Photo Release

White elephant in the making?: Sen. Nancy Binay, during Thursday’s virtual hearing of the Finance Subcommittee D Thursday, October 7, 2021, on the proposed 2022 budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) and its attached agencies, asks whether the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTFELCAC) coordinated with the Department of Education (DepEd) in the construction of school buildings in barangays supposedly “cleared” of communist insurgency under the NTFELCAC and the Department of Interior and Local Government’s Barangay Development Program. Binay expressed fear that the school buildings the NTFELCAC and the DILG would construct would end up as “white elephant” projects if the DepEd could not provide teaching personnel and materials since there is no fund for these projects. Reports said that for this year, a total of P16.4 billion was allocated by the national government for Barangay Development Program, P569 million of which was allocated for school buildings. Education Usec. Alain Pascua said that of the 822 “liberated” barangays, 789 barangays have 1,731 schools already. Binay further said she saw duplications in the school building projects under the Barangay Development Program and the DepEd’s “Last Mile School Program.” (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)