The Department of Education has failed to fully comply with the recommendations made by the Commission on Audit to address the numerous and glaring errors reflected in text books and learning materials found by auditors in 2018.

COA Supervising Auditor Job Aguirre confirmed during the resumption of the House inquiry into the textbook scandal that the audit agency is “not happy” with DepEd’s action on the observations reflected in the 2018 annual audit on the agency.

Probinsyano Ako Partylist Rep. Bonito Singson, chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, called for the congressional investigation on the audit findings in a bid to determine legislative measures that are might be needed to address the controversy

“We do not want our youth to suffer from the mistakes committed by the education establishment as noted by COA. That is why we have to dig deep into this controversy,” stressed Singson as he noted that government spent P254 million in the publication of the so-called "sick books" .

Singson said the House panel will come up with its recommendations that will also cover the controversy surrounding the implementation of Republic Act 8047 that assigned the National Book Development Board the sole task of preparing and publishing text books and learning publications for the country’s students.

Responding to queries coming from Deputy Speaker and 1SAGIP Partylist Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, Aguirre revealed that DepEd has yet to fully comply with the 2018 audit findings for the immediate correction of the numerous errors found in the learning materials distributed to students.

Asked if COA had issued a notice of disallowance on the disbursement of government funds used in procuring the erroneous textbooks and learning materials, Aguirre said it did not.

However, Aguirre assured the House panel that COA is continuously monitoring DepEd’s moves to address the negative audit findings.

During the hearing, Singson sought a clarification from the DepEd on what action it has taken against persons found to have committed serious mistakes in publishing learning materials.

Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said the education department has taken stringent measures to ensure that mistakes will never happen again. A quality assurance team has been formed even as materials are being reviewed by the Philippine Normal College to further filter errors.

DepEd Region III Director May Eclar revealed that there were two incidents of “malicious” errors committed in the region.

The latest is the Mabalacat learning material that contained vulgar words in its description of what an “aswang” is.

After conducting a fact-finding investigation, the DepEd was able to pinpoint responsibility and is currently pursuing charges of neglect of duty against the person.

With regards the Zambales incident, Eclar said that since DepEd does not have any regulatory authority over the private school that committed the error, it merely issued a stern warning of severe action for future mistakes.

However, the private school’s management has terminated the teacher involved in uploading the “malicious” material distributed to students.