GABRIELA Rep. Arlene Brosas yesterday vowed to move for the realignment of parts of the proposed confidential and intelligence appropriations of the Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President to fund the Department of Education’s special education program (SPED) in the proposed P5.268 trillion national budget for 2023.
Brosas made the statement as she slammed the Department of Budget and Management and DepEd for blaming each other “when both are actually liable for the zero allocation of SPED.”
“We’ll be the one to make way: We’ll realign the confidential and intelligence funds of the OP and the OVP in favor of the SPED program,” she said in a statement.
Congressmen, who are now tackling the 2023 general appropriations bill in the House plenary, can introduce a budget for special education when the deliberations reach the period of amendments.
House appropriations committee senior vice chair Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo has said the inclusion of the budget for the SPED is possible during the plenary debates.
“We cannot allow the passage of a budget which has zero allocation for the special education (SPED) program, as it is a huge injustice for the estimated 5.1 million Filipino children with special needs,” said Brosas. “We are deeply enraged that President Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte can easily allocate billions of funding for intelligence and confidential funds but fail to ensure budget for learners with disabilities.”
Brosas noted that the Office of the President has a total of P4.5 billion confidential and intelligence funds while not a single peso was set aside for SPED.
“This speaks volumes of how the government prioritizes confidential funds that are prone to corruption over programs for basic social services for vulnerable sectors,” she said.
In a statement the other day, the DepEd said it proposed a P532 million budget for the program next year, but this was supposedly not included in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) approved by the DBM.
On the other hand, the DBM said said the DepEd failed to provide sufficient documentation to support the budget allocation for the retention of the SPED.
Quezon City Rep. Patrick Michael Vargas yesterday filed a bill seeking to increase and institutionalize the grant of a “teaching supplies” allowance for public school teachers in time for the National Teachers’ Month celebration.
House Bill 4072, also known as the “Teaching Supplies Allowance Bill”, seeks to provide an annual budget dedicated for their classroom supplies expenses and increase it to P10,000 from P5,000.
For academic year 2021-2022, classroom teachers were only granted P5,000 cash allowance following the issuance of the joint circular by the DepEd and the DBM, which prescribes guidelines in implementing the DepEd-Office of the Secretary special provision No. 11 on cash allowance.
Under the joint circular, the cash allowance shall be intended for the purchase of teaching supplies and materials, tangible or intangible; for the conduct of various modes of learning, internet, and other communication expenses; and for their annual medical examination expense.
