MANILA, Philippines—Justice Secretary Leila De Lima defended the purchase of over P17-million worth of Toyota Innova for prosecutors and new buses and passenger vans worth over P16-million.
“Our regional offices have long been requesting for new service vehicles as their current vehicles are more than 10 years old and the repairs were very costly,” De Lima said in Filipino.
“The funds for the vehicles went through the regular bidding including the coasters,” she added.
Twenty Toyota Innova worth P17.757-million were distributed by the Department of Justice to its regional prosecutors and senior prosecutors Monday.
Lined up outside the DoJ compound, the multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) were blessed before distribution to prosecutors -15 regional prosecutors and five senior deputy state
prosecutors of the DoJ. The vehicles were purchased from Toyota-Makati.
Aside from the 20 MPVs, the DoJ also purchased two Hino buses worth P7, 360,000.00.
The vehicles have been delivered following the Toyota Makati and Pilipinas Hino buses’ submission of a “performance security” guaranteeing payment of security as penalty in case the contractor defaulted in its obligations.
Last March, the DoJ also purchased 8 units of passenger vans worth P9.584 million.