ACT-Teachers Party-List Rep. France Castro said Thursday that the National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict's (NTF-ELCAC) budget for next year would be better off used on students' self-learning modules (SLMs).
This, as the lawmaker gave the proverbial thumbs up to the proposal of some senators to realign the NTF-ELCAC's proposed budget for 2021 worth P19.1 billion.
"We welcome and laud the members of the Upper House such as Sen. (Franklin) Drilon and Sen. (Risa) Hontiveros for proposing a realignment of the P19.1 billion 2021 budget for NTF-ELCAC to basic services.
"In fact, education will be one of the sectors which can benefit from the realignment of funds from the terrorist-tagging task force," noted Castro, who like Drilon and Hontiveros are critics of the Duterte administration.
"If we rechannel just half or one-third of the P19.1 billion for NTF-ELCAC, P6.3 billion to P9.5 billion will go a long way in the production of (SLMs)," the former public school teacher noted.
"We still have more than seven remaining months in school year 2020-2021 and by rechaneling NTF-ELCAC's budget can ease the pain of schools and teachers so that they will not be left to their own devices and spend for these expenses out of their own pockets," she added.
Castro and the rest of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives have been beefing with NTF-ELCAC officials for months now.
Meanwhile, the left-leaning Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) deplored the “business-as-usual attitude” of the Duterte administration on the impact of typhoon “Rolly” on the education sector.
SPARK is once again calling for the country’s leading education agencies to implement what they thought as “justified and legitimate” call for an academic freeze or the suspension/cancellation of classes in all levels until January next year.
SPARK noted that countless communities and millions of residents in Southern Luzon - most especially in the Bicol region - completely lost access to electricity and the internet in addition to their homes and livelihoods during the onslaught of “Rolly” which is considered as the strongest storm so far this year. (With a report from Merlina Hernando-Malipot)