Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Monday defended the Department of Education’s (DepEd) proposal to have P150 million worth of confidential funds, saying that education is tied to national security.
Duterte said the DepEd must have confidential funds “because education is intertwined with national security.”
“Napakahalaga na we mold children who are patriotic children, who will love our country and defend our country,” Duterte said.
(It is so important that we mold children who are patriotic children, who will love our country and defend our country.)
The Vice President, however, did not specify how the confidential funds would be able to accomplish such objectives.
Both the DepEd and the Office of the Vice President (OVP) proposed a P150 million confidential fund.
Duterte pointed out that there is a joint circular with regard to confidential funds, which will detail where the funds are used.
“Nakalatag din doon kung paano siya liliquidate and by its nature, its confidential funds so we cannot discuss kung paano siya ginagamit sa operations,” she said.
(It is laid out there how it will be liquidated and but by its nature, its confidential funds so we cannot discuss how it will be used in its operations.)
According to Duterte, she leaves it to the decision of Congress as to how much to allocate to both the OVP and DepEd.