00:00So graft-ridden was this year's budget, gradient larcenous lawmakers took away money earmarked for the education sector
00:07and stashed it under unprogrammed funds for flood control projects in dereliction of their constitutional mandate.
00:14Thus, with the flood control conspiracy exposed, the Senate plenary put the biggest slice of government funds for next year back to the DepEd.
00:22More on the $1 trillion and $44 million outlay for education in this Luisa Erispe report.
00:30The Senate plenary has approved the proposed budget of the Department of Education for 2026.
00:36The budget amounted to $1.44 trillion.
00:39This is the largest allocation under the 2026 General Appropriations Bill and highest in the history of DepEd's budget.
00:48From the House of Representatives version, Senate increased the budget to $77.66 billion.
00:53Most of the budget is allocated to the construction of classrooms for 2026.
00:59They aim to build more than 25,000 rooms.
01:02Not so good news, 22 now to 54 classrooms.
01:07Yung classrooms completed natin out of the, if I'm not mistaken, for this year's 1,700 yung target.
01:156,000?
01:156,000.
01:166,000 ang target.
01:17So out of the 6,000 target, 54 na ho ang nakoconstruct.
01:21In order for us to reach this 24,500, which I don't know if talagang it's a leap of faith to come up with such a figure, Mr. President, considering that right now we only finished 54 classrooms.
01:36And they're so proud of it, Mr. President.
01:38Aside from classrooms, there are also additional funds to procure textbooks and learning materials for students.
01:49From $11.26 billion on the NEP, it was increased to $29.29 billion in the Senate version.
01:56The budget for the feeding programs also doubled.
01:59And the budget for the disaster preparedness and school safety system has tripled to $3.67 billion from $665 million.
02:08There are also funds that will benefit teachers and other school personnel.
02:12And the allocation for the adult program did not decrease.
02:16The DEP had thanked the support of the Congress to improve the budget of the department and vowed to implement it with transparency, urgency, and integrity.
02:25Luisa Erispe from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.
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