President Marcos Jr. yesterday said Malacañang is working to restore the almost P12 billion slashed by lawmakers from the budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the consolidated version of the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
In an interview, the President said: “On the subject of the DepEd, we are still looking into it. We’re working on it to make sure that we will restore it.”
“I do not want to line item veto anything because that just gets in the way. So we’re still talking about it and trying to find a way,” he said, adding, “I think we’ll still be able to do it (restore cut), to be able to do something.”
He added that the reduced budget for the DepEd “is contrary to all our policy directions… when we talk about the STEM development of our educational sector and then (its) continuing development.”
The bicameral conference committee on the 2025 national budget reduced the P748.65 billion budget requested by Malacañang for the DepEd to P737 billion, or by almost P12 billion, in the consolidated version of the P6.362 trillion GAB for next year.
Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara slammed the budget cut, saying this would impact the computerization program of the agency and adversely affect
He said the budget cut of P10 billion in the DepEd Computerization Program would widen the digital divide among students.
“That could have funded thousands of computers/gadgets for our public school children,” he said.
Angara on Sunday said the President had assured him that he would address the department’s budget cut before he sign the General Appropriations Act (GAA), or the final 2025 national budget.
Marcos said: ‘Yung nawala na P10 billion [The P10 billion that was lost] comes from the computerization item. So we’re working on it to make sure that we will restore it.”
The President said budget managers are now reviewing the consolidated 2025 GAB, which he said he plans to sign before Christmas.
He said he would have a more definite decision about DepEd’s appropriation once the review is completed.
He added he intends to meet with the “bicam essentially and the leaders of both Houses” to discuss the spending bill.
The President said the executive branch will also review the allocation for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), particularly those covering big ticket infrastructure projects, and determine which projects should be prioritized.
The bicameral budget committee hiked the DPWH appropriation to P1.113 trillion, from the P825 billion requested by the Palace.
Marcos said the public works sector became a “top recipient of the budget” because of critical infrastructure projects that need to be put in place, such as flood mitigation projects.
Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, said she fully “recognize the President’s prerogative over the budget.”
INEPTNESS, INEFFICIENCIES
At the House, Rep. Jude Acidre (PL, Tingo) said the DepEd under Angara suffered a huge budget cut because of the ineptness and inefficiencies of the department when Vice President Sara Duterte was still the concurrent education secretary.
Acidre and fellow administration lawmakers yesterday continued to defend the reduction of DepEd’s proposed budget next year, citing its underperformance in the computerization program durirng the previous leadership.
He told a joint press conference that the issues on the agency’s limited disbursements, capacity utilization and low utilization rate “came from the previous secretary of Education.”
“I think it’s a good time for DepEd to address their challenges, especially in the utilization,” said Acidre, noting that unlike the DepEd, the DPWH was allocated a larger budget despite its inefficiencies because these were “brought about by the weather, for example.”
“We had many typhoons. That would account for many days of project delays. By and large, the reasons for the inefficiency of the DPWH in budget use is different from the Department of Education,” he added.
During the House budget hearings, lawmakers cited the issues raised in the 2023 report of the Commission on Audit (COA), particularly on the DepEd’s Computerization Program (DCP), including its failure to deliver almost P9 billion worth of laptops which the House Committee on Good Government will look into next year.
COA has flagged the DepEd for low fund utilization in several projects that hampered its objective to upgrade education in the public school system.
Among these projects were the P5.1 billion Learning Tools and Equipment for Science and Math Equipment (SME) and Technical Vocational Livelihood (TVL) Equipment; the P20.547 billion DCP; and the P1.408 billion Last Mile Schools Program (LMSP).
“Of course, we also need to look at the utilization rate of (DepEd) because they also have to explain, especially their computerization program which they said was not funded, but we already gave funds for this during the time of the former secretary ng Department of Education, Vice President Sara Duterte, we saw what happened,” Zambales Rep. Jeffrey Khonghun said in the same press conference.
Khonghun said many of the laptops are still being kept at warehouses until now “so they (DepEd) have to explain first how the funds provided by the government were used because we cannot just give and give allocations without them accounting for how the funds were used.”
Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez (PL, 1-Rider) earlier said the DCP “was particularly notorious for issues of delayed procurement.”
“This isn’t just inefficiency—it’s negligence,” said Gutierrez. “And that’s just for 2023, we’re not even talking about the computerization budget for 2024 and the year is almost over.”
The issue isn’t new. DepEd ICT Director Ferdinand Pitagan admitted during a September budget hearing that 12,022 laptops for teachers and 7,558 for non-teaching personnel remained undelivered by end-2023.
Administration lawmakers also noted that DepEd’s utilization rate for its information and communication technology project was only P2.75 billion out of P11.36 billion.
La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V said having a smaller budget does not mean that education is not an administration priority. “There are just programs that need to be reassessed because it is not responsive to the needs of the people,” Ortega said.
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said he sees three possible constitutional issues that can be raised against the 2025 GAB.
The issues, he said, include the higher allocation given to government infrastructure projects compared to the budget allotted for the education sector; higher unprogrammed appropriations compared to Malacañang’s National Expenditure Program (NEP); and the supposedly unnecessary certification of the budget measure as urgent.
Pimentel noted the higher P1.113 trillion budget given to the DPWH, which he said is a violation of the constitutional mandate that the education sector should get the highest budget allocation.
Article XIV, Section 5, Paragraph 5, of the Constitution states: “The State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.”
Aside from the almost P12 billion cut in the budget of DepEd, Pimentel noted that the appropriation of the University of the Philippines System was also reduced to P22.76 billion from P23.4 billion.
However, in the bicameral-approved 2025 budget, funding for the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) was increased to P122 billion from P114.9 billion.
Pimentel also questioned the increase in unprogrammed funds, noting that the bicameral panel added P373 billion to the P158.6 billion requested by the Executive. The final unprogrammed appropriation contained in the ratified budget bill was set at P531.66 billion.
“It (unprogrammed appropriations) is higher by P373 billion. So, there are two constitutional provisions affected here. Ang sabi kasi, the principal one, the appropriations recommended by the President cannot be increased by Congress (It is stated that the appropriations recommended by the President cannot be increased by Congress),” Pimentel said.
This is not the first time that Congress raised the unprogrammed funds beyond what was requested by the executive branch. In 2024, Congress gave the executive branch an additional P449.5 billion worth of unprogrammed funds, raising the unprogrammed funds to P731.44 billion.
On the issuance of a certification for the urgent passage of the budget bill, Pimentel said budget deliberations are a yearly “ritual” of Congress which is based on a budget calendar.
“This is a predictable phase in the legislative process. So, what’s the point in issuing this presidential certification of urgency? What is the emergency steering us right into our faces? Wala naman eh (There is none),” he said.
Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) also assailed the decision of congressmen and senators to slash the DepEd budget, saying the move was an “unjust punishment of students and teachers for the misdeeds of former DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte.”
“It is completely unacceptable that our students and teachers have to suffer because of the previous leadership’s mismanagement. The bicam’s decision to cut vital education funding while padding infrastructure projects in the DPWH with pork barrel funds shows misplaced priorities,” Castro said.
Castro called for the recall of the ratified General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 2025 and the immediate reconvening of the bicameral committee “with full public transparency and television coverage.”
“We demand the restoration of the DepEd budget cuts and the removal of pork barrel insertions in infrastructure projects. The Filipino people deserve to know how their money is being realigned in these closed-door meetings,” she said.
Commenting on the DepEd budget, Poe stressed that “the education sector remains a priority as we have increased the budget for students and teachers.”
She also said that coming up with the final version of the national budget measure is “a product of exhaustive efforts” which was approved by majority members of both the Senate and House of Representatives and as such, reflects “the careful decisions made within the constraints we face.”
“Working with finite resources to fund infinite needs is not an easy choice but what we have reflects the careful decisions made within the constraints we face,” she said. – With Wendell Vigilia and Raymond Africa
