THE Senate Blue Ribbon Committee yesterday recommended the filing of criminal and administrative charges against former and current officials of the Department of Education and Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management over the “pricey” laptops for public school teachers’ online classes at the height of the pandemic.
In a 197-page report, Sen. Francis Tolentino, panel chairman, said the more than 39,000 units of laptops purchased in 2021 were overpriced by P979,359,873.74. He said the amount should be returned in favor of the National Teachers Trust Fund to support the medical and educational needs of public school teachers and their children.
Aside from Tolentino, the panel members who signed the recommendations were Senators Ronald dela Rosa, Christopher Go (with reservations), Sherwin Gatchalian, Imee Marcos, Raffy Tulfo, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Risa Hontiveros and Aquilino Pimentel III (who will both interpellate), Grace Poe, and Joel Villanuvea. Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada dissented.
Education spokesman Michael Tan Poa said the department will cooperate with the Office of the Ombudsman if it pursues a case against sitting DepEd officials.
The committee said there was sufficient basis “to believe” that the involved education and budget officials conspired to facilitate and/or generate an overprice that was “inexcusable.”
“While they may seemingly act separately, concerted acts were evident to create an opportunity for the favored bidders to submit bloated and excessive bids leading to the purchase of the laptops,” the committee report said.
Recommended to be charged for violation of Section 3 (e) of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act were former Undersecretaries Alain del Pascua and Annalyn Sevilla, former assistant secretary Salvador Malana III, and Director Abram Abanil, all from the DepEd; and former PS-DBM officer-in-charge Lloyd Christopher Lao, former OIC Jasonmer Uayan, Ulysesses Mora, and Engineer Marwan Amil, all from the PSBM; and other members of the special bids and awards committee (SBAC) from the DepEd or PS-DBM.
Pascua, Sevilla and Malana, from the DepEd; and Lao, Uayan, Mora, and other members of the SBAC were recommended to be charged for violation of Section 3 (g) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Recommended to be charged for falsification of documents and violation of Section 3 (a) of RA 3019 were Sevilla and former DepEd executive assistant Alec Ladanga while Sevilla, Pascua, Malana, Lao, and Uayan were recommended to be charged for multiple perjury.
The panel also recommended the filing of multiple counts of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against all of them.
The committee recommended that a Notice of Disallowance be issued by the Commission on Audit for the P979 million overprice against Sevilla, Pascua, and Malana.
Recommended charged for violation of PD No. 1445 or the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines were Sevilla, Pascua, Malana, Lao, Uayan, and other concerned DepEd and PS-DBM officials.
Tolentino said Former DepEd secretary Leonor Briones was not included in the recommended charges, with the panel convinced she was just “used” and has no legal liability.
“She has no legal liability. Speculation is different from what came out during the hearing.
Let us just set aside opinions,” Tolentino said in a press conference.
Tolentino said the recovery of the more than P979 million will be executed by the Sandiganbayan.
The recommendations to file charges against the officials were based on the findings of the committee after it conducted five hearings.
The panel found that the repeated changes by DepEd in the use and allocation of the P2.4 billion from tablets to mobile connectivity loads for students and then to laptops for teachers is “highly arbitrary, unjustified, improper, and not beneficial to DepEd teachers and students” and that the outsourcing of DepEd to PS-DBM is against the Government Procurement Act since the education department “has the capability to undertake procurement.”
The panel also established that the procurement was questionable since the Memorandum of Agreement entered into by the two departments on February 16, 2012 “was antedated” to May 28, 2021, making the transaction “irregular and questionable.”
It was also established that the adjustment of purchase price — from P35,036.50 to P58,300 — led to less laptops being purchased and the departments “caused grave and undue injury and prejudice to the DepEd and our public school teachers” when they purchased the Dell Latitude 3420 with Intel Celeron 1.8 GHs processor, well below specifications stated in the bidding documents.
The laptops were given to a large number of non-teaching personnel (around 12 percent) which defeated its purpose to ensure that teachers will have the necessary tools to conduct online classes.
The panel also recommended that the PS-DBM be abolished and let government agencies “conduct their own procurement” and amend RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Act to provide transparency and accountability for joint venture agreements in participating in public biddings and during the planning stages.
It also said that COA must conduct a special audit fraud to examine the various accounts and financial documents in connection with the purchase of pricey laptops, and for the Anti-Money Laundering Council to check the bank accounts of the officials involved in the procurement.
It recommended the issuance of the proper Immigration Lookout Bulletin against those concerned “when necessary and as provided by law and existing regulations.”
Although he and Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte have yet to read the Senate report, Poa said the department will cooperate with concerned agencies.
“DepEd will cooperate with proceedings that are to take place, if they need documentation on the side of DepEd. We are one with the Senate to improve the procurement process,” Poa said in an online briefing.
He said the department is also conducting internal proceedings against its officials who signed on the changes in the laptop specifications.
Poa also said Duterte is committed to transparency and accountability and wants the DepEd to plug gaps in its procurement processes.
“So, we appreciate the investigation conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee. As to their findings and recommendations, we at DepEd will consider those findings and recommendations so that we can also strengthen our internal controls in terms of procurement,” Poa said, adding Duterte “takes seriously” the procurement processes and the reforms needed to ensure transparency and accountability. — With Ashzel Hachero
