TV host, team clash over P654-million DepEd project

TV host Paolo Bediones

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines — At least 39 television workers have requested the Department of Education (DepEd) to withdraw their names and curriculum vitae (CV) from a P654-million multimedia project that shortlists a joint venture involving a company headed by TV host Paolo Bediones.

The complainants, some of whom are from Central Luzon, said their names and CVs had been used without their knowledge and consent and should be stricken off the bid.

“Moreover, our signatures were falsely dated to make it appear that we signed on Nov. 4 or Nov. 29 (2021),” they said in a Jan. 29 letter to Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua, head of DepEd’s procurement management service.

In a text message to the Inquirer on Tuesday, Bediones said his legal team was still waiting to see what cases would be filed “so these people can be identified and then we can let the courts decide.”

Notarized in their absence

According to the complainants, the documents were notarized on Dec. 2, 2021, “even though we were not physically present before the notary public, as the law requires.” They also pulled out from a teachers’ training project worth P30 million

They explained to Pascua that the production team had stopped working with Bediones, president and chief executive officer of Ei2 Tech Inc., since October 2021.

Pascua issued the commitment that he would resolve the issue.

“The names and CVs used by Ei2 Tech/Paolo Bediones were gathered for phase 1 of the DepEd TV project which has already been completed yet unpaid for by Bediones,” the complainants told Pascua.

DepEd awarded Phase 1 of the project to Ei2 Tech in December 2020, a notice of award showed. The project costs P45 million.

Judgment call

Explaining the delayed payments, Bediones told freelancers and consultants in a Jan. 14 memorandum that the company “failed to secure the funding” as scheduled on Jan. 15 based on the timeline of phase 1.“The buck stops here and we at Ei2 Tech should have put a stop to operations much sooner when we saw the funds were already dwindling and we were going over budget, but we continued operations. That was our judgment call,” Bediones said.

Speaking to the Inquirer by phone, a journalist who was among the project’s consultants confirmed that his signature had been falsified. He quoted a “fixer” as saying that the COVID-19 lockdowns “slowed down the submission of requirements.”

“[The fixer] suggested [that he] fake my signature. I discouraged him but the documents showed the forgery,” the journalist said.

According to Pascua, the names and biodata were submitted for the agency’s project that involves distribution and archiving of TV and radio-based lessons for DepEd TV and DepEd Radio.

Last month, about 100 disgruntled TV staff and crew also accused Bediones of not paying them for a completed project that involved an online quiz show that he hosted and an online class by DepEd.