The Commission on Audit (COA) has recently flagged the Department of Education (DepEd) for purchasing “overpriced yet outdated” laptops for teachers. In their defense, DepEd said that if the P2.4-billion worth of laptops in question is proven to have not been of quality, they will either seek a “quick fix” or invoke the warranty provision of these gadgets. Unfortunately, in the latest hearing on the issue, the supplier said that the latter is not an option.

During the Senate blue ribbon committee’s hearing on DepEd teachers’ laptop procurement through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), Dell’s Country Manager Ronnie Latinaz said that manufacturer warranty does not cover replacing “outdated” laptops.

Dell supplied laptops with only 1.8 gigahertz base speed and 4 megabytes of cache. They also came with Intel Celeron processors–the CPU you’d typically find in under Php 16k laptops.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III asked Latinazo: “So you, Dell Philippines, consciously, you knew that you were supplying a 1.8 gigahertz base speed. Now, if you are now told subsequently after you have delivered the notebooks, the requirement is 1.9 gigahertz base speed… is that part of your warranty?”

Latinazo promptly replied “no,” which Pimintel agreed as they were just supplying what was ordered.

Pimintel also asked whether it would entail another round of payment for the distributor should new laptops be purchased due to the lack of warranty coverage.

Latinazo said “probably.”