Ben Madilynn
FIVE months past the target delivery deadline of 125,000 school kits worth P104 million, the Local School Board (LSB) remains uncertain whether all items have been delivered and properly received from the supplier.
The supplier, Scarabus Inc., which has an address at No. 26 Makaturing Street, Manresa, Quezon City, Metro Manila, was given 120 days to deliver all the items, 90 to 120 days from the date they received the notice to proceed from the City Government.
The notice to proceed was received by the representative of Scarabus on December 4, 2023, and the 120-day delivery deadline is supposed to end in April, which is still three months away from the start of classes last July 29, 2024.
Lawyer Kimberly Esmena, LSB executive director, said in a phone interview on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, that the agency started receiving school kits last April, however, she was not certain if the school kits delivered were already completely set.
This was contrary to her earlier statement that all the items were already here but kept in the storage facility of the supplier since the volume of the items could not be accommodated in the city government storage facility.
She explained that the LSB, at that time, was focused on the preparations for Cebu City to host the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) in April and the Palarong Pambansa in July.
She said that arrival procurements for Cviraa and Palaro have coincided with the delivery of the school kits, which she reiterated was not prioritized.
Delay
On Sept. 6, Acting Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia admitted to SunStar Cebu that there was a delay in the delivery of school kits from the supplier’s side.
Garcia, on July 29, promised that it would only take one month for the City to complete the distribution of the school kits, however, almost two months since the classes started, the LSB has yet to finish the distribution of the school kits to 127 public elementary schools.
Esmena told SunStar Cebu on Sept. 11 that around 11 out of 127 public elementary schools in Cebu City have yet to receive their school kits from the City Government, which is to be completed this week.
On Friday, Sept. 12, Garcia led the ceremonial turnover of the school kits to more than 9,000 elementary students at Lahug Elementary School, Camp Lapu-Lapu Elementary School, and Oprra Elementary School.
On Wednesday, Sept. 18, Garcia distributed more than 7,500 school kits to kindergarten to Grade six students at the Cebu City Central School, Pasil Elementary School, Sawang Calero Elementary School, and Don Carlos Gothong Elementary School.
The kits include school bags, pens, pencils with erasers, notebooks, long plastic envelopes, plastic rulers, and other supplies.
