Capitol gives notebooks to DepEd for distribution

CEBU, Philippines - The controversial notebooks of the Provincial Capitol bearing the names and photos of officials will soon be in the hands of their intended beneficiaries, the students.

The Provincial Government finally decided to turn over 1 million notebooks to the Department of Education (DepEd) to be officially distributed to the students in the province.

A ceremonial turnover will be conducted on Monday, said Acting Governor Agnes Magpale.

The P22-million worth of notebooks were stockpiled, waiting for approval from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to be distributed, since it had faces of government officials in its cover.

Most of the notebooks had the face of suspended Governor Gwendolyn Garcia on the front cover while the picture of the late vice governor Greg Sanchez as well as those of the members of the Provincial Board are printed on the back cover.

With this, distribution was halted due to the memorandum of DILG prohibiting names and pictures of government officials on billboards and governments projects.

The Province earlier wrote DILG Secretary Mar Roxas asking for the exemption in the memorandum since they needed to distribute the notebooks already in time for the start of school year 2013.

In order to go around the problem, the Province earlier considered tearing off the cover of the notebooks or covering the notebooks with acrylic.

But Magpale said it would be very costly to paint the notebooks’ cover which would cost around P4 million.

Provincial General Services Office head Eva Encabo said once they schedule with Deped  Schools Division Superintendent for Cebu Province Dr. Arden Monisit for the ceremonial turnover on Monday, they will also see how they can agree on an advisory to Deped and to the recipients that the notebooks would need to be covered before use.

But Magpale said that they were given feedback that the anti-epal memorandum was not a law, therefore they will not be violating any law. She explained that the memorandum was a reminder because of the May 13 elections.

But she said that as far as procurement of the notebook is concerned, she said they would not be made liable since it was done under the administration of Garcia. /JPM (FREEMAN)