00:00A former senator who called the 2025 budget of the BICAM unconstitutional
00:07was then approved, followed by a lower budget and the funding of the education sector was cut.
00:15It turns out that the Department of Public Works and Highways, or DPWH,
00:21has the highest budget priority with more than 1.1 trillion pesos.
00:28The defense of some lawmakers in the ruling of Jonathan Anda.
00:36When the Bicameral Conference Committee combined the version of the Chamber and Senate
00:41of the 2025 National Budget to submit to the President,
00:44together with the agencies that completed the budget, the Department of Education,
00:48more than 11.5 billion pesos was allocated,
00:52which was allocated by Education Secretary Sunny Angara.
00:56What was reduced specifically was the computerization program of the DepEd.
01:00We have a program that, after the term of the President,
01:05all of our public schools will be given computer packages.
01:10President Bongbong Marcos has already said that they will find a way
01:14to get back the increased budget of DepEd.
01:16But in the view of GME Integrated News Research,
01:19aside from DepEd, the funding of other sectors of education was also cut.
01:24In the CEDO, Commission on Higher Education, for example,
01:26almost half was cut from 60 billion to only 33 billion.
01:32The UP, or University of the Philippine System, was reduced by 641 million pesos.
01:38Even the TESDA, or Technical Education and Skills Development Authority,
01:42was also cut by 1.1 billion pesos.
01:46According to the Constitution, the education sector should have the highest priority in the budget.
01:52But former Senator Ping Lakson said that the BICAM did something wrong here
01:56because it turns out that the education sector is no longer getting the highest budget priority,
02:03but the Department of Public Works and Highways, or DPWH.
02:07It was given more than 1.1 trillion pesos.
02:11This is higher than more than 912 billion pesos of the entire education sector, according to Lakson.
02:18But Congressman Jefferson said that even if DepEd was cut,
02:23the education sector's fund is still higher.
02:26If you combine the budget of the Department of Education,
02:31CED, SUCs, TESDA,
02:36the budget of our government is still higher than the education budget.
02:43That's why we need to look at this in totality,
02:48what is being given by the government's fund.
02:55But in the computation of the GMA Integrated News Research,
02:58even if the fund of all those in the education sector is combined,
03:03including other educational institutions,
03:06it is still lower than the budget of the DPWH, which has already exceeded 1 trillion pesos.
03:11According to Senate Finance Committee Chairperson Senator Grispo,
03:14the President's strength lies in the country's budget.
03:17But he noted that the education sector is still a priority.
03:21They added an extra day to the budget for students and teachers.
03:24According to Senator Mig Zubiri,
03:26President Marcos can tell the BICAM to meet again to fix the budget.
03:32Possibly, we did that for the coco levy fund,
03:35we did that for the agriculturalist,
03:37the anti-smuggling act that BICAM reported to fix it.
03:44We can do overtime.
03:46For our countrymen, it's their budget.
03:49It's very important.
03:52That's the most important thing.
03:55For the GMA Integrated News,
03:57Jonathan Andal,
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