No laptops for teachers defeated purpose of Bayanihan 2 – Cayetano
THE delay in the procurement of laptops for teachers by the Department of Education (DepEd) under the ‘Bayanihan to Recover as One Act’ defeated the law’s purpose to aid the education system in switching to hybrid learning at the height of the pandemic, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano told The PUNCH on Thursday in a phone interview.
He said he echoed the same sentiment during the second hearing on September 8, 2022 of the Blue Ribbon Committee on the purchase of overpriced laptops by the DepEd and the Procurement Services-Department of Budget and Management’s (PS-DBM), Cayetano lamented how the two agencies took more than a year to deliver the laptops to the teachers from the time of Bayanihan 2’s passage.
“September 11, 2020 hanggang December 2021 – so y’un ang definition ng ‘urgent’ ng DepEd? Ang urgent sa inyo, aabutin ng mahigit isang taon?” Cayetano said as he wondered how teachers in Pangasinan coped with their online lessons.
Bayanihan 2, which was approved on September 11, 2020 by the House of Representatives under Cayetano’s leadership as House Speaker at the time, allotted a total of P4.35 billion to DepEd, of which P2.4 billion was used by the Department to buy laptops for teachers.
“Did the DepEd show a sense of urgency sa P4 billion na binigay sa inyo?” the Senator asked, adding that it was the department that asked for the funds from Congress in the first place.
I am just really upset that this all happened under a law that was supposed to help our students’ study,” he said. (Senate)
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