DepEd says open bidding saved P1.4B on teachers' laptops

Department Of Education head office at Meralco Ave., Pasig City

Patrick Roque via Wikipedia

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education said it saved at least P1.4 billion in procuring more than 231,000 laptops for public school teachers by putting the contracts out to open bidding instead of negotiating with suppliers.

DepEd confirmed earlier this week that it bought 172,654 Apple MacBook Neo laptops, mostly for public school teachers, at about P43,000 each, roughly P6,900 below their retail price in the Philippines. The other 62,717 laptops for teachers run on Windows.

The department said winning bids ranged from about P41,200 to P42,700 per MacBook and P41,000 to P42,200 per Windows laptop, all within its budget ceiling of P42,718.  

"Our educators deserve reliable, high-performing technology without the government overpaying a single centavo," Education Secretary Sonny Angara said on Friday, November 6.

Six suppliers

DepEd awarded 78 contracts for the laptops to six suppliers, four for the MacBooks and two for the Windows units. Based on the unit prices it disclosed, the contracts are worth an estimated combined P9.7 billion to P10 billion.

Angara said the department drew more bidders by widening its search for suppliers and updating its technical specifications.

Each laptop comes with a five-year warranty, which DepEd said is the longest it has secured for laptops, compared with the standard one-year retail warranty.

The department put the commercial value of the full package, which includes productivity software, delivery to schools and teacher training, at more than P70,000 per unit.

Distribution starts on Monday, Nov. 9, and suppliers have until March 2027 to deliver all units. 

Schools and division offices will check eligibility under guidelines DepEd plans to issue soon, which give priority to teachers who have not yet received a government-issued laptop.

DepEd's orders for the MacBook units are Apple's biggest education deal for Mac, chief executive John Ternus said on Monday when he disclosed it during the company's quarterly earnings call.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers said the purchase still leaves most of the country's nearly 900,000 public school teachers without a government-issued laptop.

Past deals

DepEd's previous laptop purchases have drawn allegations of overpricing and bid-rigging. In 2021, the department, through the Procurement Service (PS) of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), paid P58,300 each for laptops with low-end processors, against an approved budget of P35,000 per unit.

The Commission on Audit flagged the P2.4-billion purchase, which covered 39,583 teachers instead of the roughly 108,000 originally planned. In July 2025, the Ombudsman ordered graft charges filed against former Education Secretary Leonor Briones, former PS-DBM chief Lloyd Christopher Lao and other officials over the deal.