Briones, Lao invited to Senate inquiry on DepEd overpriced laptops issue

Former education secretary Leonor Briones and former Procurement Service-Department Budget and Management (PS-DBM) head Lloyd Christopher Lao are invited by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to make things clear on the alleged overpriced and outdated laptops for public school teachers.

Sen. Francis Tolentino said the committee would hold an inquiry  on the Commission on Audit (COA)’s 2021 annual audit report indicating that teachers’ laptops bought by the Department of Education (DepEd) for P2.4 billion through the PS-DBM were “pricey for an entry-level type of laptop.”

The COA said the purchase of overpriced laptops “adversely decreased the number of intended beneficiaries from 68,500 to 39,583 public school teachers.”

“The inquiry will be on Thursday. Everyone involved is invited,” Tolentino said.

“I think (Briones) was invited because it was during her time,” Tolentino added.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, shared that he has seen the list of those invited, but he did not see Lao’s name.

“I did not see (Lao’s) name in the papers that I have looked at, but if there is another senator who has seen the papers that he signed, summon him, all the names that appear summon him,” Pimentel said.