A PROGRESSIVE youth movement applauded the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for recommending last January 19 the filing of graft and perjury cases for violation of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, against several figures—including high-ranking officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) involved in the agency’s botched purchase of laptops in May 2021.
“We assert that the people involved…are guilty of depriving nearly 29,000 teachers of vital support for the conduct of online classes,” Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (Spark) said in a statement.
Based on its 197-page report, the Senate’s investigative body discovered that the contract supply and delivery of the almost 40,000 computing devices for public-school teachers in the project two years ago was overpriced by at least P979 million.
The committee report was signed by 12 senators, including Sen. Francis Tolentino as its chairman and the two minority legislators: Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros.
Spark added that the laptop units bought at “ridiculous markup prices” were found to be way slower in performance vis-a-vis other similarly priced gadgets.
“In other words, while we suffered heavily at the height of the…pandemic, they directly worsened the education crisis and made thousands of teachers’ lives a living hell—all for a bit of extra profit,” he explained.
“This is a severe crime against … teachers who were directly affected, their students, and the Philippine education sector as a whole,” the group decried. It wants the officials involved “stripped of all effective power, and [be] held to account for their crimes.”
It stressed, though, that the committee’s recommendation to sue those behind the controversy should not be the end of the process.
“We demand that…appropriate charges are actually filed immediately, as opposed to countless other cases in recent history where those who have wronged the Filipino people were simply allowed to go on with their lives,” Spark reiterated. “A prompt trial for these criminals must be the next step.”
Other than the immediate respondents, the group claimed that private contractors who benefited from the defective laptops deal must also be held accountable for swindling the masses.
“Officials from DepEd and [the Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Service] were clearly not the only individuals involved, as… private contractors who actually provided the laptops must also be investigated,” it urged.
“These contractors have profited in the tens of millions from the suffering of the Filipino people; they cannot be allowed to run free, either. The Blue Ribbon Committee must dig deeper and further question those whom…the corrupt officials dealt with,” Spark said.
According to the organization, anyone found involved in the worsening of the education crisis must be punished for their wrongdoings.
“Dozens of students took their own lives, and millions more went through hell, as a result of the education crisis… All those complicit in worsening it must be held to account,” Spark stressed.