THE whistleblower in the P427.21-million noodle scam of the Department of Education (DepEd) over the weekend called on the agency to put on its “blacklist” the publisher of the erroneous textbooks exposed by a party-list representative and a college professor, saying it further creates a bad image for the agency riddled with corruption. Prudencio Quido Jr., the former sales manager of Kolonwel Trading who accused the Education department of purchasing overpriced noodles that did not carry nutritional value, said in a statement sent to media that if the agency is bent on trying to prove its transparency, then it should start by banning companies involved in corruption or error-filled products.

“Blacklist the publisher of the erroneous textbooks,” Quido said.

The Kabataan Party-list group earlier said it would investigate the department’s procurement procedures, as it was recently riddled with problems of overpriced noodles and erroneous textbooks.
Quido said he has received information that the department up to now, has not banned the publisher of the textbooks, despite the alleged glaring errors.

“Bakit hindi nila magawang ma-blacklist ang publisher ng erroneous textbooks na ginastusan ng malaki.
Nananawagan ako na ito ay ma-blacklist na para na rin masiguro na hindi maling impormasyon ang makarating sa mga kabataan,” Quido said.

Quido recalled that when he was still working for Kolonwel, they had problems with the bidding when up against the publisher.

“Dati na itong problema ng dati kong kumpanya noong 2007 pa ang mga erroneous textbooks publisher na ito ang laging nananalo,” he said.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus had called for an investigation of the allegations of the erroneous textbooks.

He had also suspended the food for school program pending the results of their investigation.
At a Senate hearing, Quido accused the Education department of allegedly manipulating its bidding requirements to favor a certain supplier of noodles for government’s Food-For-School Program.

In a sworn statement submitted to the Senate Committee on Education, Quido said the contracts awarded by DepEd to Jeverps Manufacturing Corp. since 2007 were “highly anomalous, fraudulent and worse, most disadvantageous to the interest of the government and supposed beneficiaries—the public school elementary children.”

He said that the Education department awarded to Jeverps a P284.13-million contract for “fortified noodles with fresh eggs” in 2007 and P427.21 million for “fortified noodles with fresh eggs and malunggay” in 2009.

The textbooks was exposed by crusader Antonio Calipjo Go and Kabataan party-list Rep. Mong Palatino who sought to reopen the investigation over unresolved corruption issues involving the DepEd.

Palatino said that from 1999 to 2004, the bulk of the bid awards for textbook supply and delivery was given to the publisher who had erroneous textbooks, as he accused them of a monopoly of services leading to “unfair competition” grossly disadvantageous to the government.

Kabataan party-list also launched a petition campaign calling on the Education department to pull out erroneous textbooks and calling on the investigation of unresolved corruption cases involving the department, such as the textbook and instant noodles scams.

Palatino said that he also plans to seek an inquiry into DepEd’s anomalous contracts.

Francis Earl A. Cueto