Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino today sought to re-open the investigation over unresolved corruption issues involving the Department of Education as some 200 high school students trooped to DepEd-National Capital Region to complain about erroneous textbooks being used in public high schools.

The high school students brought samples of erroneous textbooks that are still being used by public high schools despite previous orders from the DepEd to have them pulled out.

“If these are the same textbooks that were supplied by the anomalous textbooks deal that has already been scrapped by Malacanang and DepEd in June 2007 then they have to be pulled out from use immediately and investigated,” Palatino said.

From 1999 to 2004, the bulk of the bid awards for textbook supply and delivery was given to the Vibal Publishing Group suggesting a monopoly of services leading to “unfair competition” grossly disadvantageous to the government.

“This comes as a disappointment, a veritable cause to be enraged, especially in the face of the dilapidated state of public education, this blunt corruption at the expense of the quality education our youth so deserve,” Palatino said.

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

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

“Aside from the textbook and instant noodles scams, we have also learned about other cases of overpricing and anomalous bidding processes within the DepEd. We will expose these in due time,” he said. ###