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Tolentino: 'Conspiracy still there' in DepEd overpriced laptops issue

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Anjo Bagaoisan, ABS-CBN News

(2nd UPDATE) The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has wrapped up its investigation into the procurement of supposed overpriced and outdated laptops by the government procurement service for the education department. The committee chair is convinced a conspiracy was behind the allegedly anomalous purchase.Blue Ribbon Committee chairperson Sen. Francis Tolentino believes a &quot;conspiracy angle&quot; can still be gleaned in the flagged procurement of 38,000 so-called overpriced and outdated laptops for teachers, which the committee has been investigating for 2 months now.At Thursday’s final hearing on the flagged purchase of over 38,000 laptops by the procurement service of the Department of Budget and Management, the committee reviewed screenshots of messages among the task force committee that handled the purchase.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/29/22/3-moas-hound-deped-laptop-project">3 MOAs hound DepEd laptop project</a></li></ul>Based on the messages, the memorandum of agreement for the purchase had not yet been finalized by May 2021, despite the actual MOA being dated in February or 4 months earlier.Tolentino told reporters after the hearing that the conversation showed the purchase had been planned this way. However, he said he cannot yet pinpoint the role of what he said were the conspirators in the purchase.Meanwhile, the Philippine audit commission presented a video of its parallel simulation test conducted between the procured Dell laptop and an HP-brand laptop with a faster processor but similar market price.The tests showed the procured laptop took a longer time to boot up, open applications such as Microsoft Office and videoconferencing app Zoom, and even shut down.The Commission on Audit also stood by its findings that the procured laptops bought for P58,300 apiece were more expensive by up to 159% compared to the same laptops sold in the market.The amount was sourced from the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan-2, which original intention was to buy mobile phone loads for public school students to support their virtual classes needs.The COA added the DepEd and the PS-DBM previously bought laptops with the same specs or faster but for cheaper prices.However, Atty. Bong Bernas, director of ICT distributor VST ECS Philippines, said the procured laptop had still met the minimum standard for speed and other specs, despite being slower.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/15/22/deped-official-ex-ps-dbm-exec-contradict-on-teachers-laptop-moa">DepEd official, ex-PS-DBM exec contradict on teachers’ laptop MOA</a></li></ul>Dell EMC Philippines country manager Ronnie Latinazo also said it was misleading to compare the processor of the rival laptop since this was not the specs offered by HP during their bid.Meanwhile, COA said it found 1,678 laptops or 70% of the 2,378 laptops assigned to the DepEd’s Central Office remained undistributed as of last August.A teachers group and the Blue Ribbon committee also disclosed that several non-teachers were given laptop units intended for use by teachers in their classes.The Blue Ribbon Committee called on those who wanted to rebut or make additional statements on the issue to email these to them by early November.<div>&#x27;DAMAGING&#x27;</div>Earlier at the hearing, DepEd and PS-DBM officials were confronted by the panel about portions of their Viber exchanges regarding the laptop project, which senators see as another evidence that the project was undertaken without a legitimate memorandum of agreement that would serve as its legal cover.For Senate Minority Leader Aquilino &quot;Koko&quot; Pimentel III, those linked to the issue have a lot of explaining to do.“The &#x27;facts&#x27; are becoming clearer. A lot of explanations still need to be done by the actors involved. I advise them to submit their respective memorandum and explain the &#x27;weirdness&#x27; of the flow of this particular government transaction,” Pimentel said.Tolentino said the DepEd’s decision to use the P2.4 billion Bayanihan 2 budget for student loads to teachers’ laptops is also highly questionable.The COA presentation, he added, is also &quot;damaging.&quot;&quot;Damaging &#x27;yung presentation ng COA kasi pinakita nila speed, &#x27;yung price at &#x27;yung lahat na… it was definitely planned, &#x27;yung conspiracy angle is still there. Hindi ko masabi kung ano-ano &#x27;yung role ng mga conspirators,” Tolentino said.A plunder charge against those involved in the project is highly possible, Tolentino said.Those linked to the controversy are given 15 days to submit their reply which, in turn, will be read and studied by the panel members.Tolentino is looking at releasing the Blue Ribbon committee report before Christmas.<div>—with a report from Sherrie Ann Torres, ABS-CBN News</div><div> RELATED VIDEO</div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2299911" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

The Commission on Audit also stood by its findings that the procured laptops bought for P58,300 apiece were more expensive by up to 159% compared to same laptops sold in the market.

Tolentino: 'Conspiracy still there' in DepEd overpriced laptops issue

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Tolentino: 'Conspiracy still there' in DepEd overpriced laptops issue

Anjo Bagaoisan,

ABS-CBN News

Published October 20, 2022 05:46 PM PHT

|

Updated October 20, 2022 09:51 PM PHT

Read More:

DepEd

Department of Education

Senate

Blue Ribbon Committee

laptop

Francis Tolentino

PS-DBM

Department of Budget and Management

overpriced laptops

Commission on Audit

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