THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers supported the stance of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III opposing the P9.3 billion confidential and intelligence funds lodged in the proposed 2023 national budget.

The group said that the “dubious allocations” steal precious funds from urgently important social services such as education amid the crises.

“Our teachers are really enraged with the outrageous allocation of P150 million confidential funds in DepEd while we struggle hard to sustain the face-to-face classes amid glaring shortages in learning needs due to inadequate government funding. Moreso, squandering P9.3 billion in CIF while our people reel in hunger due to high prices and low wages is simply scandalous and unjustifiable,” Vladimer Quetua, the group’s chairperson, said.

He added that the P9.3 billion CIF can be used to boost learning recovery instead.

“It can be used to construct 3,720 classrooms complete with needed furniture, or provide laptops to 265,714 teachers, or hire 25,571 new teachers. Such would yield more concrete and important benefits for the country than wasting it on covert activities of a paranoid government to surveil and repress its own people while leaving our taxpayer’s money insufficiently audited and accounted for,” Quetua said.

“It is so disappointing how our lawmakers would give more premium to the irrational whims of the president and the vice president than to the realistic needs of the people,” he added.