Redirect shelved infra funds to education – teachers’ leader

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

A local leader of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT Teachers) in Western Visayas said on Wednesday, September 24, that scrapped funding which was intended for flood control projects in the 2026 budget should be transferred to the Department of Education (DepEd).

Maximo Montero of ACT Teachers-Region VI lamented the continued advocacy of some members of Congress for the transfer of funds from flood control projects to social amelioration programs.

It was reported on Monday, September 22, that the Budget Amendments Review Subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations approved realigning PHP 46 billion from the PHP 250 billion allocated for flood control funding by the Department of Public Works and Highways.

These reallocations consist of PHP 32.6 billion channeled to the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and PHP 14.82 billion to the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) of the Department of Labor and Employment.

These hike the proposed budgets of AICS to PHP 59.5 billion from the proposed PHP 26.9 billion, and of TUPAD to PHP 26.9 billion from PHP 12.1 billion.

The AICS and TUPAD programs, among others, have been the center of controversy and scrutiny, as distribution activities for these programs were heavy with materials and appearances from local politicians and members of Congress.

Montero said that the transfer of these funds to the DepEd instead would help solve existing problems in the country’s education sector, including the lack of classrooms, more personnel, and additional compensation.

“We are calling, like we did last Sunday [September 21], that hopefully these scrapped funds for infrastructure would be given to the DepEd,” Montero told Super Radyo Iloilo on Wednesday.

“There are many problems in the DepEd, [including] the lack of classrooms which amount to 165,000, the lack of teachers and non-teaching personnel, and of course additional benefits for teachers.”

“AICS, TUPAD, and AKAP—we consider these to be dole-out projects by the government, which are not appropriate to the social services we need. The first and foremost [of these social services] is the education sector. […] These [dole-out] projects are just fleeting programs of the government. What we can give the people are not fleeting programs, but programs that can continuously sustain their everyday needs,” he added.

DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara recently urged Congress to realign PHP 134.5 billion to his department, which has been allocated PHP 928.52 billion under the national government’s National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026.

Angara also told DZRH in an interview that the department has launched an audit of DPWH-built classrooms because of the ongoing controversy over flood control projects.

He revealed that over 1,000 classrooms built by the DPWH and turned over to the DepEd were incomplete.

But Montero said that while they join Angara’s calls for fund reallocations for better classrooms, their call extends to better compensation for teachers.

He said that their demands include a PHP 50,000 entry-level salary for Teacher I, Salary Grade 16 for non-teaching personnel and Instructor I in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), and performance-based bonuses (PBBs) for the year 2023, which have not yet been awarded.

“We shouldn’t only be looking at the physical status of the education sector, but also at the needs of our teachers, particularly additional benefits. We have called on this for a long time—to give teachers the appropriate salaries and additional benefits,” he said.

Montero also said that the education sector’s current PHP 1.224-trillion budget still doesn’t meet the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s recommendation of six percent (6%) of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the ideal allocation.

But UNESCO’s website indicates a bracket of between “4 to 6 percent,” which UNESCO member states have adopted since 2015.

Education sector allocations under the 2026 NEP also include PHP 134.99 billion for SUCs, PHP 34 billion for the Commission on Higher Education, and PHP 20.24 billion for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.