DepEd budget sans confidential fund hurdles Senate plenary

The Senate on Thursday approved the P718.082 billion proposed budget of the  Department of Education (DepEd) and its attached agencies for 2024.

Excluded from the proposed appropriation is the P150 million worth of confidential funds (CIF) that Vice President and concurrent DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte initially requested from Congress. 

Earlier, Duterte confirmed to Senator Pia Cayetano — sponsor of DepEd’s 2024 proposed budget—  that she is letting go of the CIF. The Vice President was present at the plenary deliberations of the bill containing the 2024 proposed national budget. 

“We are all parents who want to protect our children. Ang seguridad ng mga bata ay seguridad ng kinabukasan ng ating bayan. Nonetheless, DepEd will no longer pursue confidential funds," Cayetano, citing Duterte's statement, said. 

(We are all parents who want to protect our children. Keeping them safe is keeping our country’s future safe. Nonetheless, DepEd will no longer pursue confidential funds.)

"We humbly request that the funds be realigned to the National Learning Recovery Program because we do not expect good scores for the 2022 PISA results coming out this December," the senator added. 

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) or PISA is a global reading comprehension study conducted by the inter-government group Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on 600,000 students aged 15 years old around the world.

The Philippines joined the study in 2018 and ended up the poorest out of 79 countries after Filipino students scored a mean of 340 points, way below the OECD average of 487 points.

The National Learning Recovery Program seeks to address the learning gaps among students that were heightened by school closures and disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on DepEd Order 13 issued in July, the NLRP also aims to deal with the “low performance” of learners in international large-scale assessments and national assessments.

Five subprograms under the NLRP are designed to help strengthen the learning recovery, namely: National Learning Camp, National Reading Program, National Mathematics Program, National Science and Technology Program, and other programs implemented by the central office and field offices.

Senator Sonny Angara, sponsor of the proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), likewise said Duterte will no longer push for the allocation of P500 million CIF to OVP under the 2024 national budget. 

In August, Duterte highlighted the need for DepEd’s P150 million confidential funds in 2024 because it is “intertwined with national security.”

“Because education is intertwined with national security. Napakahalaga na (it is very important that) we mold children who are patriotic, children who will love our country, and who will defend our country,” Duterte earlier said.

In October, the Vice President said “whoever is against confidential funds is against peace. Whoever is against peace is an enemy of the nation.”

Duterte's father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, previously said that the Vice President intends to use her offices' proposed confidential and intelligence funds to revive the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program in the country.

VP Sara has been pushing for the revival of the mandatory ROTC, more than two decades after the program was scrapped in 2002.

The House of Representatives in October announced it had stripped off P1.23 billion worth of CIF of five agencies, including the OVP and the DepEd, under the 2024 proposed national budget.

P6.5B for destroyed classrooms

Meanwhile, the Senate announced it will restore the proposed P6.5 billion funds intended to repair over 10,000 classrooms across the country, Cayetano said.

According to the senator, the National Expenditures Program (NEP) crafted by the Executive Department allocated P6.5 billion for the classroom repairs but the House of Representatives slashed it to P1.5 billion.

When they were finding where the P5 billion went, Cayetano said they concluded that it was realigned to the budget for new classrooms because it was only allocated P19.6 billion under the NEP but under the House’s version, it is at P24.6 billion

For Cayetano and Sen. JV Ejercito, repairing classrooms is an easier solution compared to constructing new ones.

“Siyempre tayo naman, lahat naman tayo happy for construction for new classrooms. Kung yan ay galing sa pang-repair, as his honor pointed out, nakakahinayang naman kasi…it makes sense naman po na imbes na magpatayo ka ng four walls and roof and another bathroom, madali naman pong magpaayos,” Cayetano said.

“Mas marami ang mare-repair kesa sa matatayo siguro na bago. So nag-aalala din po tayo dyan… Lagi ho tayong naghahanap ng mabilis pero maasahang solusyon. So mabilis sana po ang pagre-repair,” she added.

Currently, Cayetano said there are 202,000 classrooms in “various states of despair.” Of the 202,000, 20,700 cannot be used at all.

“Right now, in our committee report, ang naiwan na lang is P1.5 [billion]. So, this committee will propose that the P5 billion put in the new will be returned to the line item on repairs and rehabilitation, as requested… It will be able to repair 10,200 classrooms,” Cayetano said.

The DepEd vowed that they will account for all the repaired classrooms should Congress give them the P6.5 billion which was originally requested under the NEP, Cayetano added.

While the budget will help in repairing classrooms, Cayetano said this will not reduce the 159,000 classroom backlog reported by DepEd as this only pertains to new facilities. —LDF, GMA Integrated News