COA flags DepEd’s P5.69 billion school feeding program

MANILA, Philippines — Schools in several regions failed to deliver the Department of Education (DepEd)’s P5.69-billion feeding program to students last year over lapses that led to the delivery of moldy, insect-infested nutribuns, rotting food items, unsanitary packaging and mislabeled manufacturing and expiry details, an annual state audit showed.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said that in 2023, Vice President Sara Duterte’s final year as DepEd secretary, the defective food items were reported in school division offices in Aurora, Bulacan, Misamis Oriental, Iligan and Quezon City.

State auditors said pests or insects were found inside the karabun/milky buns and squash nutribuns in the division of Aurora, home province of Duterte’s successor, Secretary Sonny Angara.

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

Misamis Oriental’s division office saw 1,001 pieces of nutribun returned to suppliers for replacement “due to the presence of molds and discoloration on the bread, one to two days before the expiry dates.”

Iligan’s division, meanwhile, saw the expiry date on the individually packed food as expiring three days earlier than the expiry label on the boxes they came in.

Meanwhile, Quezon City’s division complained of poor packaging and delivery of food items that were smaller or lighter than what the contract specified.

The COA also flagged Quezon City for distributing more than the required quantity to students while other food items were not distributed as scheduled.

Meycauayan and Bulacan, meanwhile, did not do feeding activities daily.

Aside from these, 21 division offices nationwide did not receive food products on time: Mandaluyong, Pasig, Ifugao, Baguio, Benguet, La Union, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, Camarines Sur, Zamboanga, Bukidnon, Valencia, Malaybalay, Tagum, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Agusan del Norte, Butuan, Cabadbaran, Surigao and Surigao del Norte.

DepEd’s school-based feeding program (SBFP), allocated with P5.69 billion, was intended to provide students with hot meals and milk to enhance their health and nutrition values to boost their school performance and health.

COA called out DepEd to