Marcos to fix DepEd budget cut – Angara

MANILA, Philippines —  President Marcos has vowed to turn things around for the Department of Education, after both chambers of Congress cut DepEd’s proposed 2025 budget by P12 billion, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said yesterday.

In a statement, Angara lamented how lawmakers’ “promises and nice words” had led to budget cuts that he said could derail the DepEd’s flagship computerization program.

“This, despite the President’s SONA (State of the Nation Address) where he asked Congress to help bridge the digital divide,” the DepEd chief said.

A former senator, Angara said the budget cut was a deviation from common practice among lawmakers to increase the President’s proposed budget for education.

“In past years, Congress has increased the President’s proposed budget for DepEd and education. For whatever reason, nakakalungkot na hindi ito mauulit sa (it’s sad that this is not the same for the) 2025 budget,” Angara said.

“Pero ang maganda dito, mismong si President Bongbong ang nagsabi sa amin na reremedyohan niya ito (But the good thing here is, the President himself told us that he would remedy this),” Angara added.

The bicameral conference committee last week reduced to P737 billion, from P748.65 billion, the DepEd’s 2025 funding allocation in the reconciled version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

Of the amount cut, P10 billion will be slashed from the DepEd’s computerization program, which aims to provide public schools with gadgets, equipment, software and training for teachers and students.

Meanwhile, public school teachers said the cuts were contradictory to the government’s commitment to deal with the learning crisis.

“The decision to slash P12 billion from the DepEd’s budget for 2025 amidst the ongoing learning crisis starkly contradicts the government’s commitment to prioritizing education, as mandated by the Constitution,” the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) said.

Coalition chairman Benjo Basas said the budget cuts on the computerization program would be a disservice to Filipino students, as the deficit could have been used to fill the massive digital gaps in public schools.

“By deprioritizing this initiative, Congress risks exacerbating existing inequalities and leaving millions of students unprepared for the demands of a modern, technology-driven world,” TDC said.

Basas said the reduction also delivers a blow to the welfare of public school teachers “who are already overworked, underpaid, and often forced to shoulder classroom expenses out of their own pockets due to insufficient government support.”

“Teachers and learners are the lifeblood of the education system, yet their welfare is too often sidelined in favor of programs with limited impact or, at times, purely controversial. Stakeholders must unite to demand a higher education budget that genuinely addresses the sector’s needs. The welfare of teachers, who form the backbone of the system, and learners, who represent its future must never be compromised,” TDC added.

‘Anti-education, anti-poor policies’

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro strongly condemned the Marcos administration’s P12-billion budget cut for DepEd, calling it a clear manifestation of the government’s anti-education and anti-poor policies.

Castro said students, teachers and education support personnel should not be made to suffer due to the anomalies committed by Vice President and former DepEd secretary Sara Duterte.

The House committee on good government and public accountability is investigating Duterte for her alleged misuse of the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd when she was still its secretary.

“This budget cut is completely unacceptable and shows where this administration’s priorities truly lie. Instead of working towards the UN-recommended education budget of six percent of GDP, the Marcos Jr. administration is doing the opposite by slashing vital education funds,” Castro said.

“How can we resolve the learning crisis if there is a cut in the budget for education? The P10 billion cut in computerization program is a big loss to our students who are desperate to cope with the digital age,” she added.

The progressive lawmaker pointed out that while the previous leadership of DepEd was marred with controversies, the solution is not to punish the entire education sector through budget cuts.

“The students, teachers and education support personnel must not suffer because of the anomalies committed by the former secretary (Duterte). The answer to corruption is not to decrease funding, but to strengthen accountability measures and increase support for our learners,” Castro said.

For his part, former ACT Teachers party-list representative and now its first nominee Antonio Tinio said that “the P10-billion cut from the computerization program would have provided thousands of students access to digital learning tools. This administration talks about economic recovery, but how can we achieve that when we’re compromising our children’s future?”

“We demand the immediate restoration of the P12 billion budget cut, and call for a significant increase in education funding. Education is a right, not a privilege,” Tinio said.

“If there is a fund for confidential funds and infrastructure projects, there must be a fund for education of our youth,” he added.

Increase in teacher incentives

Meanwhile, Makati 2nd District Rep. Luis Campos Jr. has welcomed the President’s directive to increase from P18,000 to P20,000 the Service Recognition Incentive (SRI) for the country’s 1,011,800 public school teachers and non-teaching staff.

In a statement, Campos, vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations, said the increase in the SRI for DepEd employees can be adequately funded by existing allocations in the 2024 national budget, including the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF).

“We are all for the grant of additional cash incentives and allowances to our teachers and non-teaching staff in recognition of their hard work and to help them cope with the rising cost of living,” he said.

Campos said the MPBF – a lumpsum allocation in the budget – can be used to fund deficiencies in the authorized salaries, bonuses, allowances and similar personnel benefits of national government employees.

“Our estimate is that only around P2 billion is needed to cover the increase in the SRI of our teachers and non-teaching staff from P18,000 to P20,000 each,” he said.

Campos said the MPBF has an allocation of P29.7 billion in the 2024 national budget, and another P163.3 billion in the proposed 2025 GAB that Marcos is set to sign on Dec. 20.

He said he has been batting for the payment of higher cash benefits to teachers to supplement their basic salaries.

The Makati congressman is the author of House Bill 7840, which seeks to raise to P3,000 the World Teacher’s Day Incentive Benefit that honors those engaged in the teaching profession.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman previously said her office will ascertain the funding mechanisms to finalize the release of the money for the SRI of DepEd personnel. –  Jose Rodel Clapano