LACSON COMMENDS PALACE, DEPED
FOR SCRAPPING ANOMALOUS TEXTBOOK DEAL

Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson commended Malacañang and the Department of Education Friday for finally acting on the anomalous P1.3-billion textbook deal.

Lacson said it is high time the government sent a signal to bidders and prospective contractors that it will not tolerate corruption, especially on matters that may affect the well-being of ordinary Filipinos.

"I commend Malacañang and the Department of Education for finally acting on the anomaly and scrapping the deal that may have cost our taxpayers P1.3 billion. Better late than never," he said.

Since late 2006, Lacson had been investigating the anomalies involving textbook deals entered into by the DepEd, after exposing several flaws in textbooks published by Vibal Publishing Group.

Earlier this year, Lacson bared that at least 60,000 elementary textbooks scheduled for delivery have been found to contain inverted pages. Worse, he said the printer appeared to be based abroad.

He called for an investigation into the textbook scam after noting that Vibal and its allies were granted a lion's share of the contracts despite being disqualified.

Lacson lamented that despite the disqualification of Vibal and its allies by the interagency bids and awards committee (IABAC), the World Bank that funded the textbook project chose to ignore the finding and awarded the contract to Vibal.

Also, Lacson urged the DepEd and other concerned agencies to institute measures punishing publishers and suppliers of defective and error-laden school textbooks.

"We hope the concerned agencies become diligent enough to really correct errors, or at least impose sanctions on suppliers and publishers that commit errors," he said.

He added Congress should exercise its oversight functions and prod agencies to set up implementing rules and regulations and make sure they are followed.

On the other hand, Lacson reiterated that it is important to avoid a monopoly to prevent the churning out of substandard textbooks.

The DepEd is asking for some P2.064 billion for textbooks for 2007. "If the monopoly is not addressed, following the pattern, the Vibal 'Group' stands to corner some P1.5 billion," Lacson said.

Citing records reaching his office, Lacson said the Department of Budget and Management awarded almost P500 million in textbook contracts to two disqualified bidders only last September.

"This is a blatant and gross violation of procurement laws. Somebody definitely made money out of this deal and I am not talking about suppliers of the textbooks but of some people in government," he said.

He lamented that from 1999 to 2004, a single "group" of publishing companies sharing common officers and stockholders had a virtual stranglehold on textbook procurement deals, raking in more than 75 percent of the contracts.

The contracts involved the supply and delivery of textbooks and teachers' manuals on Sibika Grades 1-3; Heograpiya, Kasaysayan at Sibika (HeKaSi) Grades 4-6; and Araling Panlipunan Years I-IV.