Banal ‘laying siege’ to printing office?

We are writing again to signify our disappointment with Conrado Banal III’s lack of objectivity and responsibility. We don’t understand why he never stopped attacking the National Printing Office in his columns since 2009 – “NPO” (Inquirer, 1/8/09); “What a blight idea!” (Inquirer, 3/24/9); “Honesty is the best politics” (Inquirer, 4/21/9); “Taking care of bid nests” (Inquirer, 9/20/10); “Printing fresh” (Inquirer, 8/25/09); “Gold old days” (Inquirer, 5/9/11) and “Grieving back to society.” (Inquirer, 5/30/11)

We would like to reiterate that the present leadership of the NPO is barely eight months old and that it is utterly impractical for us to increase the price of printing forms by 300 percent or 400 percent or, as reported, by 350 percent! Obviously, Banal is not checking his facts. The price of the DFA form (FA form No. 51) at P349.95 was the price the NPO charged prior to my assumption of office on Sept. 14, 2010, the previous PO having been procured on July 2, 2010. Suffice it to say that we have not increased our price since I assumed the post. How the previous OIC arrived at that price could perhaps be attributed to the specifications required by the requisitioning agency. We suggest Banal read the case of Joey Marquez to enlighten him further on how the difference in specifications affect the pricing of commodities/supplies, infrastructures and the like.

On the Las Piñas issue, records disclose that Las Piñas never procured from the NPO its padded AF 51. From July 2000 to May 6, 2010, Las Piñas official receipts range only from P1.96 to P4.25 per set. Perhaps Banal is confused, mixing-up the prices for “padded forms” with that of the “sets.” These are two different things.

Last but not the least, Banal was right to say that the price of Philpost’s AF 51 is P31.98; but lest he forgot to check from where Philpost ordered its forms, we are happy to inform him that it is from us (NPO) on May 26, 2010. This again belies accusations that the NPO has increased its price three-and-a-half times. The variance in price as mentioned earlier depends on the specifications and kind of paper used as per request by the clients.
—EMMANUEL C. ANDAYA,
acting director,
National Printing Office,
[email protected]