DAGUPAN CITY – Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. assured the people that Congress will approve on Dec. 19 the P1.227- trillion national budget for 2008.
De Venecia said he, President Arroyo, and Senate President Manuel Villar will sign it into law.
He made the announcement Friday afternoon when he inaugurated here a two-story school building at the West Central Elementary School funded by his Public Development Assistance Fund.
De Venecia finished his elementary education at the West Central Elementary School in 1946.
He said the budget includes an additional P6.9 billion to last year’s allocation of P142 billion for the building of classrooms nationwide.
“We have increased the budget from P142 billion by P6.9 billion and with this, starting Jan. 1, we will appoint 5,000 new school teachers all over the Philippines,” he said.
He said the government will build P1-billion worth of new classrooms nationwide.
He said they will buy P500 million worth of new school desks and furniture for the new schools.
The Speaker was applauded when he said they will appropriate another P400 million for the long delayed salary adjustment of the school teachers.
He said this was his promise during the elections and he fulfilled it.
Another P200 million was also appropriated for medical, dental, optical and nursing services for public schools, he said.
De Venecia said he is saddened by the report that 1,800 teachers have tuberculosis because of too much work and Congress also appropriated P100 million to cure them of this illness.