Despite the “limited budget,” the Department of Education (DepEd) expressed confidence that it will still meet the target for new classrooms next year.

DepEd Spokesperson Michael Poa said that the deliberations for the budget are underway in Congress.

“The DepEd will just really justify or will try to justify its position on the much-needed budget for next year especially on the infrastructure we will need so that we can get out of what our Vice President mentioned as 'quicksand',” Poa explained in a mix of English and Filipino.

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https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/01/deped-is-in-a-quicksand-says-vp-sara/

During the budget deliberations last month, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said the government “does not have enough funds” to address the classroom shortage in schools nationwide under the proposed P5.2-trillion 2023 national budget.

“We’re still very optimistic, we will see what happens during the budget deliberations,” Poa explained.

Poa noted that in previous years, there were challenges in classroom construction.

“Basically, in 2021 there were many problems as far as the responses I see on the question why the budget was not fully utilized is because we really had a problem during the pandemic and during the several lockdowns such as inability to transport materials, there is a lockdown the construction did not continue,” he said.

Despite this, Poa expressed confidence that DepEd will still be able to meet the classroom target it has set for 2023.

"Although the budget allocated to the NEP is smaller than what we would like for new classrooms for next year, we are confident ,” Poa said.

This, he explained, is because DepEd has already detailed engineering plans for the construction of schools so that will be faster compared to before when there were none.

“Wala na tayong lockdowns, confident naman kami na maitatayo namin yung mga classrooms na gusto namin itayo as planned for budget (We no longer have lockdowns, we are confident that we can build the classrooms we want to build as planned for budget),” Poa explained.

Poa noted that what DepEd included in its proposed budget for 2023 is “in accordance with what we think we really can build and implement within the year considering the absorptive capacity” of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“Medyo mas kumonti lang dun sa gusto sana natin na target for 2023 but we’ll make our case in congress and see kung mapagbibigyan tayo (It's just lesser than what we would like to target for 2023, but we'll make our case in congress and see if we can be granted),” he added.

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