MANILA, Philippines — After hours of deliberation, a Senate panel approved yesterday the P758.69-million budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) – led by Vice President Sara Duterte – including its controversial P150 million confidential fund.
At a public hearing of the Senate sub-committee on finance presided over by Sen. Pia Cayetano, senators scrutinized the DepEd budget for more than three hours before declaring it approved.
The discussions centered on the confidential fund, which senators eventually retained.
The long-drawn-out deliberation caused the delay in the start of the plenary session at 3 p.m. Also approved earlier yesterday – by the finance committee – was the P2.395-billion budget of the OVP.
At the hearing on the DepEd budget, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III asked DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa if the agency could function without confidential funds, the official said it is possible but stressed that work would be easier if they have such fund.
“If you can live without P150-million confidential funds, give that amount to these three programs which are sorely lacking in funds. With P150 million and P2.5 million per classroom, so that’s 60 classrooms. Not bad?” Pimentel asked.
“As VP always says, we defer to the wisdom of Congress... We want accessible and equitable education,” said Poa.
Poa said they requested for confidential funds due to threats in schools like recruitment by rebel groups as well as illegal drugs, which he described as alarming.
He said 12.3 percent of rebel surrenderees from 2016-2020 were minors.
The DepEd official said they have information that in Metro Manila alone, rebel recruitment was active in 16 public schools.
As for illegal drugs, the number of minors involved has reached 5,358 and from July last year to July this year, 871 minors had been rescued from involvement in drugs.
Poa said these threats have affected students and teachers, prompting them to request for confidential funds.
But Pimentel pointed out that “for the longest time, the DepEd has no confidential funds. Some of the problems have been around for a long time.”
He said there are mechanisms to address concerns raised by the DepEd.
Teacher shortage
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva noted the huge shortage of teachers in the country, pointing out that 1,500 teachers left the country from 2013 to 2017, per data of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
Villanueva also cited an Asian Development Bank study which showed that teacher-to-student ratio in the Philippines is greater than Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, with more than 20 students per one teacher.
“What is the ideal teacher-to-student ratio and how many teachers do we need to reach such ratio? And what is going to be the effect of the hiring target of 20,000 teachers for 2024 to address the shortage of teachers in public schools?” the majority leader asked.
DepEd Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil-Mercado told senators that the country needs 86,000 teachers to reach the ideal 1:30 teacher-student ratio. Villanueva also raised the issue of 43,014 unfilled positions in the agency.
Stressing that the proposed P12-billion budget for textbooks would not be enough to cover the needs of all grade levels, Cayetano said she is pushing for the digitalization of textbooks.
She added that with e-textbooks, there would be no need to spend for paper and errors would be easier to correct.
Poa told senators they would discuss the matter with publishers and update senators on the procurement of e-textbooks.
Connectivity
Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda emphasized the importance of connecting schools, especially those located in remote areas, to the internet to help children in their learning.
Legarda asked for a database of all DepEd schools across the country with zero internet connectivity – whether through fiber optic or satellite.
Citing her experience in her home province of Antique, Legarda said it would be “life changing” for a province to be able to tap the Starlink technology to connect DepEd schools, located in the remote mountain area, to the internet.
“When we look at the budget of the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology), they should target and put in their budget learning as a priority. If DepEd could share that (list) to DICT, it can be a Senate amendment to include schools with big learning population but zero connectivity,” Legarda said.
Sen. Grace Poe asked Duterte if she could reconsider her decision to prohibit unnecessary artwork, decorations and other visual teaching aids in the classrooms.
Poe manifested that people are divided on the issue, and teaching aid materials, to some extent, could help the students.
“So maybe just a clarification on that point, there are others, maybe in nursery schools, that might benefit from that (visual aids). I was wondering if the secretary will be flexible with that.”
OVP’s CIF approved
Earlier yesterday, the Senate finance committee chaired by Sen. Sonny Angara approved the proposed P2.395-billion budget of the OVP, including P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF).
At the hearing, Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked Duterte about her office’s request for P500 million in CIF, but the Vice President asked a subordinate to do the answering.
The senator requested the VP to answer the question herself. Duterte explained that they would use the requested funds to ensure that their programs and activities were safe and successfully implemented.
“All projects use the confidential funds for safe, secure and successful implementation of programs, activities and engagements of all satellite offices, including the central office of the OVP,” she said.
“There are times when the President is on official trips… I chair the executive committee as a caretaker… This is an additional task,” she added.
“Whatever we gather from our confidential funds, we share it mainly with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP (Philippine National Police) as well as they share intelligence information that they gather which is not included in our database,” she explained.
Duterte said that as co-vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, the confidential funds would also be used in the development of policy direction.