Teachers urge Congress: Fund classrooms, not Charter plebiscite

MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Thursday called on the House of Representatives to reallocate the budget earmarked for the proposed Charter change plebiscite toward constructing more classrooms amid the learning crisis.

ACT said the Marcos administration and Congress should prioritize addressing classroom shortages instead of Charter change.

“NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) projects spending a staggering P28 billion on a Cha-cha plebiscite. Yet, this sum could construct more than 11,000 classrooms, to at least reduce the crippling deficit of 159,000 classrooms reported by DepEd (Department of Education). It is a stark misallocation of resources, prioritizing constitutional amendments over the urgent needs of our teachers and students, who suffer in overcrowded and inconducive learning environments,” said ACT chairman Vladimer Quetua.

“Even Marcos Jr. himself admits that holding a plebiscite for Cha-cha is impractical and costly. Instead of wasting time pushing for Cha-cha, which will only expose our economy further to foreign interests, the Congress should prioritize legislation of bills on increasing wages, granting workers and employees the much-needed economic relief amid the crisis, and resolving the worsening learning loss,” he added.

ACT also reiterated its opposition to the proposed constitutional amendments, stressing these would only tighten foreign control over the Philippines.

“It is appalling that budget for education is being scrimped despite the enormity of backlogs and shortages, and teachers and all other employees and workers are also being scrimped with measly wage increases and benefits, yet funds can be set aside and spent on Cha-cha solely for the interests of foreign entities and a few in power. It seems that the current administration is not alarmed with the worsening education crisis that we are facing,” Quetua lamented.