Salceda says DepEd may get more budget under Sara

The Department of Education (Deped) may be allocated more budget to finance its projects in the coming years with Vice President-elect Sara Duterte as its incoming chief, Albay 2nd District Representative Joey Salceda said Monday.

In an ANC interview, Salceda pointed out that during Duterte's term as DepEd secretary, she should work on making the students in the country more skilled and competitive, as well as focus on training the teachers themselves in order to do so.

“That needs to be budgeted. Ang meron kay Sara na sa tingin for the first time, DepEd will have the better position to fight for budget, unlike before na hindi Bise Presidente ang Secretary ng DepEd,” he said.

(I think for the first time, DepEd will have a better position to fight for its budget, unlike before when the DepEd Secretary was not a Vice President.)

“Ngayon, dahil Bise Presidente siya (because she is Vice President now) with 32.2 million votes, with the highest majority since Magsaysay, then I think she will have the mandate, as well as the access to resources to fight for the needed resources in order to make DepEd more competitive and do its national mandate,” he added.

For this year, the Senate approved the DepEd’s proposed P629.8-billion budget

Further, Salceda said that the top priority of Duterte as the next Education chief is patriotism, claiming that she has no intent for historical revisionism once she assumes post.

Duterte previously said she would propose to Congress to pass a bill that will "make military service mandatory for all 18-year-olds" male and female in the country.

“I think it would probably be high time. Wala naman siyang…and I think nagsalita na din siya (she already said) that there will be no historical revisionism that’s going to take place under her term as DepEd secretary. That’s very reassuring,” Salceda said.

He was referring to an earlier interview of Duterte who said that changing the martial law historical record would be difficult and will not be a priority. — Giselle Ombay/RSJ, GMA News