Escudero defends DepEd budget cut; House awaits ‘guidance’

Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero —Niño Jesus Orbeta

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Tuesday rejected calls urging President Marcos to undo the bicameral conference committee’s move reducing the budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) next year, noting that the agency’s “dismal fund utilization” left more than P36.1 billion in unused funds for its computerization program.

Escudero, who formerly headed the Senate finance committee, said there was no need for Marcos to veto certain provisions of the P6.352-trillion 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), which the Senate and the House of Representatives both ratified on Dec. 11.

According to him, the President is authorized to augment the funding of state agencies by tapping the unspent appropriations from previous years.

“This way, (the President) need not veto other line items in the (GAB) in order to provide the DepEd’s additional funds,” Escudero said in a statement.

Available funds

Education Secretary Sonny Angara, a former senator who also used to chair the Senate finance panel, earlier expressed dismay over his former colleagues’ decision to trim DepEd’s outlay, including the P10 billion it set aside for the purchase of computers for public school students.

But Escudero noted that records showed the department, then headed by Vice President Sara Duterte, failed to spend more than P10 billion of the over P13 billion that Congress had allotted for DepEd’s computerization program in 2022.

The funds, he said, would revert to the national treasury if DepEd failed to obligate and use the amount by the end of the year.

Escudero said the department also did not spend half of its P20.4-billion allotment in 2023 and another P15.9 billion for the procurement of computers this year.

“That is a total of P36.1 billion of unspent funds over the past three years, more than thrice the P10 billion that DepEd would like to be restored in its 2025 budget. So there are funds that the President may tap,” he pointed out.

“There are many sources to augment (the DepEd’s budget). DepEd and its secretary should know because the submissions for the budget deliberations on their own dismal fund utilization came from them,” he said in a separate Viber message.

“So one can see why Congress has to be circumspect with regard to budget allocations,” the Senate leader explained.

He maintained that lawmakers were committed to allotting the education sector with sufficient funds, but DepEd should ensure that its allocations would be spent efficiently.

“These allocations for education will not help anyone unless the DepEd properly spends them on the projects they are intended for,” Escudero pointed out.

Up to the President

In the House, Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. David Suarez on Tuesday said there was no need to reconvene the bicameral conference to adjust the DepEd budget for 2025 and that they would adhere to the final decision of the President.

Suarez stressed that both chambers of Congress have already ratified the bicam report, “so now it’s under review by the executive and it’s due for signature before Christmas.”

“Whatever the move of the executive within this time until the signing, we’ll just have to wait,” Suarez said.

“This is always the tricky part when it comes to the budget. You know, agencies always want to have more, but unfortunately we [only] have limited resources. We go through this song and dance every year but I believe in the version that we’ve passed.”

Marcos on Monday vowed to restore the P10 billion slashed from the DepEd’s computerization program but clarified that it would not be through a line-item veto of the questioned provision in the GAB.

Asked where the President could possibly source the restoration of the P10 billion, Suarez said they “have to wait for guidance from Malacañang on how to go about it, and we will be happy to hear from the President.”

Suarez also explained why the House would be enjoying a large budget increase next year: “We’re currently in the middle of building new structures and buildings, especially since the number of members in the lower chamber is growing and growing.”

DPWH ‘pork barrel’

Meanwhile, former Senate President Franklin Drilon said the significant budget cuts sustained by DepEd and other agencies were apparently made to fatten the “pork barrel” items in the spending plan of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“This is the pork barrel in DPWH alone. We have not yet seen the extent of similar realignments in other agencies,” Drilon said in a television interview.

As in the government’s yearly expenditure programs in the past, Drilon said the discretionary funds of lawmakers, which the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional, could still be found in the GAB.

“And there is no denying it. It is present and it is funded by removing allocations for education, social welfare (and others),” he said.

He noted that the bicam raised by P288 billion the DPWH’s budget, bringing the allotment of one of the reportedly most corrupt state agencies to a record P1.1 trillion next year.

The former senator said the increase was apparently taken from amounts slashed from DepEd, Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Commission on Higher Education and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.