BY MARCOS C. MORDENO
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews) – Section 1 of Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution states: “The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.”
To achieve this end, Section 4 (5) of the same Article provides: “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.”
But if President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signs into law the 2025 budget as approved by Congress, this won’t be the case. In an unprecedented move that may run counter to the mandate of the Constitution, the bicameral conference committee slashed the budget of the Department of Education by P11.57 billion.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara criticized the lawmakers for the budget cut.
Reacting to Angara’s criticism, 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez said: “Secretary Angara may argue that education funding is sacrosanct, but Congress cannot keep throwing good money after bad. This is not about depriving education; it’s about ensuring proper fund use and accountability.”
Gutierrez was alluding to the Commission on Audit report that DepEd has only disbursed P2.075 billion of its P11.36-billion 2023 budget for ICT equipment, calling it “not just inefficiency but negligence.” He said the department’s failure to provide laptops to teachers and non-teaching personnel using that fund by end-2023 justifies the budget reallocation.
“While it’s unfortunate that Sec. Sonny inherited the problems and scandals left behind by his predecessor, Vice President Sara Duterte, Sec. Angara knows that the law is clear: unused funds must be accounted for before new allocations can be made,” he said. “Now that he’s education secretary, he should focus on fixing DepEd’s internal mess instead of crying foul about budget decisions,” a philstar.com report (December 15, 2024) quoted the congressman as saying.
However, while Congress may have heeded Gutierrez’s admonition that “Congress cannot keep throwing good money after bad” in the case of DepEd, it has done the exact opposite by giving the Department of Public Works and Highways a budget of P1.113 trillion for 2025, or an increase of 100 billion from its 2024 allocation of P900 billion.
How would Congress justify the DPWH budget with the flood control projects that obviously failed to work during the typhoons that struck the country? And, isn’t it also a case of “throwing good money after bad,” this practice of the agency to “repair” roads that show no cracks and other damage – in short, still usable – while neglecting to build new ones where they are needed?
Some other government agencies, not just DPWH, may need the same kind of due diligence that Congress has subjected DepEd to.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at boymords@mindanews.com.)
