Incoming DepEd chief frowns on gambling as fund source

Incoming Education Secretary Leonor Briones PHOTO BY JOVIC YEE

Incoming Education Secretary Leonor Briones, who is seeking an additional P45 billion for the expansion of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) program, has voiced reservations about the next administration’s plan of tapping gambling proceeds to bankroll the program.

Briones made known her position after President-elect Rodrigo Duterte announced at his victory party on Saturday that he would allot funds from the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) to reform the education sector.

“I have always been against gambling as a source of funding for development,” Briones said at a press briefing early this week.

“The positive side is you raise money for development, but then it’s also antidevelopmental. You tell your people to be thrifty, to plan and to budget, but you’re also telling them to take a chance,” said Briones.

On top of that, she cited the issue of money laundering, which continues to hound the gambling industry.

Flexible learning program

According to the Department of Education’s (DepEd) website, the ALS is a parallel learning system implemented by the agency to provide a “practical option” to formal education.

It has two “modular and flexible” programs, namely, the basic literacy program and continuing education program, which allows learners to study anytime and anywhere.

Briones will assume the helm of the education portfolio two weeks after the country fully rolls out the K-12 program. DepEd will fully implement

K-12 with the opening of the senior high school program on Monday.

Briones explained that expanding ALS would be one of the key areas the Duterte administration would focus on since there would be “learners” that DepEd could not accommodate into the formal education setup.

“We are recognizing that not all children can be accommodated in the K-12 program because even without it, the record is that for 1.2 million students who graduate from Grade 6, perhaps only 50 percent will go on to college. We can’t leave them behind,” Briones said.

Equal opportunities

Duterte is concerned about the fate of those who would not be covered by K-12, said Briones. Thus the need to further develop the ALS program, so that the government can give equal opportunities to the out-of-school youths and adults who have not gone through formal education, she added.

Estimates of budget watchdog group Social Watch Philippines currently headed by Briones show that DepEd needs an additional P45 billion to bankroll the ALS program.

Briones, the national treasurer during the Estrada administration, explained that should the Pagcor funding push through, the agency could only provide around P10 billion.

She, however, pointed out that she was already in talks with incoming Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who assured her of increased funding for the department.

Highest budget

Asked where Diokno would get the funds, Briones surmised that “he might reverse some existing programs” under the 2016 national budget.

Currently, DepEd has a budget of over P436 billion. However, Briones said that while DepEd had the highest budget among all government agencies, it remained to be “severely underfunded.”

“International standards require at least 6 percent of GDP to be allocated for education. Present calculations (show that DepEd is) at 3 percent,” she said.