• THERESA MAE DULMAN
The distribution of school supplies in Bacolod City has been moved to September, a delay that Councilor Al Victor Espino, committee chair for education, apologized for.
In an interview, Espino said that the city will hold a bidding for the school supplies on September 5, and they expect to begin the rollout in the third week of the month.
The councilor stated that the process will adhere to the new procurement law.
“Apologies, I accept full responsibility since I said that we will deliver it on time, however, constrained by the new procurement law, so, I accept full responsibility,” Espino said.
The delay in distributing school supplies in Bacolod is due to the implementation of the Republic Act No. 12009 as the New Government Procurement Act of 2024 that modernizes the previous Government Procurement Reform Act.
According to the ordinance, a P15 million budget was allocated for the school supplies, but a total of P29 million was spent on 72,000 pupils.
Espino said that after the first delay, they timelined the late August distribution. They originally scheduled the distribution of supplies for the opening of classes last June.*
