The delay in which the Department of Education (DepEd) purchased the laptops for teachers defeated the purpose of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2, according to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano.

Cayetano stressed this point during the second hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the alleged purchase of overpriced laptops by the DepEd and the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Services (DBM-PS).
The two agencies, he noted, took more than a year to deliver the laptops to the teachers from the time of Bayanihan 2 was enacted into law.
The senator pointed out it was the DepEd that asked Congress for funds in the first place. Bayanihan 2 was approved on September 11, 2020. A total of P4.35-billion was allocated for DepEd, of which P2.4-billion was used by the agency to buy laptops for the teachers.
Yet the DepEd finished the procurement process only on December 2021 or almost a year after the passage of the Bayanihan 2, he said.
Cayetano also reminded DepEd officials that the Bayanihan 2 had been extended another year at the time the agency decided to pass the procurement task to DBM-PS.
“Did the DepEd show a sense of urgency sa P4-billion na binigay sa inyo (on the P4-billion that were given to you)?” the senator asked the agency’s officials during the hearing on Thursday, September 8.
He also said it does not make sense that DepEd had to transfer the work to the DBM-PS since it had five Bids and Awards Committees (BAC) of its own at the time of Bayanihan 2.
“Kung may lima kayong BAC at may P500 billion kayo (na pondo sa departamento), bakit hindi niyo ma-bid ang P4.2 billion (If you had five BAC and you have a P500-billion budget, then why can’t you bid out the P4.2-billion)?” Cayetano emphasized
“I am just really upset that this all happened under a law that was supposed to help you help our students,” he pointed out.
Cayetano also said he finds the inclusion of regional DepEd directors as recipients of the laptops questionable.
“Mr. Chairman, when we talk about graft and corruption, we don’t only talk about overpricing but we also talk about the right decision making and how they wasted the money. So, you are going to ask for P800-million for next year but you cannot show us that you spent the money wisely,” Cayetano told DepEd officials during the hearing.
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