President Marcos made an assurance that they are working to restore the P10-billion cut in the proposed budget for the Department of Education (DepEd).
Marcos also tagged the budget cut as contradictory to the policy direction of his administration when it comes to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
"On the subject of the DepEd, we are still looking into it. I think it is contrary to all our policy direction when we talk about the STEM development of our educational sector and then the continuing development," Marcos said in an ambush interview at the Malacañan Palace on Monday, Dec. 16.
The President stressed that the P10-billion cut comes from the computerization item. Thus, they are keen on restoring it.
"So we're working on it to make sure that we will restore it. I do not want to line item veto anything because that just gets in the way. So we're still talking about it and still trying to find a way," he said.
Marcos is optimistic that they will be able to do it as the budget cut is intended to fund the things that the administration wants to do. He said it is something that the DepEd "badly needs."
"And I think we'll still be able to do it, to be able to do something. Maybe this is the first thing, hindi pa buo ang sagot ko pero sasabihin ko na sa inyo, tinatrabaho namin 'yan. At kailangan na kailangan (my answer is not complete yet but I will say now that we are working on it)," Marcos said.
"You know, P12-billion request, the original request of the P12 billion to be reduced down to two. P12 billion is only sufficient to maintain what we're already doing when in fact we have to do more. So yun na nga, we have to figure that out. But we are," Marcos added.