House Assistant Majority Leader and Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Jil Bongalon on Monday exposed what he described as a “conspiracy” behind the bidding of P8 billion worth of laptops and other related equipment for public schools during the time of Vice President Sara Duterte as Department of Education (DepEd) secretary.
Bongalon made the revelation in the course of the House Committee on Appropriations hearing on the P793.18-billion proposed budget of the DepEd for next year.
At the start, Bongalon, a vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, told new DepEd Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara that he may not be able to answer his questions as he would be raising concerns about the procurement of laptops and other equipment for public schools in 2022 and 2023.
The burden of answering these questions fell on Undersecretary for Procurement Gerard Chan, who has taken over from former Undersecretaries Michael Poa and Gloria Mercado.
On the matter of the Vice President’s children’s book, Secretary Angara clarified that the illustrators are employees of the Department but there is no record of them being paid.
“There is no payment made to them for whatever they did. So it’s either they made it gratis or for free or they were paid on the side,” Angara told the Committee.
Poa has joined Duterte in the Office of the Vice President as her spokesperson, while Mercado has availed herself of early retirement. Another DedEd official Bongalon dragged in the procurement mess, former Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas, has resigned.
“There is a conspiracy that happened here in this procurement. There was first bidding and rebidding, but the participants were the same bidders. Those involved in the conspiracy are those sitting in the BAC [bidding and awards committee] and the procurement officials supervising them,” Bongalon said.
Bongalon said that based on the bids submitted during the first bidding, there was a (price) variance of 24 percent, meaning the government stood to save at least P1.6 billion.
Upon Bongalon’s prodding, Chan explained that the first bidding failed because the bidders submitted incomplete documents. As for the price variants, Chan said the bidding participants “maybe corrected their documents and prices might have changed.”
Chan promised to submit all documents pertaining to the procurement of the P8-billion worth of laptops.
During the hearing, the DepEd was also found to have failed to deliver almost P9 billion worth of laptops and other e-learning equipment in 2023.
The department’s director for Information and Communications Technology Service (ICTS) confirmed the Commission on Audit (COA) 2023 report which observed for that year, DepEd only spent over P2.18 billion of its P11.36 billion budget for computers, laptops, smart television sets, and other e-learning equipment.
Director Ferdinand Pitagan was responding to Batangas 2nd District Rep. Jinky Luistro, who asked about the low 19.22 percent utilization rate for the Department’s ICT packages.
“Now, we have this P11 billion budget. You requested this for 2023. Bakit ang disbursement niyo ay P2 billion lang (Why the disbursement only amounts to P2 billion)?” Luistro asked.
Pitagan explained that the 2023 DepEd Computerization Program (DCP) budget was barely spent for the year because DepEd was focusing on the previous year’s (2022) funds. He said the department is playing catch-up to these crucial deliveries.
“Why, therefore, did you request for P11 billion for 2023 if you’re going to say now that your priority is 2022, that’s why you didn’t use the 2023? You know, Mr. Resource Speaker, doon po sa amin sa Batangas, hindi po magkamayaw ang humihingi ng tulong na students, teachers, and even PTA officers lahat ang problema nila ay computers, laptops,” she said.
(…You know, Mr. Resource Speaker, here in Batangas, students, teachers, and even PTA officers who are asking for help can’t complain, all their problems are computers, laptops)
When asked, Pitagan said the current student-to-computer ratio of 1 is to 9, and a teacher-to computer ratio of 1 is to 30.
“That is almost saying impossible to facilitate an e-learning system having one computer for 30 teachers,” said Luistro, who blamed these delivery delays for the dismal performance of the Philippines in the global learning test PISA.
PISA is the Programme for International Student Assessment. Luistro said that the Philippine education standard has remained low over the past five years. She noted that in 2018, out of 79 countries, the country ranked last in Reading and second to the last in Science and Mathematics. In 2023, out of 81 countries, the Philippines ranked 76 in Reading and Mathematics, and 79 in Science.
The congresswoman from Batangas also noted that ICT technologies change quickly and the computers brought several years ago may become obsolete soon.
According to the 2023 COA report, the DepEd Computerization Program (DCP) is designed to upgrade the ICT competencies of students and teachers. State auditors reported a dismal budget utilization rate of 50.07 percent with zero accomplishment for fiscal year 2023, further underscoring the department’s operational failures for that year.
