DepEd’s good news, for a change
What a difference leadership makes!
The Department of Education (DepEd) has recently acquired 172,654 laptops for public school teachers and administrative personnel at a lower unit price that saved government P1.4 billion through public bidding.
The P7.4 billion procurement is part of DepEd’s efforts to equip educators with digital tools, this time an Apple MacBook Neo laptop scheduled for deployment from November this year to March 2027.
“For the longest time, our teachers have carried the heavy personal burden of buying their own laptops or maintaining outdated equipment just to keep up with lesson plans,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara said.
The latest procurement brings to 231,725 the number of laptops awarded under DepEd’s Computerization Program for teachers nationwide. Of this number, 169,008 are MacBook Neo units while 62,717 are Windows-based laptops.
“Along with these laptops, we are also providing assistance and training to help [teachers] make the most of them in teaching,” President Marcos said on Monday when he led the nationwide rollout of the computers, starting in Dagupan, Pangasinan. He added that government would ensure that schools have reliable internet connection so teachers can make full use of the device.
Outdated and overpriced
The laptops are expected to benefit around 5,000 students and 312 school personnel by “provid[ing] teachers with the tools they need for work, [thus] ensuring that our children are learning better,” the President said.
It’s a good deal not just for learners, but more so for taxpayers who are definitely getting their money’s worth this time. In a statement on Tuesday, DepEd said it secured the MacBook Neo units at approximately P43,000 each, or about P6,900 below the model’s suggested retail price of P49,900.
The package also includes a five-year warranty, significantly longer than the standard one-year retail warranty, as well as built-in productivity tools, delivery and logistics, and professional development for recipients.
Contrast this with the questionable laptop purchase during the term of DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones in 2021, with the computers later deemed outdated and overpriced. The Duterte-appointed official is currently facing graft charges before the Ombudsman, along with 13 others including Lloyd Christopher Lao who was formerly head of the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
The laptops intended for public school teachers conducting distance-learning classes during the pandemic lockdown were flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) in March 2022.
Dismal ratings
The COA audit report noted that the device, originally priced at P35,046.50 per unit, was approved for procurement at the inflated price of P58,300 each, which was “pricey for an entry-level type.”
The overpriced purchase “adversely decreased the number of intended beneficiaries from 68,500 to 39,583 public school teachers,” the report added.
With far fewer laptops available to teachers, online lessons were undoubtedly compromised. Could this have affected the dismal ratings that the Philippines got in 2022, when it ranked 77th out of 81 countries in the Programme for International Student Assessment?
In filing the graft charges against DepEd and PS-DBM officials, the Ombudsman said the laptops caused undue injury to the government by as much as P979.36 million in overprice. The computers delivered to the recipient teachers were found to be unsatisfactory, inferior, and could not be used for the intended purpose, the Ombudsman added.
In some areas, the laptops meant for teachers were given to nonteaching personnel, including some regional directors, a Senate hearing said. A COA official also revealed that as of August 2022, 1,678 of these computers were gathering dust at a DepEd warehouse.
Textbook scam
The same hearing said that Briones “may have unwittingly approved” the conditions that paved the way for the controversial purchase of the laptops. Which only stresses the need for officials in government agencies to exercise prudence and militant oversight, especially in procurement involving massive amounts since public funds are at stake. Given its mandate and constituent of millions of students, the education department has consistently cornered 15 to 16 percent of the national budget, a huge sum that, alas, has proven too great a temptation for its officers.
Recall that in 2023, with then DepEd Secretary, now Vice President, Sara Duterte at the helm, the COA flagged the agency’s P5.69-billion School-Based Feeding Program. In 1998, the then Department of Education, Culture, and Sports found itself under scrutiny for a P24-million textbook scam for undelivered textbooks using forged budget approval documents from the DBM.
And there lies the lesson we should all learn from this latest DepEd transaction: competence, transparency, and a sense of accountability should always trump political patronage and personal ties in our choice of leaders, especially with the 2028 elections on the horizon.
