By Liza Soriano
Filipinotimes photo courtesy
MANILA– The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s investigation into the costly but outdated computers purchased for use by public school teachers featured a dead resource person who had been inadvertently summoned by the powerful committee.
This wasn’t made public until Thursday when the panel’s investigation was brought back up by Senator Francis Tolentino.
Tolentino claims that on Wednesday night, he was advised that a particular “Atty. Crisologo” is “already dead.”
The name of Atty. Jose Crisologo was mentioned during the hearing last week.
In relation to the contentious P2.4 billion laptop transaction, Crisologo was allegedly the person who notarized a memorandum of understanding between the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
As of late May 5, 2021, PS-DBM personnel are still unaware of the existence of a signed memorandum of agreement between PS-DBM and DepEd which was notarized on February 16, 2021,” Tolentino said.
“That’s the reason why we requested the presence of the person, a certain Atty. Crisologo from Quezon City who notarized the memorandum of agreement.”
But I was informed last night that Atty. Crisologo can’t be present here today because Atty. Crisologo is already dead. So we’re trying to secure a certified copy of his death certificate and the actual cause of his death,” the senator added.
Tolentino said that the committee will remove the name of Crisologo from the list of people that needs to attend the inquiry. (ai/mtvn)
