COA Speaks on Complaints vs. DepEd Feeding Program under Duterte
COA – The Commission on Audit flagged the implementation of the P5.6 billion Department of Education (DepEd) feeding program under Vice President Sara Duterte.
Annually, the Commission on Audit checks on the spending and other financial matters of the different offices and agencies of the government. There are instances when it flags offices and agencies over complaints.
Amid the issues surrounding the 2025 budget proposal of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), VP Sara Duterte is faced with another issue — COA flagged the implementation of the P5.6 billion feeding program of DepEd under her leadership.
Vice Pres. Duterte resigned as the DepEd secretary a few months ago. She turned over the leadership of the education department to Senator and now DepEd chief Sonny Angara.
During the turn over ceremony, Duterte even joked to Angara welcoming him to “chaos”. On her resignation as DepEd chief, Duterte initially said that it is out of compassion for the teachers and students.
After a while, Vice Pres. Duterte spoke on the reasons why she left DepEd and the Marcos cabinet. Several recent incidents sparked questions and speculations on the real ties between the President and the Vice President now. She admitted that they have not talked.
Recently, COA flagged the P5.69 billion feeding program of DepEd in 2023 which was then under the leadership of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. Based on a report on Inquirer, the state auditors found out that there were delays in the delivery of the nutribuns and milk for the students in some regions and, in other cases, there were allegedly nondeliveries.
Based on the report, some of the food items were allegedly unfit for consumption as they already had pests, molds, or the foods are past their expiration date. At least 21 Schools Division Offices (SDOs) made negative reports on the School Based Feeding Program or the SBFP.
Furthermore, COA reportedly found unsanitary packaging, questionable expiry dates, and pests and molds in the nutribuns set for students in the DepEd regional offices of Metro Manila, Northern Mindanao, and Central Luzon.
More updates may be posted soon…