Briones, Lao invited to Senate probe on DepEd laptops

MANILA, Philippines — Former education secretary Leonor Briones and former Procurement Service-Department Budget and Management (PS-DBM) head Lloyd Christopher Lao are among those invited by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to shed light on the alleged overpriced and outdated laptops for public school teachers, according to panel chairman Sen. Francis Tolentino.

In an interview with radio station dwIZ, Tolentino said the committee would hold an inquiry on Thursday 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 when asked if Lao was also invited.

“I think (Briones) was invited because it was during her time,” Tolentino added when asked about the former DepEd secretary.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, however, disclosed that he has seen the list of those invited in the scheduled inquiry, 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 in Filipino.

The senator agreed that Briones and other DepEd officials who were involved in the questionable procurement of the laptops should be invited to the inquiry.