Senator Sherwin Gatchalian described the purchase of outdated and overpriced laptops as “a great disservice to teachers” in a news release.
He said that the purchase deprived nearly 29,000 teachers of the much-needed equipment” for teaching at the height of the pandemic”
He is calling for the abolition of the Procurement Service Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), which he said, has a “bad habit” of transferring funds he said against the price per laptop at P 35,046.50 by the state auditors under the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Agency Procurement Request (APR), the PS-DBM-approved budget for the contract (ABC), however, was PHP58,300 per laptop.
“Ang ating mga guro ang lubhang naaapektuhan dahil hindi tiniyak ng PS-DBM ang tamang presyo at kalidad ng mga laptop na kanilang binili para magamit sana ng ating mga guro (Our teachers were greatly affected because the PS-DBM did not ensure the correct pricing and quality of the laptops),” Gatchalian said.
