The findings of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the purchase of overpriced laptops were welcomed by teachers’ groups on Thursday, Jan. 19.
In separate statements, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines and Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) welcomed the findings of the Senate and called for more support for the country’s teaching personnel.
ACT, in particular, welcomed the recommendations of the Senate to file charges against top officials involved in the overpricing of DepEd laptops, recover the overpriced amount, and allow this support to be used for teachers.
“Since day 1 that the anomaly was exposed by the Commission on Audit, we have been pressing for accountability as the misuse of funds is a grave injustice to us teachers who are forced to incure loans to buy laptops for our teaching duties,” ACT said.
“We hope that this will be a start to unearthing more anomalies in the use of public funds so that the more of taxpayers' money will be utilized for social services, and discourage public officials from engaging in corrupt practices,” the group added.
As the Senate hearing had also exposed the “dismal support” of the government to teachers, ACT said that it should prompt them to take “sincere efforts in providing for the teaching needs of our teachers, starting with augmenting the funds that will be recovered to provide laptop to every teacher.”
TDC, for its part, also welcomed this development.
“We actually expected these findings as we all witnessed the public hearings conducted by the Blue Ribbon Committee,” TDC National Chairperson Benjo Basas said.
“The officials involved will now have their chance to defend themselves in the proper forum,” he added.
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https://mb.com.ph/2023/01/19/deped-to-strengthen-internal-controls-procurement-process-after-senate-findings-on-overpriced-laptops/