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By Jomar Canlas, Reporter
THERE will be no more problem for
the disputed textbooks that were distributed in public schools this
school year.
This was after the Supreme Court
(SC) en banc has declared legal the multimillion-dollar book
contract entered into by the Department of Education with Vibal
Publishing House, Inc. and Watana Phanit Printing and Publishing
Co., Ltd., for the supply and delivery of some 17.5 million copies
of social studies textbook Makabayan and teachers’ manual.
Based on the 16-page decision of
the high court, through the pen of Associate Justice Cancio Garcia,
it junked the resolution issued by the Manila City Regional Trial
Court, Branch 18 which grants the petition for injunction filed by
losing bidder Kolonwel Trading to enjoin DepEd and the Department of
Budget and Management Procurement Service (DBM-PS) from awarding the
World Bank-funded project to Vibal and Watana.
With a unanimous vote of 11
Justices, with three Magistrates who did not participate, the SC
argued that Kolonwel failed to meet the three requirements
prescribed under Section 55 of Republic Act 9184 or the Government
Procurement Reform Act, in protesting the decision of DBM-PS
Inter-Agency Bids and Awards Committee’s (IABAC) to award the
contracts in favor of the two winning bidders.
With the said SC decision, the
validity of the book contract that was already distributed by DepEd
for the present school year has been affirmed.
The SC pointed out that Kolonwel’s
letters submitted to IABAC on May 18, 2006 and June 28, 2006,
requesting reconsideration of its disqualification from the bidding
will not be considered as a valid protest since it was not addressed
to the DepEd Secretary or the head of the DBM-PS, as required by
law. It also said those letters were unverified and that there was
no payment of protest fee by Kolonwel.
“It cannot really be said that
the respondent availed itself of the protest procedure prescribed
under Section 55 of R.A. 9184 before going to the RTC of Manila via
petition for certiorari. Stated a bit differently, respondent sought
judicial intervention even before duly completing the protest
process. Hence its filing of a special civil case was precipitate.
Or, as the law itself would put it, cases that are filed in
violation of the protest process ‘shall be dismissed for lack of
jurisdiction,” the Decision says.
Winning corporation Vibal, in a
press statement, lauded the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the
validity of the textbooks supply contract with the DepEd.
“The favorable ruling of the
Supreme Court only shows the regularity by which the contracts had
been awarded to us,” Vibal said.
It also stressed that the lower
court committed an error in deciding the case in favor of Kolonwel,
even without acquiring jurisdiction over Watana, which was impleaded
by Kolonwel in the case as one of the defendants.
Court records indicated that
Watana, an indispensable party in the case, was never summoned, nor
required to participate in the lower court proceedings.
On December 22 of last year, the
SC en banc enjoined the TRO of the lower court for the grave and
irreparable injury that might be suffered by the government. The
High Court’s resolution came after Vibal and the Office of the
Solicitor General (OSG) filed a petition for a review on certiorari
with prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order.
When the Inter-Agency Bids and
Awards Committee issued notices of award to Vibal and the other
respondent firms, Kolonwel filed a motion for reconsideration twice,
but both were denied.
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