Malapitan denies anomalies in tablet purchase

Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan (Photo from his Facebook page)

MANILA, Philippines — Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan on Wednesday denied accusations of irregularity in the purchase of tablets given to students for their online classes.

READ: Mayor Malapitan, 2 pang opisyal sinampahan ng kasong graft sa Ombudsman

Malapitan, along with other city officials and Department of Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua, is facing charges in the Ombudsman for allegedly purchasing 64,000 “unusable” tablets worth P320 million without proper bidding.

The case was filed by Caloocan City Councilors Christopher PJ Malonzo, Marylou Nubla at Alexander Mangasar, who is from the opposition and has publicly expressed support for the supposed mayoral aspirant Rep. Edgar Erice.

“The complainants have been using this issue since last year to gain political points with the people of Caloocan,” he said in a statement.

“I will answer their claims at the proper forum. I am confident that the Ombudsman will see through their lies,” he added.

Malapitan said they bought the tablets after conducting public biddings.

“Kontra sa inihaing demanda sa Office of the Ombudsman, nagkaroon ng competitive public bidding ang pagpili ng digital tablets para sa mga mag-aaral ng Lungsod ng Caloocan,” he said in another statement.

(Contrary to the filed charges at the Office of the Ombudsman, there had been competitive public bidding to choose the digital tables for Caloocan City students.)

He noted that there are complete documents in the purchase of tablets and that the invitation to bid was published in a national daily.

“The documents will speak for themselves,” he said.

Malapitan said his camp is set to file charges against his accusers after the dismissal of the case.

“Paghandaan nilang mabuti ang sagot nila dahil matapos mapawalang bisa ang kaso laban sa amin ay ako naman ang magdedemanda ng malicious prosecution at danyos perwisyo,” he said.

(They should prepare themselves because after our case gets dismissed, I will sue them for malicious prosecution and restitution damages.)

The local government said Malapitan filed cyberlibel charges back in February 2020 against five city councilors, including Malonzo, Mangasar and Nubla, for maligning the digital tablets.