Education will not be denied the top priority in the national budget as mandated in the 1987 Constitution, and Senate re-electionist Ping Lacson will make sure of that.
Lacson said in a recent television interview that this becomes more urgent in the wake of findings from the Department of Education that more than 18 million Filipinos may be functionally illiterate.
“More than 18 million Filipinos may be functionally illiterate.”
“I will make sure that the Constitution will be followed as far as giving the education sector top priority in the budget is concerned,” he said in Filipino in an interview on NET25.
Lacson was referring to the issue involving the 2025 proposed national budget where the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had a higher appropriation than the education sector – the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and state colleges and universities.
He had questioned the bicameral conference committee’s reducing of the DepEd budget to P737 billion and increasing that of the DPWH to P1.113 trillion, which was higher than the combined P912 billion of the DepEd, CHED, TESDA, and SUCs – a violation of Art. XIV, Sec. 5(5) of the Constitution which declares that “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.”
Making this even more urgent is the finding of the DepEd that more than 18 million Filipinos may be functionally illiterate, Lacson said.
“We must pay more attention to the situation of the education sector, especially primary education.”
“We must pay more attention to the situation of the education sector, especially primary education,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lacson said he expects senators in the 20th Congress to set aside their political differences in doing legislative work, especially if the leadership will not be a part of political divisiveness.
“I think we can move on from the Duterte-Marcos effect in the midterm elections. When we focus on attending caucuses and discussing our legislative agenda, it would be a step in the right direction,” he said.
