EX-DEPED CHIEF, 13 OTHERS FACE GRAFT RAPS

FORMER Department of Education (DepEd) secretary Leonor Briones and 13 others are facing charges for their alleged involvement in the purchase of P2.4 billion in laptops for public school teachers during the height of the pandemic lockdowns.

The Ombudsman, in a 106-page resolution dated July 4, said it also found probable cause to file charges for the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019), falsification and perjury against DepEd officials Annalyn Sevilla, Alain Pascua, Salvador Malana III, Abram Abanil, Marcelo Bragado, Alex Ladanga, and Selwyn Briones; as well as the Procurement Service – Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) officials Lloyd Christopher Lao, Jasonmer Uayan, Ulysses Mora; Marwan Amil and Paul Estrada.

Froilan Demongo of the joint venture of Sunwest Construction and Development Corp., LDLA Marketing and Trading, Inc., and VST ECS Phils. Inc. was also named as respondent.

The filing of graft charges stemmed from a 2022 Commission on Audit (COA) report which flagged the purchase of the 39,000 laptops at P58,300 meant for public school teachers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The charges alleged that the procured laptops were “outdated and overpriced.”

In a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry on the same year, the DepEd and PS-DBM officials claimed that the increase in the price of laptops was due to the decline in the production of electronic chips.

The accused officials also pointed the price hike to the sudden surge in demand due to work-from-home arrangements.