A COALITION of campus publications slammed anew the P9-billion cut in the education sector’s budget for 2022.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines said that slashing educational funds “demonstrates the Duterte administration’s unclear priorities.”

“The insufficient budget for both the frontliners and the students, teachers and employees are proof of President Rodrigo Duterte’s criminal negligence,” CEGP Deputy Secretary-General Regina Tolentino said.

“This is a threat to ‘just and humane’ compensation to workers and safe resumption of physical classes to the education sector,” she added.

Tolentino said that the government “remains blind and deaf” to the calls of the education sector, such as the P10,000 student assistance for distance learning and safe reopening of classes.

“Higher budget allocations were even given to state forces and its machinery National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict,” she said.

“Until now, Duterte is lost with the correct prioritization as he focuses on his interests rather than doing his job as the president,” she added.

Earlier, the Commission on Higher Education requested a P62.3 billion budget for next year but the Department of Budget and Management reduced it to P52.6 billion.

CHED chief Prospero De Vera III said that the commission needs the slashed funds to implement laws passed by Congress such as the Doktor Para sa Bayan Act and Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.