Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said that the Malacañang will expect the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) to answer all controversies surrounding its procurements. 

Cruz-Angeles announced this after the Commission on Audit (COA) mentioned the PS-DBM due to its failure to return the investment to the general fund of the Bureau of Treasury. On the other hand, she added that the announcement is still an observation report and the PS-DBM had a chance to respond to these controversies. 

“Kung observation report po iyan, may pagkakataon pa pong sumagot iyong naturang ahensiya. So, hihintayin natin iyong sagot ng DBM,” Cruz-Angeles said. 

Meanwhile, Executive Director Dennis Santiago is confident that the PS-DBM will answer the allegations and respond to it respectively. 

“We are already reviewing the audit observation on the high-yield savings account and shall revert to COA to address the AOM [audit observation memorandum]. The amount of P3 billion is intact, and I am for the return of the money to the national treasury as soon as we have properly clarified the nature of the funds with COA,” Santiago said. 

The palace, according to Cruz-Angeles, will not comment on the issue about procuring P2.4 billion outdated laptops for teachers until it has been resolved by the Congress.

“Sa ngayon po may imbestigasyon ang ating DepEd [Department of Education] at may imbestigasyon ang Lehislatura so hindi po nararapat na mag komento until makita natin ang resulta ng mga imbestigasyon na yun (Right now, our DepEd has an investigation and the legislature has an investigation, so it is not appropriate to comment until we see the results of those investigations),” she said.

The DepEd is taking into consideration to review and investigate the laptop procurement. 

Photo Credit: Facebook/SecCruzAngeles