control projects were like “weak-kneed,” rebarless concrete banks that easily get flopped even only under drizzles.
Not just money has been lost, but the process of education, the acquisition of (foundational) knowledge among our young citizens, has been sacrificed on the altar of unsatiable greed for money in the stone-cold hearts of the crocodiles in the government. Not just education has been deprived of its quality, but even the very core of our civilization has been undermined by this demonic, massive, widespread corruption in the government.
Not only our money, people’s money, were robbed, but also our quality education in terms of quality facilities was robbed and, ultimately, our quality intellectual development through education was also robbed. It is particularly true among the young ones, the hope of our Fatherland, as Jose Rizal said in his A La Juventud Filipina.
The educative process has three fundamental elements: 1) the student/pupil, 2) the teacher/mentor and 3) facilities. It requires that there should be students/pupils. It requires that there should be teachers to guide them. And, these two elements also require a venue in which to carry out the educative processes. Even in the case of the peripatetic school founded by Aristotle around 335 BC at the Lyceum in Athens in Greece, it used the gardens in the Lyceum as the venue where Aristotle and his students “walked” (peripatoi) while conducting the discussion (usually philosophy at that time).
Even the DepEd has been nabbed by the DPWH. And what is questionable here is: those “special provisions” in the current budget rules specify that only the DPWH can handle the bidding. This has resulted not only in the “slowed down construction of classrooms over the past decade” but also in the unfinished, unusable, “aswang” classrooms, as Angara noted. This phenomenon shows it is not something new. Why then previous education secretary, Vice President Sara Duterte, did not bring this corruption to the surface?
How pervasive is such corruption, existing not only in flood control but also in classroom control projects! The proof is clear: those unfinished, unusable, “aswang” classrooms, as Angara described them. Where did the greater portion of the funds for the construction of quality classrooms go? It is not far-fetched to think that some DepEd officials could also possibly be partners in crime. I think Angara should also endorse this problem for investigation if he is true in serving the people of this country.
