Requesting Entity: Municipality of Tayabas, Quezon

Issues Concern: Printing of an Official Newspaper

Details

Whether the procurement of printing services for the publication of the official newspaper of the Municipality of Tayabas may be undertaken through the alternative method of shopping under Section 52 (b) of the IRR-A of R.A. 9184.

As clarified under GPPB Resolution No. 12-2006 dated 14 June 2006, ordinary or regular office supplies, in the context of Section 52 (b) of IRR-A, refer to those supplies, commodities or materials which, depending on the procuring entity’s mandate and nature of operations, are necessary in the transaction of its official businesses; and consumed in the day-to-day operations of said procuring entity.

However, office supplies shall not include services such as repair and maintenance of equipment and furniture, as well as trucking, hauling, janitorial, security, and related or analogous services. Applying the well-established principle of ejusdem generis, where a general word or phrase follows an enumeration of particular and specific words of the same class, the general word or phrase is to be construed to include persons, things, or cases akin to those specifically mentioned (Statutory Construction by Ruben Agpalo – Fifth Edition 2003, Vera vs. Cuevas, 90 SCRA 379, 31 May 1979).

We, thus, believe that, based on the enumeration of what constitutes “related” or “analogous services”, printing services should not be considered as ordinary or regular offices supplies and cannot be procured through Shopping.