1 day ago
3
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
August 8, 2025 | 4:36pm
Parents and teachers clean a classroom at an elementary school in Manila on June 13, 2025, ahead of the opening of classes on June 16.
AFP / Jam Sta Rosa
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education is set to deploy 666 new lawyers, legal assistants and procurement officers to its division offices nationwide after the Department of Budget and Management approved the creation and reclassification of plantilla positions to fill long-vacant posts.
The DBM approved DepEd's request on August 1 to create the new plantilla positions across 223 division offices, the education department announced in a news release Friday, August 8.
The new items are the following:
- 47 Attorney III positions
- 187 Legal Assistant I positions
- 214 Administrative Officer IV positions
- 218 Administrative Officer II positions
Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the move would speed up frontline services and ease the workload in understaffed field offices.
“Malaking tulong ito para sa ating field offices na matagal nang kapos sa suporta… magkakaroon tayo ng mga abogado at procurement staff sa bawat SDO. Mas mapapabilis ang serbisyo, at mababawasan ang burnout ng ating mga kawani,” Angara said.
(This is a big help for our field offices that have long lacked support... we will have lawyers and procurement staff in every SDO. Services will be faster, and the burnout of our employees will be reduced.)
DepEd said demand for legal services — such as case resolution, contract review, and client consultations — has long outpaced staffing capacity, with offices often sharing personnel across divisions or regions.
The new items will give 47 small divisions their own full-time legal officer, supported by Legal Assistant I positions in small and medium divisions.
Procurement staff in every SDO
The DBM also approved permanent procurement teams for all division offices, except the four largest divisions that already have them. Procurement tasks are currently assigned as extra duties to existing staff, according to DepEd's news release.
"In addition to legal staffing, the DBM also approved the creation of a dedicated Procurement staff across all SDOs, composed of 214 Administrative Officer IV (SG 15) and 218 Administrative Officer II (SG 11) positions. These will enable SDOs to process and manage procurement functions more efficiently and in compliance with existing regulations," DepEd said in its news release.
DepEd said professional procurement teams are urgent given the department’s top share in the national budget and its large-scale projects, including school building construction, computerization programs, and distribution of learning resources, all of which "require fast and compliant procurement operations."
The department is the country's largest bureaucracy and has been repeatedly criticized over its slow and cumbersome procurement of learning materials, equipment and textbooks.
Last year, Angara ordered Early Procurement Activities across all DepEd offices to award contracts ahead of the fiscal year, with the goal of expediting procurement timelines for items such as textbooks, e-learning equipment, laptops and school furniture. Division offices were tasked to run early bidding for their own projects, including those under the Central Office’s oversight, to avoid bottlenecks and speed up delivery.
