The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Tuesday, Nov. 23, welcomed the Senate Committee on Finance’s decision to increase the budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) and state universities and colleges (SUCs).

"We welcome the developments in our fight for bigger funding for education, but more needs to be done. With the country still in back-to-back health and economic crises, many of our fellow Filipinos are still struggling to keep their heads above water," ACT secretary-general Raymond Basilio said in a statement.

ACT claimed that the government wastes an "obscene amount of funds" and allocated it to the "sham counter-insurgency task force that is the NTF-ELCAC ."

"The obscene amount of funds allocated to it should instead be rechanneled to social services, like education," the group said.

Based on its computation, ACT pointed out that a total of P118 billion is needed to fund the urgent needs of basic education such as ensuring the safe re-opening of schools in more areas, provision of gadgets, internet allowance to teachers and students, and health protection benefits for education workers including hazard pay, overtime premium, medical fund, as well as overload pay.

"The same needs demand to be addressed in state universities and colleges, with more and more students employing blended modes of in-classroom and distance learning," it said, adding that the Senate has to "restore" the P14.8 billion budget cut for SUCs.

"The education sector has long suffered the brunt of the Duterte administration’s failure to address the health and economic crises, and it is our teachers and students who have had to continue to face these repercussions," Basilio said.

ACT urged the senators to "find it in their good conscience" to prioritize the education sector and allocate the country’s resources to the people who have been shouldering the grave impacts of the pandemic and economic crisis.

"Kinakailangan ng sektor ng edukasyon ng karampatang badyet upang muli itong makabangon, lalo’t unti-unti nang nagbubukas ang ating mga paaralan (The Education sector needs a competent budget so that it can rise again, especially now that the schools are slowly re-opening)," the group said. (Charie Mae F. Abarca)