DepEd starts warehouse pull out, distribution of outdated laptops

EDUCATION Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara yesterday said that more than 50 percent of the laptops stored in the warehouse of the agency’s logistics provider have been pulled out for distribution to their offices and other areas.

During the hearing on the proposed 2025 budget of the Department of Education (DepEd), Angara said the agency sought the help of the Philippine Air Force and other government agencies for the removal of the laptops from the Transpac Logistics warehouse.

He also said that some local government units have offered to get the laptops themselves.

“Since the news came out, we’ve received many offers from local government officials to take the items off our hands so that we can be able to speed up the removal of these items from the warehouse,” he said.

Angara earlier disclosed that around 1.5 million units of laptops, books, and other equipment have been stored for four years at the Transpac Logistics warehouse since the time of former secretary Leonor Briones in 2020 to 2021.

He said this happened after DepEd got the services of a logistics provider different from the supplier.

Angara, during the budget briefing, said “we are no longer adopting that innovation of having a separate logistics provider.”

“I think it’s much simpler to divert to the old system where the winning bidder or supplier is the one who has to provide the delivery,” he said.

“And given that we’re going to engage in early procurement activities, they also have to take care of the warehousing and the delivery in such a way that we provide… enough time for them to deliver come the first day of school in 2025 but also to manage their time for deliveries,” he added.

Angara said there is need to quickly distribute the laptops since they have “a lifespan and we might be exceeding that lifespan if we don’t act quickly on it.”

Angara acknowledged that the laptops are already outdated but said that the DepEd’s information technology team tweaked them so they can still be used.

Angara said the DepEd has only removed about 10 percent of the other equipment, like furniture, stored in the warehouse because these “are more challenging things.”

Former DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa