House justifies slashing of DepEd's 2025 budget

The House of Representatives has stood firm on slashing P10 billion from the Department of Education (DepEd)'s 2025 computerization budget, calling out the agency's alleged glaring inefficiency and fund mismanagement.

- By JOSE RODEL CLAPANO

1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez dismissed the objections of DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara, who earlier criticized lawmakers for the budget cut.

"Secretary Angara may argue that education funding is sacrosanct, but Congress cannot keep throwing good money after bad. This is not about depriving education; it's about ensuring proper fund use and accountability," Gutierrez stressed.

"While it's unfortunate that Sec. Sonny inherited the problems and scandals left behind by his predecessor, Vice President Sara Duterte, Sec. Angara knows that the law is clear: unused funds must be accounted for before new allocations can be made," he said. "Now that he's education secretary, he should focus on fixing DepEd's internal mess instead of crying foul about budget decisions."

Citing DepEd's poor track record, the lawmaker pointed to the Commission on Audit (COA) report, which revealed DepEd's disbursement of only P2.075 billion of its P11.36-billion 2023 budget for ICT equipment.

"This isn't just inefficiency - it's negligence," Gutierrez pointed out, adding that DepEd's failure to deliver on its mandate justifies Congress' decision to reallocate funds.

September, DepEd ICT director Ferdinand Pitagan admitted that 12,022 laptops for teachers and 7,558 for non-teaching personnel remained undelivered by end-2023.

"And that's just for 2023, we're not even talking about the computerization budget for 2024 and the year is almost over," Gutierrez said.

Critics scored the department for the laptop procurement mess under Duterte's term as DepEd chief, during which overpriced units drained resources without meeting schools' needs.