EDITORIAL - Spend it

The latest furor now regarding the national budget for next year is how ?10 billion was cut from the Department of Education’s computerization program.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has vowed to restore this amount.

“We are still looking into it. I think it is contrary to all our policy direction when we talk about the (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) development of our educational sector and then the continuing development,” Marcos was quoted as saying in a Philippine News Agency report.

It is never a good idea to reduce the budget of DepEd when it comes to anything. Perhaps maybe when it comes to the Confidential and Intelligence Funds for the DepEd secretary; he or she certainly doesn’t need that, and intelligence functions are not the mandate of the department.

But reducing it anywhere else always runs the risk of affecting how the department performs. And we all know DepEd needs to shape up when it comes to improving the quality of our education.

With that said, it should also be mentioned that DepEd seems to have billions in unspent funds.

Another report, this time by the Inquirer, mentions that of the ?18 billion allotted for DepEd’s computerization program for 2024, only ?2.1 billion or 11.92% was spent as of June this year. For the previous year, 2023, only ?10.2 billion of the allotted ?20.5 billion was used.

So it would seem DepEd didn’t spend even half of the budget for their computerization program this year and last. While we are not privy to how our lawmakers think, we can only conclude that some of them saw it fit to cut the budget for this program for this very reason.

If the DepEd’s computerization budget is restored, they should make the effort of actually spending most of it for its intended purpose. Not only will this benefit their program; it will give them and their supporters better grounds to argue against any future budget cuts.