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Hontiveros asks DepEd to realign proposed confidential fund to IP education


Senator Risa Hontiveros on Thursday asked the Department of Education (DepEd) to realign its proposed P150-million confidential fund to restore the budget for Indigenous Peoples' (IP) education.

During the Senate committee hearing, Hontiveros said that the proposed budget for IP education programs of P53.4 million, down from P144.3 million this year, caught her attention.

She asked the reason for the “significant” budget decrease and what could be done to strengthen the program despite the loss of P90.9 million.

Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said that IP communities were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that most of their programs require the "convening" of students.

“Actually, ang 2020 and 2021 had a big effect in the program implementation because of the no face-to-face, naging blended approach po tayo. Lahat po ng programa natin we try to reprioritize and reallocate but for IP education, marami po sa programa nila requires the convening of learners,” she said.

“But IP education will be among the restorations that we will request our budget sponsors to do so kasama po dito yung SPED, IP education, and all the other curriculum instruction programs na mababa po yung utilization in the past two years and we will internally realign using our flexible learnings na pondo,” she added.

Hontiveros then asked if the department has ongoing scholarships for teachers’ education for IP communities.

“We already have a department order on hiring of IP teachers and we also have allotted a fund from our National Educators Academy Program which is competency for building competency for teachers specific to IP concerns so that is taken care of,” DepEd Undersecretary for Human Resource and Organizational Development Gloria Jumamil-Mercado said.

The senator also recalled that Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte wore a Bagobo Tagabawa dress at President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s State of the Nation Address to raise awareness for the plight of IP communities.

She then asked if the DepEd will have affirmative action to voluntarily realign its confidential fund to restore the budget cut for IP programs.

For her response, Duterte, citing Joint Circular 2015-01, said the confidential expenses refer to “those expenses pertaining/related to surveillance activities in civilian government agencies that are intended to support the mandate or operations of the agency.”

The DepEd earlier said that surveillance and intelligence gathering are needed to ensure that its projects are target-specific and would result in the broader protection of their personnel and students against sexual abuse and all other forms of violence, graft, and corruption; involvement in illegal drugs of learners and personnel; recruitment to insurgency, terrorism, and violent extremism; child labor; child pornography; and recruitment to criminal activities, gangsterism, and financial and other scams.

“With regards to the budget cuts, within the DepEd, we can work out realignments in our budget so that we can fund programs, activities, and budget that need for funding,” Duterte said.

“With regards to confidential funds, this is a proposal that we submitted to Congress and as I said earlier with regards to the confidential fund of the Office of the Vice President we submit to the wisdom of the Congress with regards to the amount and propriety matter on decision on confidential funds,” she said.

“But we would like to put on record that we reassure the Congress and the public that these funds will be used in relation to what is allowed in the joint circular of those agencies mentioned earlier 2015-01,” she added.

The vice president earlier said that the success of the programs, activities, and projects of an agency “depends on very good intelligence [reports] and surveillance” to target specific issues and challenges.

She also said that “basic education is directly linked to the national security of our country.” — BM, GMA News

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