SEN. Francis Tolentino yesterday slammed the Philippine Statistics Authority for denying the request of the Blue Ribbon Committee to provide the death certificate of a lawyer who notarized the memorandum of agreement between the Department of Education and the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management concerning the multi-billion peso irregular laptop deal.
Tolentino said a request was made to the PSA last September, during the height of the investigations, for the agency to furnish the committee the death certificate of lawyer Jose Floro Crisologo so they can verify the date of death. The panel’s request was denied due to the Data Privacy Act
He said the Blue Ribbon Committee last week sent a subpoena to the PSA signed by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to compel the agency to furnish the committee a copy of the death certificate of Crisologo but was again denied for the same reason.
The date of the notary public is a material fact to the investigation as it would indicate if the MOA between the DepEd and PS-DBM notarized on February 16, 2021 by Crisologo is legal since there was information that he died before the MOA was notarized.
Tolentino said the Senate Finance Committee, which deliberated the budget of the Data Privacy Commission last Wednesday, said the Data Privacy Act will not apply in the case.
Despite the clarification, Tolentino said no death certificate of Crisologo has reached the panel.
“Up to this date, the PSA has not complied…This is vital because it is a defiance of a duly-issued document coming from the Senate itself. But I have no problem with the budgetary requirements of the PSA. But they should not think that they are above the law. How can you invoke the Data Privacy Act to deny a subpoena issued by the Senate President himself?” Tolentino said.
“If this is not direct contempt, I don’t know what to call it… He (PSA head) has no right to interpret the law. The PSA did not only ridicule the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, but the Senate as a whole,” said Tolentino, a lawyer.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, who defended the proposed P9.7 billion PSA budget, said PSA Administrator Claire Dennis Mapa confirmed that it was the wrong interpretation of existing laws.
Angara said Mapa called out the attention of a certain PSA Director Grande who denied the requests.
He said the PSA emailed a soft copy of the requested document to the Senate last Friday and sent a hard copy last Monday.
“Lessons learned here that there should be proper observance of the law, compliance of a request of a co-equal body. PSA administrator Mapa is apologetic to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee. He assured that they will create measures to see that this will not happen again,” Angara said.
Tolentino also lashed out at the PSA for the delay in implementing the national ID system.
“The PSA has been remiss in its duties. There was a news report last Oct. 21 which says the PSA chief is blaming the delay due to the influx of registrants. How can the PSA be surprised with the high volume of registration when they are in-charge of the national census? They should have anticipated that,” Tolentino said.
Tolentino said he does not believe the high volume of registration was the real reason for the delay, saying there was a report from the Commission on Audit in 2021 that the PSA awarded the supply contract to a contractor “with inadequate resources.”
