Publishing firms told to explain books in Recto

Education Secretary Raul Roco ordered three publishing companies yesterday to explain how some of the textbooks that the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) commissioned them to print found their way to book stalls on C.M. Recto Avenue, Manila.

Roco said that unless they give a satisfactory explanation, DECS would be "strict" on these companies when DECS holds its next textbook bidding this year.

"We’re trying to get to the bottom of this. We had people scour Recto and they were able to buy copies of the textbooks that these companies published for us," he noted.

Roco has already asked Western Police District director Senior Superintendent Nicolas Pacinos Jr. to investigate the anomaly.

He also urged Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta, former head of the Senate Committee on Education, to call for an inquiry since she has been probing the matter.

The companies are Fabi’s Enterprise, publisher of "Science for Everyone 3," at 84 Isarog Street, Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City; Dane Publishing, "Mathematics for Everyday Use 5," of 203 Mindanao Avenue Ext., Proj. 8, Quezon City and Ricsons Enterprise, "Science and Health I," of 277 4th St. Corner 10th Avenue, Grace Park, Caloocan City.

The books were bidded out during the administration of former DECS Secretary Andrew Gonzalez but Roco refused to say if he would be included in the investigation.

"I don’t want to dig in the past. I might be accused of being vindictive. It’s up to the police and Sen. Oreta if they want to investigate him (Gonzalez)," Roco added.

Roco said that DECS managed to buy a copy of each textbook title in Recto for P120 to P140 while their actual price during the bidding process ranged from P60 to P100 apiece.

The brand-new textbooks are marked "Government Property, Not for Sale," but are openly sold in Recto.

"This (anomaly) could have been going on for years. The pilferage could have taken place either at the publisher’s warehouse, during the delivery or in the school. We have yet to establish this," he added.

To prevent a repeat of the anomaly, Roco is set to institute reforms in textbook procurement.

He admitted that textbooks do not have control numbers so the department has no way of determining their origin. There is also no system of inventory at the DECS.

"We’ll require the publishers to print security numbers so we can track down the textbooks. We had no control of the books procured in the past so we’ll now have a monitoring system," Roco maintained. – Sheila Crisostomo and Aurea Calica