Escudero suggests using DepEd’s unused funds to boost 2025 budget

Senate President Francis Escudero suggested that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. could use DepEd’s over P36 billion in unused funds to augment its budget for 2025.

Escudero highlighted specific examples of unspent items, including P10.034 billion from the 2022 budget and P10.2 billion from the 2023 budget allocated for DepEd's computerization program, which would revert to the National Treasury by the end of 2024.

Former Senate finance committee chairman Sonny Angara, now DepEd secretary, mentioned another unspent P15.9 billion from the 2024 budget also for its computerization program, and unused funds for New School Personnel Positions as well as Basic Education Facilities items in the 2024, 2023, and 2022 budgets.

Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros voted against the Senate ratification of bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 national budget due to significant cuts in education funding, with DepEd losing P15.17 billion and Commission on Higher Education losing P11.77 billion.

Hontiveros raised concerns about PhilHealth's zero state subsidy for 2025 and questioned the legality of such a move under current laws mandating annual premium subsidies in the General Appropriations Act.