Roxas joins Brigada Eskwela

Here are photos that were taken during the Brigada Eskwela in Manuel A. Roxas High School in Scout Chuatoco Street, Brgy. Paligsahan, Quezon City on Monday with Senator Mar Roxas himself, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, helping repair and prepare the school for the upcoming opening of classes in cooperation with the Friends of Mar.

Roxas nails a broken school chair as he participates in the annual Brigada Eskwela maintenance program of the Department of Education. Roxas, chairman of the Senate education committee, joined family members, supporters and staff who started repair work at the Manuel A. Roxas High School in Scout Chuatoco Street, Brgy. Paligsahan, Quezon City on Monday as their contribution to the DepEd's undertaking. The Visayan senator has appealed for more volunteers for the project in the spirit of 'bayanihan'.

Roxas paints a wall as he participates in the annual Brigada Eskwela maintenance program of the Department of Education. Roxas, chairman of the Senate education committee, joined family members, supporters and staff who started repair work at the Manuel A. Roxas High School in Scout Chuatoco Street, Brgy. Paligsahan, Quezon City on Monday as their contribution to the DepEd's undertaking. The Visayan senator has appealed for more volunteers for the project in the spirit of 'bayanihan' and camaraderie.

Below is the video from QTV about Roxas' participation in the Brigada Eskwela:

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 | posted in brigada eskwela, deped, education, korina sanchez, mar roxas, philippines | 0 comments [ More ]

Roxas calls for more volunteers for Brigada Eskwela

Reviewing reports on the first day of the Department of Education's week-long "Brigada Eskwela" Maintenance Week, Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today said more volunteers are needed to show up in public schools nationwide to help do repair and maintenance work to prepare them for the school opening in June.

Roxas himself will lead family members, friends and party mates in the Liberal Party in doing their Brigada Eskwela stint at the Manuel Roxas High School in Scout Chuatoco Street in Barangay Paligsahan, Quezon City tomorrow morning.

"Kahit na tagumpay ang unang araw ng Brigada Eskwela, kailangan pa ng mas maraming kamay para ayusin ang ating mga eskwelahan lalo na't dalawang linggo na lang ay pasukan na," Roxas said.

Roxas, chairman of the Senate education committee, urged citizens and corporations to volunteer for repair and maintenance work in public schools nationwide to help prepare them for the school opening in June.

'Brigada Eskwela' is an annual nationwide endeavor organized by the Department of Education in preparation for the opening of classes in June. Members of the school community come together to do minor repairs and other maintenance work on their schools, including the repainting of classroom walls and roofs, repair of leaking water pipes, boards, broken furniture, cleaning of toilets, and gardening, among others. This year's program will be conducted from May 18-23 in all public elementary and high schools nationwide.

Materials used during the weeklong effort will come from donation from local businesses and other companies as part of their corporate social responsibility programs. With no cash involved, 'Brigada Eskwela' has generated over P2.5 billion worth of donations in-kind and man-hours since it started in 2003.

Roxas stressed the value of having a stake in the public education system under the spirit of "bayanihan" as expressed his faith in improving Philippine education with the goodwill of many Filipinos.

Roxas' network of friends and supporters, called Friends of Mar or FOMs, and longtime fiancee broadcaster Korina Sanchez, will join him tomorrow. Other FOMs will conduct their Brigada Eskwela effort in Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Naga, Camarines Sur, Manila, Cavite, Baguio, South Cotobato, Sorsogon, Tarlac, Lingayen among others. To volunteer in Brigada Eskwela as a Friend of Mar, email friendsofmar@marroxas.net or text 0916-6272010.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 | posted in brigada eskwela, deped, education, korina sanchez, mar roxas, philippines | 0 comments [ More ]

Roxas probes anomalous food program for schoolkids

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today hit the Department of Education for manipulating its bidding requirements to accommodate a favored contractor in its Food-For-School Program that would have benefited hundreds of thousands of indigent pre-school and Grade one students nationwide.

"Isusubo na lang, ninanakaw pa (It’s like stealing from the babe’s mouth)," fumed Roxas, chairman of the Senate committee on education investigating the alleged rigging in the bidding process and the award of close to P1 billion to the same company for the past three years for the supply of sub-standard noodles from Vietnam.

"Huwag nating pabayaan ang mga bata. Lumaban tayo (Let’s find those behind this scheme to cheat our own children. Let’s fight for our children’s welfare)," he stressed.

He noted reports that instant noodles acquired by the Department of Education from JEVERPS Manufacturing Corp. were without additional nutritional value and costs double than what is found in the local market.

JEVERPS have been supplying the instant noodles requirement of the DepEd’s School-Feeding program for since 2006, or for three years now.

In his testimony before Roxas’ committee yesterday, businessman Prudencio Quido Jr. claimed that the DepEd rigged the bidding for "fortified noodles with fresh eggs" in 2007 and “fortified noodles with fresh eggs and malunggay” in 2009 that JEVERPS Manufacturing Corp. won without competition.

"Surprisingly, while these projects were bid out and biddings were actually conducted, there was only one participating bidder/supplier which has been favored at the very outset and this is JEVERPS and no other," Quido said in a sworn affidavit submitted to Roxas’ committee.

Roxas filed Senate Resolution No. 985 to investigate the DepEd’s purchase of 15 million packets of instant noodles costing P284 million for almost 800,000 pre-school and Grade 1 students nationwide.

Quido told Roxas that the government could have lost P170 million in 2007 and another P251 million in 2009 because of the following anomalies in the bidding process:

• While noodles bought in the local market cost only P4.50 for every 55-g packets, the DepEd bought each pack of noodles from JEVERPS P18.00 for every 100-g packet be cause it allegedly contained “fresh egg.”In this year’s school feeding program, the DepEd allegedly plans to buy each packet of noodle for P22.00 for every 100-g packet because it allegedly contain "fresh eggs and malunggay."
• The bidding was designed to favor only one company, JEVERPS, because no other local company packs noodles for 100 grams a piece.
• There was mislabeling of the noodle packs because it claims that each pack contains "fresh egg" a violation of the "terms of reference" that the DepEd imposed in the bidding for the 2007 at 2009 programs.
• Laboratory tests showed the noodle packs actually contained only powdered egg instead of “fortified noodles with fresh egg” in the 2007 program.
• There is no adequate supply of malunggay so each of the 15 million packs of noodles that will be supplied by JEVERPS in 2009 could contain it as required by DepEd.
• JEVERPS has no “license to operate” from the Bureau of Food and Drug (BFAD).

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 | posted in bfad, deped, education, jeverps manufacturing corp., mar roxas, noodles overpricing, philippines, prudencio quido | 0 comments [ More ]

Senator Roxas: Education for all is government's responsibility

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas has filed a resolution seeking an inquiry by the Senate into the success and impact of the Department of Education’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) programs intended to address the special learning needs of marginalized learners.

Roxas, who filed Senate Resolution no. 967, stressed there is a need to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of the ALS programs parallel to its objective of making quality education available for out-of-school youth and adult learners.

"Mahalaga ang edukasyon. Kung may mga tao mang hindi makapasok sa formal education system dahil sa kahirapan, tungkulin ng pamahalaan na maglaan ng alternatibong paraan para makapag-aral sila (Education is important. It is the government’s duty to put in place alternative means for the education of those who are not able to enter the formal education system because of poverty)," he said.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education added: "Sinusuportahan natin ang programa ng Alternative Learning System, kaya nais nating alamin kung naipatutupad ba ito nang tama. (We support the Alternative Learning System, that is why we want to know if this is being implemented properly)."

He said senators should look into how government has carried out its constitutional mandate to "protect and promote the rights of all citizens to quality education at all levels" and to "take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all."

The ALS system was among the workable methods in the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001 (Republic Act 9155) which government could tap to address the special learning needs of out-of-school youths and undereducated adults.

ALS is an independent complete learning system crafted to address the various learning styles and needs of learners. Learners are given full discretion of the kind and method of learning they wish to have, including the use of information technology.

The Visayan senator said aside from assessing the program’s efficacy, the Senate committee should also check the budgetary support given by the government to the Bureau of Alternative Learning System, which has been tasked to oversee the implementation of the ALS programs.

He noted reports that the BALS gets less than one percent of the annual budget allocation given to the Department of Education.

Sunday, April 5, 2009 | posted in alternative learning system, deped, education, mar roxas, philippines | 0 comments [ More ]

Roxas asks gov't agencies to speed up processing of benefits

Senator Mar Roxas has written the Home Development Mutual Fund (PAG-IBIG) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), asking both agencies to provide immediate assistance to their members who suffered enormous losses due to typhoon "Frank"

"Our government must now speed up the processing of the necessary documents so that the thousands of typhoon victims who have lost their homes, property and loved ones can receive some relief to help them rebuild their lives," said Roxas, a former representative of Capiz, which was among the provinces in the Western Visayas region that were ravaged by the storm.

He commended PAG-IBIG, which, in a reply to Roxas' office, has already committed to providing P1.5 billion worth of calamity loans for victims in Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Iloilo.

"I thank PAG-IBIG President Miro Quimbo for his responsiveness to my call for expeditious assistance to the typhoon victims. This will go a long way in helping them, and I hope other government offices follow suit," he said, adding that he will also seek the assistance of the Social Security System (SSS).

In the letter to the Senator, Quimbo said he has instructed the PAG-IBIG branches to accept and expedite processing of calamity loans in the Western Visayas provinces.

Roxas, Liberal Party President, called on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Education (DepEd) and Department of Health (DoH) to provide on-site assistance and coordinate directly with those affected by the typhoon.

The Senator has paid multiple visits to the stricken areas, coordinating relief and rehabilitation efforts, and providing people with basic needs such as food, water and medicines. Several donors from the private sector have also responded to the senator's call for relief goods such as candles, sardines, juice drinks, noodles and bottled water to help the victims.

"The destruction and mounting number of casualties because of typhoon 'Frank' is heartbreaking. We all need to pitch in and help to give rays of hope to those affected by the storm and floods," he said.

Latest reports have pegged the death toll nationwide from "Frank" at 498, of which 416 were from Western Visayas. With regards to the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars, there have been 124 found dead, 62 survivors, and over 600 more still missing.

The total number of displaced people has been pegged at 2.4 million people, or about 2.7% of the country's population, with 1.4 million of these from Western Visayas. 487,412 families nationwide were displaced, and damages have been estimated at P5.5 billion. P2 billion of this accrues from damage to farm lands and infrastructure in Western Visayas.

Sunday, June 29, 2008 | posted in deped, doh, dswd, gsis, mar roxas, nbi, pag-ibig, philhealth, philippines, typhoon frank, visayas | 0 comments [ More ]

Rice crisis a direct threat to Food-For-School recipients, Roxas says

Senator Mar Roxas expressed dismay that over 20,000 grade school students in Eastern Visayas will now stop receiving rice allocations under the food-for-school program of the Department of Education due to the worsening rice crisis.

"The food-for-school program has been successful in improving nutrition and reducing drop-out rates among school children. It is extremely worrisome that the rice crisis now poses a direct threat to the viability of this education program," Roxas said.

"While the government is harping on its rice access card program, what we don't know is that it's also cutting funding for other programs. It is giving rice cards to poor families in Metro Manila while taking away rice allocations that would keep poor children in school in the poorest provinces of the country. We're taking away food from one mouth to put in another. Rice access cards program are under DSWD and DA while the food-for-school program is under DepEd. Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?" he said.

The Liberal Party President said things are bound to get worse before they get better, considering the failed auction of the National Food Authority (NFA) where only one bidder showed up.

Roxas said the failed bid forced the NFA to admit that there was a "tightness of supply" in the world market. He added that this should serve as a fair warning to government to consider long-term solutions to the rice problem.

"First, admit that there is a problem. Secondly, come up with a concrete plan that includes both short-term and long-term solutions to solve the problem. Ang problema, sa unang hakbang pa lang ay hindi na tayo nagpakatotoo," Roxas lamented.

Roxas urged the executive branch to cut public expenditures in other areas in order to sustain the government's food-for-school program.

"Officials serving in the boards of government-controlled and -operated corporations should make the supreme sacrifice of giving up some of their perks as a sacrifice for the country. We can also look into restoring a four-day work week in government so we could save on energy costs," he said.

"More importantly, the revenue collection agencies should increase their collections. Let's do what needs to be done to keep these poor children in school," he said.

The Senate Trade Committee Chairman is also for the expansion of the food-for-work program, where poor families are harnessed to help in their communities. He has misgivings about a rice rationing system, such as the rice access cards, because it could be susceptible to politicking.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 | posted in da, deped, dswd, education, food crisis, mar roxas, nfa, pgma, philippines, president, rice crisis, visayas | 0 comments [ More ]