Overpriced PCs deemed useful by Lapu schools

THEIR purchase may have been questionable but the computer sets delivered by the Lapu-Lapu City government to its public high schools in 2005 were deemed beneficial by students and teachers alike.

Archimedes Dampor, school principal of the Mactan National High School, said about 30 units of computers are being used during classes for third and fourth year students.

Teachers also use the computers in computing grades of the students. Of the school’s 40 computers, 30 were given by the city government.

“These computers really helped us,” Dampor told Cebu Daily News.

Dampor said officials of the Ombudsman-Visayas examined the computers given by the city government.

“If the computers will be taken away, it will really affect the school because they are very useful,” he said.

Five computers units are already broken but can be repaired. Dampor said the quality of the computers is “all right.”

About 18 Lapu-Lapu City officials were meted a six-month suspension without pay over the controversial purchase of 470 units of personal computers.

Rep. Arturo Radaza, who was Lapu-Lapu City mayor during the purchase, was  included in the administrative case.

However, the administrative charges against him were deemed moot and academic due to his re-election in 2007.

The anti-graft office, however, found probable cause to indict Radaza on the criminal charges filed against him.

In 2007, businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr. filed a complaint against  Radaza and  18 others for the alleged overpriced purchase of P23.4-million worth of computers that were distributed to public high schools of the city in 2005.

Some 470 units of personal computer were bought for P49,950 each.

But during that time, PCs of the same quality are priced between P24,700 and P31,236 as stated in the sales invoices of two computer stores. About 30 of the computers were purportedly placed in public high schools of island-barangays that didn’t have electricity.

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza said the suspension as ordered by the Ombudsman-Visayas was implemented on a transitional basis because most of the officials are department heads.

Radaza said suspending all 18 officials will affect City Hall operations. The mayor said she wrote a letter to Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol asking for a gradual implementation of the suspension order.

She said Apostol referred her letter to their central office in Manila but she haven’t received any response. Radaza said all 18 officials will have been suspended on Dec. 16.

Earlier, Asst. Ombudsman Virginia Palanca-Santiago said she would verify if the suspensions were served.

Only three respondents have yet to be suspended on Dec. 16, which includes the head of department of budget, local civil registrar and City attorney. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol and Correspondent Fe Marie Dumaboc