Close to 800 sets of school supplies funded by the Cebu Provincial agovernment were recovered in a junk shop in Mandaue City. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / Capitol PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines —A Capitol employee has a lot of explaining to do after he was discovered to have allegedly sold close to 800 sets of school supplies to a junk shop in Barangay Canduman, Mandaue City.
Bernard Calderon, chief of the Provincial General Services Office (PGSO), said the employee is a staff of the PGSO detailed in the province-owned Hope Center in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City.
The Hope Center is one of the places utilized by the PGSO to store items which are due for distribution.
Calderon said the school supplies found in the junk shop were part of the batch procured by the provincial government that were due for distribution when classes resumed last June 2019.
It was given a P14.9 million funding by the province under the Local School Board.
Each set of school supplies consists of one notebook, one pad paper, and a pencil enclosed in a plastic envelope.
The items were meant to be distributed to public elementary school students in Cebu province.
According to Calderon, the employee admitted during their initial investigation that he pulled out the items from the Hope Center on the first week of July 2019.
“Somebody supposedly instructed him to clear the items from the Hope Center. In other words, nothing should be left behind in the center, ” said Calderon.
Calderon said they received a tip that province-funded items were sold at a junk shop in Barangay Canduman.
When they followed up on Friday, the PGSO team recovered the school supplies as well as books on the history of the different towns.
Calderon said the employee, who has served the Capitol for about 30 years, is now on floating status pending the internal investigation and review of the Committee on Discipline and Investigation (Codi).
The recovered school supplies, Calderon said, will be distributed to the schools that have not received supplies for this school year.
Calderon said the employee earned P4,000 from selling the items which has a total value of P34,000. / celr