News Roundup 17 August 2022
Aug 17, 2022 • 5 min Read
College aid fund mess hits students hard – Hontiveros | INQUIRER.NET – Testimonies from college students who were supposed to benefit from the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) have affirmed the alleged irregularities in the release of close to P7 billion in funds earmarked for the government’s student assistance program, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Tuesday. Hontiveros said her office has been swamped with testimonies from college students who were supposed recipients of UniFAST, an attached agency under the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) mandated to implement Republic Act No. 10931, or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. Signed into law on Oct. 15, 2015, it aims to provide underprivileged Filipino students the opportunity to pursue college degrees through free tuition and exemption from other fees in state universities and colleges (SUCs) through a faster, unified, and more comprehensive system. CHEd Chair Prospero de Vera III said he was ready to meet with the senator and clarify her concerns, adding that he would hold a press conference this week “to explain the side of CHEd and UniFAST.” Hontiveros said the revelations from the intended recipients were heartbreaking, as they mostly come from poor families who have barely enough to remain in school. “In one portion of the UniFAST program, about P1 billion in allowances wasn’t given from 2017 to 2021. And included in this amount are students who have health issues, students of solo parents, students with parents who lost their jobs during the pandemic,” she said in a television interview. “These students are members of families of up to 10 children, children of farmers and fisherfolk, of indigent families under the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program),” Hontiveros added. The lawmaker filed last Thursday Senate Resolution No. 128, calling for a Senate investigation into the implementation of UniFAST for what the Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged as “questionable releases.” Quoting from the COA report, Hontiveros said UniFAST had P3.4 billion worth of “delayed and nonsubmissions of billings and documents” to SUCs and local universities and colleges for a period of 20 to 44 months. UniFAST also posted some P1 billion in “unimplemented and unreverted funds” for the student loan program (SLP), and another P1 billion in “delayed release of financial benefits.” “The [SLP] remained unimplemented as of Dec. 31, 2021, or more than four years since the enactment of RA 10931 [and is] largely attributable to the defect in the tripartite memorandum of agreement between the CHEd, UniFAST Board and the Development Bank of the Philippines, particularly the absence of a loan repayment mechanism,” the COA report said.
ACT to COA, Congress: Probe DepEd for ‘insufficient’ learning materials | INQUIRER.NET – The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Wednesday called on the Commission on Audit (COA) and Congress to investigate the Department of Education (DepEd) after receiving complaints of alleged insufficient armchairs and learning materials. “We received reports on armchair shortage; that now monobloc chairs without armrests are what are being delivered in schools, and the supply is still not enough. In a school in La Union, teachers fight over monobloc chairs to secure enough supply for their classes,” said ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua in a statement. ACT said it also received reports about “grave deficiency in available learning materials,” saying that there are textbooks kept in storage that were damaged by floods and by termites. Aside from the alleged shortage of physical resources, Quetua added that there is also inconsistency in the distribution of learning materials and that it is unclear if teachers should be using these textbooks or modules. “Problematiko ito dahil magkaiba ang laman ng textbook at modules. Ang textbook ay nakabatay sa orihinal na kurikulum ng K-12 samantalang ang modules ay nakabatay sa Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs) na ipinatupad sa distance learning. Alin ba talaga ang pag-aaralan ng mga bata? Ano ang ituturo ng mga guro?” said Quetua. (This is problematic because what are contained in the modules and what is on the textbooks are different. The textbooks are based on the original K-12 curriculum while the modules are based on MELCs, which was used for distance learning. Which one will students use? What will teachers use in teaching?) ACT also reported that based on a survey it conducted with 1022 teachers as respondents, 75% said they have insufficient learning materials for their students. “Somebody has to check DepEd’s grave inefficiency in delivering these important teachers’ and learners’ need. We hope that COA and the Congress can do a probe on this,” Quetua said.
On 2,000th day of detention, De Lima laments ‘broken’ justice system | PHILSTAR.COM – Former Sen. Leila de Lima said Tuesday that her continued detention on illegal drugs charges she claims are trumped up is proof that the Philippines has a “broken” justice system. “My continued detention on the basis of evidently and utterly false cases is yet another reminder to the world that the justice system in our country is broken,” De Lima said on the 2,000th day of her detention in a written dispatch from her cell in Camp Crame in Quezon City. She vowed to continue fighting for her “own deliverance from injustice and vindication … in spite of futile attempts to break [her.]” At least three personalities, including a government star witness, have retracted their allegations linking De Lima to illegal drugs and have since admitted that their testimonies were false and were made due to threats. Despite this, government lawyers said they are not dropping charges against De Lima, who has been acquitted in one of three drug cases. The Office of the Ombudsman also recently cleared her in a bribery complaint. “By fabricating spurious charges against me to deplatform and silence me, the former wannabe dictator only proved my point and solidified his status as an oppressor, demonstrating his vindictiveness,” De Lima said, referring to former President Rodrigo Duterte whom she tried investigating in the Senate over his brutal “war on drugs.” “I wait for the day when justice returns in our country,” De Lima said. “In the meantime, #LabanLang (we fight.)”
