BOC donates computers to DepEd

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) last week donated 3,915 laptop units to the Department of Education (DepEd) which will be used to enhance their program for out-of-school youth and their disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) program.

DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro received the donations from Customs Commissioner John Sevilla during simple turnover ceremonies at the BOC head office in Port Area, Manila.

Sevilla pegged the value of the 3,915 laptops to about P78.3 million.

The entry level ASUS laptop computers were reportedly consigned to ORZA Marketing but these were seized at the Port of Manila (POM) in December 2011 on the grounds of undervaluation and misdeclaration as computer spare parts.

The BOC attempted to auction them off but after two failed biddings, they donated the laptops to the DepEd.

Luistro expressed his gratitude to former Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon, who was the head of the bureau when the gadgets were confiscated, for initiating the talks of donating them to the DepEd.

He also thanked Sevilla for reviving the talks and for assisting them in convincing the POM private operator Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) to waive the P24,000 warehousing and storage fees.

Luistro said during the last two years of the Aquino administration they would be prioritizing the Alternative Learning System (ALS) Abot Alam program, which is the national program for out-of-school youth. They would be utilizing 2,000 of the donated laptops for the program.

“We have mobile teachers who go around different parts of the country for our out-of-school youth. We have about 1.2 million out-of-school youth in our initial listing whom our teachers visit in the barangays. The laptops would be used for the ALS modules so the teachers need not bring their notebooks and flipcharts. With this modern technology, and thanks to the BOC, we would use these laptops to enhance the Abot Alam Program,” Luistro said.

He added that they have monitored that out-of-school youth who would benefit from the program were about 18-30 years old. “Most of them are adults and they were not able to finish high school. Some of them have become mothers and already have their own families.”

Five hundred of the computers would be reserved for the DepEd’s DRRM program.

Luistro added, “So when our DRRM coordinators go to disaster areas they would be able to map the geographical locations of the schools. The laptops have cameras to take pictures and they could put the coordinates in the map. We would be able to speed up the process of collecting data.”