DepEd says it will realign funds to restore SPED budget

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday said that it will realign funds to restore the budget for special education (SPED), and that its plans include infrastructure programs in areas with a large volume of SPED recipients.

In the Senate hearing on the proposed 2023 budget for DepEd and its attached agencies, Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said that they are committed to realign some funds for the SPED program next year.

“We would like to update you that we will internally realign some of our funds so that the SPED program will be funded in 2023. So we will restore the budget of SPED as per instruction of our VP Secretary, all of it in the same level of the 2022 budget,” she said.

DepEd Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said that they were coordinating with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to communicate with local government units and identify the number of SPED recipients.

“Based on our discussions, we would like to institutionalize our budget for SPED in fact when you say institutionalize we want to be part of Tier 1. When we do the budgeting part of it, right now is [we are] coordinating with DILG so that we can communicate [to] local chief executives and identify the number of children [who need] special education,” Densing said.

“Hopefully, we can put infrastructure programs and budget in certain areas where there is a [large] volume of SPED children. Our target is to institutionalize the SPED budget for DepEd,” he added.

The DepEd earlier said it proposed a P532-million budget for SPED for 2023 but that it was not considered in the NEP.

Meanwhile, Senator Pia Cayetano said she wanted to assure the SPED recipients and their parents of the allocated budget, citing the signed law requiring schools nationwide to provide free basic education and related services to learners with disabilities.

Under the law, the DepEd is mandated to establish and maintain at least one Inclusive Learning Resource Center (ILRC)

“We wanted to assure the SPED parents and the recipients that the budget is really for them, maybe you can add a little bit of details,” Cayetano said.

“I really wanted to put on record na you wanted that budget its supposed to be there and as far as concern for the next budget to come you will fight for that budget in fact more pa because we have now a law that put very strong demand on what we have to support that law,” she added.

Meanwhile, Senator Win Gatchalian said that hopefully the additional budget for SPED will be approved, adding that this can be improved on.

Senator Loren Legarda, on the other hand, welcomed the “realigning” of the funds to allocate for the SPED program.

“I was confident that it will be restored because I have never seen zero budget for SPED especially since I also chaired this committee for five years and I don’t think there is gonna be zero budget for SPED but I was sure that there must have miscommunication and you would not allow [that] under your leadership,” she said.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) earlier said that no budget was allocated for SPED in 2023 after the DepEd failed to provide sufficient documentation for its request.

The DBM also cited the obligation rate of the SPED program, which was only 1.13% as of June 30, 2022, equivalent to only P6.35 million out of P560.202 million.

The department said there is a P1.216-billion surplus from the operations of elementary and junior high schools under the DepEd’s maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE). — BM, GMA News