Textbooks for public schools being sold openly on Recto

Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta charged yesterday that public school textbooks marked "Government Property, Not for Sale" are being sold openly on C. M. Recto Avenue in Manila even while public schools are reeling from a shortage of textbooks.

"While the government spends hundreds of millions of pesos each year to address the textbook shortage, syndicates in apparent cahoots with erring public officials have been cheating poor school children of their right to quality education," she said at a press conference yesterday.

Education Secretary Raul Roco confirmed that some public school textbooks with "Government Property" markings were being sold on Recto Avenue, but he contended that the textbooks were pilfered or stolen by petty thieves.

"We asked the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate this last month and some petty thieves had been arrested. No education official was involved," Roco said.

Oreta, former chairman of the Senate committee on education, however, said there was cause for alarm for the sale of public school textbooks, and called for an investigation by the police, the NBI and the Senate.

"This is alarming. Government allocates more than half-a-billion pesos each year to procure textbooks, yet schools complain they do not have enough. Now, we find out that the books that should have been given for free to public school students end up being sold in Recto along with fake diplomas, birth certificates and marriage contracts," she lamented.

Oreta said she is filing an appropriate resolution in the Senate so that the chamber may come up with the appropriate legislation addressing this problem.

She said that her office had received several complaints from parents asking why public schools claim to lack textbooks, which should be provided free to students, and yet these are sold openly in Recto.

She cited a parent who complained that she spent about P500 buying "Math for Today’s Children," "Uliran I," "Huwaran Ka Batang Pilipino I" and "Pilipino sa Ugali at Asal." The parent said that most of the textbooks she found on Recto Avenue were marked "Government Property, Not for Sale."

"I am certain that these textbooks would not have found their way in Manila’s streets without the connivance of some unscrupulous government personnel," Oreta said.

Roco, however, contended that the NBI investigation has not uncovered any participation of education officials in the sale of textbooks in Recto.