DAVAO del Norte 2nd District rep. Alan Dujali is pushing for an investigation, in aid of legislation, on the utilization of the Special Education Fund.

Dujali filed House Resolution 1131 enjoining the House Committees on Public Accounts and Local Government to spearhead the inquiry.

The solon reminded in his resolution that according to law, the proceeds of the SEF shall be automatically released to the local school boards provided that in case of provinces, shall be divided equally between the provincial and municipal school boards.

It shall be allocated for the operation and maintenance of public schools, construction and repair of school buildings, facilities and equipment, educational research, purchase of books and periodicals, and sports development.

Despite the perennial problem of shortage of classroom, books, teachers and other basic need in schools, the Department of Finance reported the utilization rate of SEF from 2017 to 2022 ranges only from 55 to 63 percent.

Thus, the solon said there is a need to uncover the root cause of the underutilization and investigate the possible inapt applications of the SEF, in the interest of maximizing the local government budget allocated for the development of schools.