The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has recommended the filing of graft and perjury charges against high-ranking officials of the Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Services and the Department of Education (DepEd) who figured in the alleged anomalous purchase of “overpriced” and “outdated” laptops.
Sen. Francis Tolentino, chairman of the blue ribbon panel, also said that based on the 197-paged committee report, the Senate found that the contract supply and delivery of laptop computers for public school teachers in the 2021 project was overpriced by at least P979-million.
Tolentino also said the committee report was signed by 12 senators, including him and the two minority senators, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Risa Hontiveros.
The committee report recommended the filing of charges for violation of Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, against former DepEd Undersecretary Alain del Pascua, Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla, former Assistant Secretary Salvador Malana III, Director Abram Y.C. Abanil, former DBM-PS OIC Executive Director Lloyd Christopher Lao, former PS-DBM OIC Executive Director Jasonmer Uayan, Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) Chairman Ulysses Mora as well as the other members of the SBAC 1 and SBAC technical working group and secretariat whether from DepEd or PS-DBM, and Engr. Marwan Amil.
The panel also recommended that charges be filed against Sevilla and DepEd former executive assistant Alec Ladanga for falsification of public documents under Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code.
Tolentino’s committee also recommended that perjury charges be filed against Sevilla, Pascua, Malana, Lao and Uayan.
But the committee report excluded former DepEd secretary Leonor Briones from the recommendation sheet.
Tolentino said the former DepEd “may have unwittintly approved the new parameters which increased the unit price and decreased the quantity of laptops to be purchased.”
“Nagamit po siya (she was used). Sa ebidensya po na lumabas, wala (siyang liability),” Tolentino said during a press conference on Thursday, January 19 at the Senate.
“The mere mention here, is in effect, an admonition on the part of the blue ribbon directed to former secretary Briones,” he said.
But he said the participation of Pascua in the anomalous laptp procurement deal provided the critical elements which paved the way for the overpricing.
The panel, likewise, also recommended that administrative and disciplinary actions for multiple counts of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service be initiated against the said senior officials.
The committee also urged the Commission on Audit (COA) to issue a notice of disallowance for the overprice in the purcahse of the laptops in total amoutn of at least P979-million agaisnt Sevilla, Pascua and Malana III.
COA, in its 2021 annual audit report, flagged the DepEd for purchasing more costly laptops than the ones indicated in their budget. Over 28,000 teachers were deprived of laptops to use during the Covid-19 pandemic as fewer units were purchased by the agency.