Ben Madilynn
THE Cebu City Government is playing catch-up in the delays of the distribution of the school kits to around 120,000 elementary students in all public schools in 80 barangays, more than a month after the opening of 2024-2025 classes.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, Assistant City Administrator Maru Lubino told SunStar Cebu that among the reasons for the delays was the “sheer” numbers of student-beneficiaries of the school kits that affect the storage, the coordination, and the scheduling of the distribution with the various public schools.
“Ongoing man ang atung distribution ing-ana as scheduled in coordination with DepEd (Department of Education) and the Local School Board (LSB). Ang kuan lang ana kay we need to sort out ang pagpagawas bitaw kay single warehouse ra ana amoa, unya daghan baya kaayo, we are talking about 110,000 kits,” Lubino said.
She added that the LSB has assured her that the distribution of all school kits will be completed by next week or the week after.
The school kits included school bags, ballpens, pencils, notebooks, and others.
Lubino clarified that she had no exact figures as to the number of students who had already received the school kits, as she was still waiting for the official report from the LSB.
She said that among the challenges in the distribution was the usage of the public school facilities as billeting quarters during the 2024 Pasigarbo sa Sugbo last month.
“Dili pud makapasalig nga i-store didto tungod sa ka gamay sa atung warehouse, gi-timing lang gyud nga just in time sa school opening,” she said.
“But everyday kay ga-sige gyud mi nag-distribute sa school kits. Ang pagpagawas lang bitaw, pag-sort, sa number of students, and the volume of students involved nato compared sa other agencies or LGUs, mao na ang naka-factor sa kadugay,” she added.
Lubino said that several public schools requested a ceremonial program for the turnover of the school kits, which requires coordination with the DepEd-Cebu City Division and the LSB.
This was the first time for the Cebu City Government to distribute school kits since the pandemic in 2020, Lubino said.
“So naa pa gyud issues in terms sa warehousing, distribution, sorting, and the sheer number of the school kits,” she said.
On July 29, Acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia announced that it would only take one month for the Cebu City Government to distribute the school supplies for around 120,000 elementary students in all public schools in the city.
On Aug. 2, around 11,000 public elementary students from Alaska Mambaling Elementary School, Mambaling Elementary School, Punta Princesa Elementary School, and Don Vicente Rama Elementary School received school kits, which Garcia commenced the distribution.
He was accompanied by Cebu City Councilor Franklyn Ong and Phillip Zafra, while Garcia left a message encouraging the pupils to prioritize studying.
Lubino told SunStar Cebu that on Friday, Sept. 6, the acting mayor would lead the distribution of the school kits to the student-beneficiaries at the Pardo Elementary School in Barangay Pardo.
With the surplus stocks, Lubino said that the City Government is eyeing to distribute a new set of school kits to elementary students at the Barangay Labangon following a fire incident.
She said that these beneficiaries had already received their school kits, however, they were destroyed or damaged in a fire incident at Bugnay 2, Sitio Lutaw-Lutaw, Barangay Labangon.
The school supplies were part of the 2023 budget allocation, however, Lubino explained that delays in the procurement process and the time constraint in the receiving of the school kits and distribution in the last year were no longer feasible.
It prompted the City Government to defer the distribution of the school kits for the school year 2024-2025.
“Per the 2023 Purchase Order, there are about 125,000 school kits. But per the list of students DepEd gave, there are only around 100,000 student beneficiaries,” Lubino said.
She added that an estimate of P110 million was allocated to the procurement of these school kits.
“Late na siya naabot ang supplies. It did not make sense to distribute nga late na kaayo, nag-sugod na ang klase. And we also gave enough time to the supplier to complete the deliveries,” she said.
“Dili man sad namo ma-disposed ang mga kits kung dili namo makuha ang exact numbers (of student) from the DepEd side,” she added.
