This case study summary reflects on some of processes, mechanisms, actors and activities at play at various stages and levels of the programme, which made it possible for civil society monitoring to cover all the Textbook Delivery Programme’s possible vulnerabilities to corruption and inefficiency. It attempts to unbundle processes at every level, and measure the intensity of the actions/tactics per level using vertical integration as a framework for analysis.
In the 1990s, the Philippines government was corrupt, and the Department of Education among the worst offenders. In high schools, the shortage of textbooks was so great that eight children had to share a single copy. After Congress passed the Government Procurement Reform Act, the education department set to work to provide the right number of high-quality textbooks to the nation’s schools. A crucial aspect was mobilising civil society NGOs to check that suppliers were delivering what they promised, a key monitoring initiative being Textbook 1-2-3.
In 2001 there were a plethora of reports, disclosing that billions of pesos were lost in textbook scams, corruption in procurement, ghost projects in textbook delivery and school-building construction. In that year, G-Watch reviewed public sector performance in two key areas: textbook delivery and school-building construction.
After round of monitoring of school building projects (SBPs) under the Bayanihang Eskwela, G-Watch has persistently encountered issues on allocation. This led G-Watch to inquire about the standard involving allocation.
The Government Watch (G-Watch) of Ateneo School of Government has implemented Bayanihang Eskwela since 2005. The program is a community-based monitoring of the government’s school-building projects that aims to ensure that the right quality of school building projects are implemented at the right time where it is needed most.
This policy study aims to identify key issues in the implementation of the government’s school building program, focusing on the DepEd-led School Building Program for schools experiencing acute classroom shortage and the DPWH enforced Regular School Building Program which is in the ambit of Republic Act No. 7880 or more commonly known as the Roxas Law.