No proof of payment for DepEd personnel who drew 'Isang Kaibigan'

MANILA, Philippines — There is no official record of payment to the two Department of Education employees that Vice President Sara Duterte tapped to be illustrators for her self-authored children's book "Isang Kaibigan," which she launched during the national reading month last year. 

Education Secretary Sonny Angara shared this during the House appropriations committee's deliberation of the department's proposed P748-billion budget for 2025 on Monday, September 2.

"There is no payment made to them for whatever they did. So it's either they made it gratis or for free or they were paid on the side," Angara said in response to Rep. Rodge Gutierrez (1-Rider Partylist)'s question on whether the illustrators were from DepEd.

DepEd's press release for the launch of the 16-page book in November 2023 names Janina Simbillo and Joseph Caligner of DepEd's public affairs service as the book illustrators. 

The education secretary, who replaced Duterte on July 19, confirmed that Simbillo and Caligner are job order employees at DepEd. 

Both employees produced illustrations for Duterte's book "not in their official capacities," Dennis Legaspi, Angara's media relations chief, told Philstar.com in a message.

Gutierrez said the vice president's involvement of DepEd personnel in creating her book, which was allotted P10 million in the Office of the Vice President (OVP)'s proposed budget for 2025, is "something to note." 

However, DepEd officially had "no role in the production, development and printing of the Isang Kaibigan book," said DepEd Undersecretary Gina Gonong. 

Gonong explained that they only saw the book during the culmination of the Araw ng Pagbasa (Day of Reading) at Esteban Abada Elementary School in Quezon City in November 2023, when Duterte brought out the book to read it to select Grade 3 students.  

Printing each copy of the book will cost the government at most P50, based on the OVP's estimates. The OVP plans to distribute 200,000 copies of the book for free to children in remote areas.