Zambales 1st district Rep. Jay Khonghun (Dexter Barro II/MANILA BULLETIN)

Zambales 1st district Rep. Jay Khonghun emphasized on Tuesday, Dec. 17, that the education sector still has the largest share in the proposed 2025 national budget, contrary to claims that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has taken this spot.

Khonghun, an assistant majority leader, says the entire education sector is set to receive an allocation of P1.05 trillion in the Congress-ratified version of the proposed budget next year.

This is higher than the budget of the DPWH, which is earmarked at P1.03 trillion.

“Sinasabi lang naman natin is pag-in-add mo rin talaga ‘yung budget ng the entire education sector ay mas malaki pa rin ‘yung budget ng entire education sector kaysa sa DPWH,” said Khonghun in a press briefing.

(We are just saying that if you add the budget of the entire education sector, the sum is still bigger than that of the DPWH.)

“Importante sa Marcos administration ang edukasyon at binibigyan natin ng importansya ng edukasyon. Number one priority pa rin ng ating presidente ang education,” he added.

(Education is important in the Marcos administration and we give importance to education. Our president's number one priority is still education.)

In a document obtained by Manila Bulletin, government agencies under the education sector have been earmarked with a budget of P980.5 billion.

Prominent agencies include the DepEd which has been allocated with P782.1 billion, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) with P34.8 billion, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) with P20.9 billion, and State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) with P127.2 billion.

The budget for the sector includes education-related infrastructure and salary differential, which carries a budget of P14.7 billion and P60.5 billion, respectively.

As indicated in the Constitution, the government is mandated to assign the highest budgetary priority to education.

In the same document, it was stated that the budget of the DPWH was only P1.03 trillion, instead of the initial amount of P1.14 trillion.

It pointed out that P82.08 billion--or the amount meant for convergence projects--had been cut from the agency’s findings.

According to the DPWH, infrastructure projects done in conjunction with other government agencies are considered part of convergence projects. These include farm-to-market roads under the Department of Agriculture (DA), as well as education-related infrastructure which has since been added to DepEd’s budget.

The cut from the agency’s budget was enforced during the recent Bicameral Conference Committee, the resulting report of which had already been ratified by the Senate and the House of Representatives.