DOJ tells DepEd: PEAC is still a private entity

Department of Justice facade. PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK

MANILA, Philippines — The Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) is still a private entity.

This is the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) response to the Department of Education’s (DepEd) request to clarify PEAC’s status.

According to the DOJ, “DepEd stated that PEAC, being a government instrumentality, emanates from its creation by an executive order as a committee under the Office of the President.” DepEd also said PEAC is “functioning as a government instrumentality, not a private corporation.”

In its inquiry, DepEd referenced a 2020 memorandum from former Education Secretary Leonor Briones to then-President Rodrigo Duterte, and a letter from Vice President and former Education Secretary Sara Duterte to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. dated September 27, 2022.

According to DepEd, both documents outline that the PEAC should be considered a public instrumentality.

DepEd’s stance on the legal personality of the PEAC aligns with the perspective shared by the Commission on Audit (COA) regarding PEAC’s public nature, as elucidated in COA’s 2018 Performance Audit Report.

However, in a five-page opinion, DOJ Undersecretary Raul Vasquez reaffirmed that the PEAC is a private entity, citing executive orders that created the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE) which designated PEAC as its trustee.

“After a careful review of relevant laws and jurisprudence, we reiterate our position that PEAC is a private entity. Executive Order (EO) No. 1561, series of 1968, as amended by EO No. 150, series of 1994, constituted as an irrevocable trust fund, the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE),” Vasquez said in a letter.

The DOJ further noted that “PEAC shall administer, manage, and supervise the operations of the FAPE” as its trustee, making it a private entity.

“Among other things, the PEAC is charged with the duty and responsibility to set the investment policy of the FAPE, provide for the receiving and processing of projects sought to be financed by the FAPE, make all decisions on the use of its income and capital gains, including final action on individual applications for grants and/or loans, and perform such acts and things as may be necessary, proper or conducive to the purpose and objectives of the FAPE and of its programs,” the DOJ added.

According to Vasquez, this is not the first time that the issue of whether PEAC is a public or private entity was raised before the DOJ, citing an opinion dated January 14, 1969.

“It is evident from an examination of the said project agreement and executive order that the Fund created thereunder is merely a ‘trust fund’ and the committee, to administer the same, a ‘trustee.’ No intention or attempt to establish a government agency or instrumentality or to constitute the committee members as public officers is discernible from the terms of the said agreement and executive order,” the 1969 opinion stated.

Moreover, the DOJ argued that while PEAC was constituted through an executive order, it is not automatically considered as a government agency or a public instrumentality.

“The constitution of the PEAC by an Executive Order, by itself, does not automatically render it as a government agency or instrumentality under the general administrative supervision of the Office of the President pursuant to the 1987 Constitution and the Administrative Code,” DOJ’s statement read.

“PEAC does not also fall within the purview of the term ‘instrumentality’ as defined under the Administrative Code,” it added.

READ: Expanded GASTPE coverage pushed