Press Release
April 30, 2009

ROXAS WARNS DEPED: DON'T DESTROY EVIDENCE
ASKS COA TO DO AUDIT ON UNDELIVERED OVERPRICED NOODLES

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today warned regional and provincial officials of the Department of Education against disposing off undelivered, overpriced instant noodles stocked in their offices even before the Commission on Audit could complete its inventory.

He said the destruction of the undelivered noodle packages would be the same as destroying evidence as the Senate education committee continues its investigation into allegation of irregularities in the DepEd's Food-for-School Program.

"Maraming expired na instant noodles ang hanggang sa ngayon ay naka-stock pa sa DepEd. Anong plano nilang gawin dito?" the chairman of the Senate education committee asked.

He said the committee has received reports that expired noodles from the 2007-2008 school-feeding program have not been delivered by many regional and provincial DepEd offices.

Roxas wrote COA Chairman Reynaldo Villar requesting the Commission and all its regional and provincial offices to conduct an audit of all the instant noodles that remains stock in DepEd offices.

"I would like to request COA and all its regional offices to furnish us with a comprehensive audit report on all the noodles that are in the stock/inventory of DepEd, wherever stored, covering the period of January 2008 up to the present date," he said in his letter.

The Senate committee on education has opened its inquiry into the noodle procurement scam, taking off from allegations that DepEd officials have been manipulating their bidding requirements for the supplier of the instant noodles to favor a private contractor.

The rigged bidding has allegedly caused the government a total of P421 million in losses for the years 2007 and 2008.

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