The Department of Education will examine the recommendations of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the alleged purchase of overpriced laptops in 2021 in a bid to strengthen its procurement process, agency spokesperson Michael Poa said Friday.
He also said DepEd is hoping to resolve the administrative proceedings against some of its officials involved in the controversial procurement within 20 to 30 days, “subject to additional pleadings or motions that may be filed by the parties.”
The Senate Blue Ribbon panel found that the laptops purchased for the Education department in 2021 were overpriced by almost P1 billion, and recommended the filing of charges against former and current officials of DepEd and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
In its 197-page report, however, the committee found no evidence linking former Education Secretary Leonor Briones to the P2.4-billion overpriced laptop issue.
It recommended abolishing the Procurement Service of the DBM, which purchased the laptops on behalf of the DepEd.
The report recommended the filing of administrative and criminal charges against the following:
* Former DepEd undersecretary Alain del Pascua, Undersecretary Analyn Sevilla, former assistant secretary Salvador Malana III, director Abram Abanil, former PS-DBM OIC director Lloyd Christopher Lao, former PS-DBM acting director Jasonmer Uayan, BAC chairman Ulysses Mora, and other members of SBAC 1 and SBAC TWG secretariat and staff, for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act; and
* Sevilla and former executive assistant Alec Ladanga for falsifying public documents.
“We at DepEd will of course look closely into the recommendations and see if there are things that we still have to adopt so we can strengthen the procurement process at DepEd,” Poa said in an interview on dzBB.
He said the department would also cooperate and provide the necessary documentation should the Office of the Ombudsman pursue criminal and administrative charges against former and current DepEd officials.
On the Senate panel’s recommendation of administrative charges, Poa said they were waiting on a parallel investigation that the DepEd was currently conducting, and would be completed in 10 to 20 days.
Asked about Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio’s reaction to the Senate report, Poa said: “She does want to look into our procurement process. When it comes to the cases to be filed, that is a personal liability on the officials’ part. That does not affect the DepEd.”
For the department, Poa said the important thing was to establish proper controls to remove questions and doubts in their procurement process regardless of what happened in the past.
Concerning the recovery of funds used for the laptop procurement, Poa said DepEd would discuss it with its legal office as well as the Office of the Solicitor General as they would serve as their legal counsel in cases where fund recovery was concerned.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko”Pimentel III yesterday sought to hasten the abolition of the PS-DBM as recommended by the Blue Ribbon Committee.
“I agree that this should be expedited,” Pimentel said, noting Congress can abolish the office by law.
He also noted that the Office of the President can issue a document to repeal the presidential issuance that established the PS-DBM.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Report released by its chairman Sen. Francis Tolentino urged “government departments, agencies, offices, instrumentalities, including government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), states universities and colleges (SUCs), and local governments to refrain from delegating procurement tasks.”
Asked if he was amenable to Briones being cleared by the Blue Ribbon, Pimentel said all those whose signatures appear on the wrongly-dated memorandum for the laptop purchase must be included in the investigation.
But the committee report pointed out that Briones may have unwittingly approved the new parameters that increased the unit price of and decreased the quantity of the laptops.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros also agreed with the panel’s findings, especially on the filing of charges, but noted it must not stop there, as “there are other corruption cases that must be also acted upon.”
The Kabataan party-list group welcomed the results of the investigation of the Blue Ribbon panel, saying its action on the matter “firmly exposes the tip of the iceberg” of a pattern of alleged corruption under the past administration, and that it warrants a full-blown investigation on the subject.
“With this, we believe that top brass officials… (under the Duterte administration) should not be spared from accountability from these scandals,” the group said.
“At a time where learning recovery is of an all-time importance, we should not tolerate any form of corruption, especially that which directly siphons funds from our education programs,” Kabataan added.
“Our teachers deserve more than for the equipment they so sorely need amidst an ever-digitizing world to be made subpar in the name of lining the pockets of corrupt officials,” it said.
In August 2022, the Blue Ribbon Committee launched its investigation into DepEd’s purchase of “outdated and pricey” laptops through PS-DBM.
The probe focused on the memorandum of agreement (MOA) used for the procurement and the bidding process that the PS-DBM and the DepEd conducted.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian tagged the laptop procurement deal as “defective” after a DepEd official testified that the MOA was signed only after the invitation to bid was posted and the quotation for the laptops was requested.
In its 2021 annual audit report, the Commission on Audit flagged DepEd for purchasing more expensive laptops than the ones indicated in their budget, which resulted in the procurement of fewer units, depriving over 28,000 teachers of the benefit.