THE Department of Education (DepEd) 7 will investigate the surplus shop in Mandaue City that reportedly sells laptops custom-built for public school teachers.
DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez told SunStar Cebu on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, that he has been ordered by the central office to conduct the investigation and determine how the laptops ended up at the HMR Cebu branch in Mandaue City.
Jimenez said when he learned about the matter, he immediately ordered all division superintendents to determine if any of the laptops given to DepEd 7 were missing.
Jimenez said all units for Central Visayas are accounted for, which means the laptops sold in Cebu may have been stolen from another region.
He also didn’t discount the possibility that the laptops were stored in DepEd’s warehouses in Manila and these were stolen there.
It was also possible, he said, that the laptops were excess units from the same batch produced for and sold to DepEd.
“Kung dinaghan ang ilang baligya, then there is a possibility nga kinawat siya sa warehouse sa DepEd o mga excess siya sa supplier ug gibaligya na lang (If they are selling many units, then there is a possibility that these were stolen from the DepEd warehouse or they could be excess units that the supplier decided to sell),” Jimenez added.
Jimenez said he created an investigating team that will visit the HMR shop in Mandaue City. He said he plans to ask police for their assistance.
He also urged those who bought the laptops from the surplus shop to coordinate with their office so they can check if the units were purchased by DepEd.
Congressional probe
For ACT Teacher Party-list officials in Cebu, the matter should be elevated to Congress.
Antonia Lim, ACT Teacher Party-list Cebu president, told SunStar Cebu that they will raise the matter with their party-list representative.
A concerned citizen earlier reported to SunStar Cebu that he was able to acquire a laptop set from the surplus shop for P9,999. He was told that 100 units of the same model were available for sale and that the store already sold eight units.
The concerned citizen noticed that the laptop and its accessories that included a portable loudspeaker and a lapel microphone have markings that someone tried to erase.
The speaker also has DepEd’s “Sulong EduKalidad” sticker. The packaging of the headset also bears DepEd’s slogan and project “Procurement of DCP Packages” markings.
When a SunStar Cebu staff member checked the unit, he found preloaded files that included DepEd’s training videos on how to operate the laptop and apps such as Minecraft Education, Arduino, Geometry, Graphing Calc and GeoGebra Classic.
Audit report
In a 2021 audit report, the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the price of the 39,583 laptops that were procured by the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (PS-DBM) for teachers to be used for online learning. These were worth P58,300 each.
The P2.4-billion procurement was funded by Republic Act 11494, or the “Bayanihan to Recover As One Act.” According to state auditors, the price of the laptop was too high based on the specifications attached to the memorandum issued by DepEd.
State auditors questioned why DepEd accepted the price as part of the recommendations by the PS-DBM despite the fact that the estimated price based on DepEd’s approved Annual Procurement Plan was only P35,046.50.
Sunstar Cebu reached out to HMR Cebu on Saturday, Oct. 22, but the branch manager declined to be interviewed.
The manager, who refused to be named, said they needed to contact their main branch in Manila regarding the issue.
SunStar Cebu called the main branch, HMR Trading Haus Pioneer in Mandaluyong City, but only a customer service representative answered the call, saying the manager was not available to verify the information.
Luz Baco, the customer service representative, said, though, that the laptop did not come from their branch.
In earlier reports, a store clerk in the Mandaue branch told SunStar Cebu that the laptops came from their Manila branch.
Baco said that based on what she knew about the supply process, the laptops would come from the Cebu branch before these were distributed to other branches.
“About po sa Coby, walang advice po kung saan siya galing po. Ang pagkaka-alam namin sir diyan po siya sa Cebu mangagaling at i-didistribute lang po sa ibang branches (There is no advice where the unit originated. What we know is that it came from Cebu and it would be distributed toother branches),” Baco said.
According to its website, HMR Philippines has 22 branches located across the country, selling a variety of surplus products ranging from home and office furniture and appliances, hardware, gadgets and devices, among others.
Regarding the laptops with the similar appearance and specification to the devices issued by DepEd, Baco said she had no idea about this.
SunStar Cebu tried to contact Red Dot Imaging Philippines Inc., the supplier of custom-built laptops for DepEd. The security guard on duty said to call again on Monday since there was no office on weekends.