Bam Aquino hits nearly 90% cut in DepEd’s budget for classroom repairs

Sen. Bam Aquino on Wednesday slammed the almost 90 percent decrease in the 2019 budget alloted for classroom repairs of the Department of Education (Deped) to only P10.2 billion from last year’s P116 billion.

“Napakalaking kapabayaan ang tapyasan ng halos 90 porsiyento ang budget para sa pagpapagawa ng classroom. Ang ating mga anak at kanilang edukasyon dapat ang prayoridad ng gobyerno,” Aquino said in a statement.

(It is big negligence to reduce almost 90 percent of budget for classroom repairs. Our children and their education should be the priority of the government.)

With the recent onslaught of Typhoon “Ompong” (international name: Mangkhut), Aquino wanted to allot additional funds for school buildings damaged by the storm.

“Kailangang gawin ding prayoridad ng pamahalaan ang pagsasaayos ng mga silid-aralan at mga gusali na sinira ng Bagyong Ompong upang hindi maantala ang pag-aaral ng ating mga estudyante,” he said.

(The repair of classrooms and buildings damaged by Typhoon Ompong must be prioritized by the government in order to not disrupt the education of our students.)

DepEd may need an additional budget for building 10,000 new classrooms  amounting to P15 billion in 2019, Aquino said. /ee