00:00The budget of the Philippines is only held by two people.
00:04It is held by Congressman Zaldico and Congressman Martin Romualdez.
00:10That is the truth.
00:13My example here, this is a bit long, so please excuse me.
00:18My example here, let's go to DepEd first.
00:23In the Department of Education, in 2023,
00:305 billion was approved for classroom construction.
00:37I was surprised because there were members of the House who asked for the 5 billion,
00:47part of the 5 billion budget.
00:49I don't have experience with that.
00:53And my understanding is that once the Office of the President approves it,
00:58it will be given to the Department of Education for the construction of classrooms.
01:07I was surprised.
01:08Someone asked,
01:10how much do we have there, how much do we have there?
01:14So I said,
01:16this cannot be.
01:19Because what will happen is that the Department of Education will not be able to construct classrooms
01:27according to the classroom backlog and prioritization based on the backlog and classroom construction.
01:37So I told a congressman,
01:40tell Martin Romualdez,
01:43that the classroom construction of 5 billion cannot be cut.
01:48So if you will see,
01:50in the budget proposal approved by the Office of the President,
01:55that is 5 billion.
01:56But when GAA came out, or the budget approved in 2023,
02:02it became 15 billion.
02:05Because I did not agree to take the 5 billion,
02:11they added 10 billion to the classroom construction of the Department of Education.
02:19That 10 billion is not controlled by the Department of Education.
02:25It is controlled by Congressman Zaldico and Congressman Martin Romualdez.
02:33I don't need a corroborative witness here anymore.
02:37Because you will see that in the paper.
02:40People will see that in the paper.
02:435 billion, the budget approved, 15 billion.
02:48When we got to the Senate,
02:51the Senators saw that.
02:53They asked the Department of Education,
02:56Is it true, or not true,
03:00that the list of 17 billion classroom construction came from you?
03:07So we told the Senators,
03:09it is not true.
03:10We cannot do our job.
03:13We cannot solve the classroom backlog if this is what is happening.
03:18Can you help us?
03:22The Senators were very helpful.
03:25Yes, we will help you.
03:27So if you will see in the interpellation of a Senator in the budget hearing in the Senate,
03:34he asked directly,
03:36did the list of 17 billion come from the Department of Education?
03:40Did the list attached to the House version come from the Department of Education?
03:49We said no.
03:51It did not come from us.
03:53It is on record.
03:55You will see it in the videos.
03:57Go back to the videos.
03:59You will see it.
04:01That is why I don't need a witness anymore.
04:03Because you will see it in the paper.
04:07Then the BICAM came.
04:10Nothing happened.
04:12Because the ones who followed were
04:15Congressman Zaldico and Congressman Martin Romualdez.
04:22That is why the list of 17 billion made by Romualdez and me is still attached.
04:30In fact, I will just go back to you for a while.
04:34Even the congressmen,
04:37they can see the problem of attaching the list to the budget.
04:46Because in the Basic Education Hearing in May 2024 of the House of Representatives,
04:53there was a congressman who complained,
04:55why is it taking so long for the classroom construction?
05:00Why is it taking so long?
05:02The USEC of the DepEd said,
05:04because there are changes in the list of DPWH because we did not make the list.
05:11So I will just add that to the confirmation that they got the budget of DepEd.
05:21And that is one of the reasons why I resigned from the Department of Education.
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