ECHOING Vice President Sara Duterte, the Department of Education on Tuesday said that it was no longer concerned that the bicameral conference committee decided against reinstating its proposed P150 million confidential funds for DepEd for 2024 in the final version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

The popularity of Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also the concurrent DepEd Secretary, was affected as her ratings plunged in rating surveys after she had requested confidential funds worth P500 million for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P150 million for DepEd for 2024.

“Hindi naman siya kawalan so we have already accepted that during the last hearing we had in the Senate. That is why we proposed its reallocation to critical program of the department, particularly the national learning recovery program,” DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas quipped in an interview with ABS-CBN News.

He added that the DepEd maintains its earlier statement during the Senate hearing that it can survive without confidential funds.

Realizing the public uproar on the confidential funds, VP Duterte later announced that she would no longer pursue the requested funds since the issue of confidential funds had become “divisive”.

Instead, she requested that confidential funds for DepEd be realigned to the national learning recovery program.

“So wala tayong adverse comment pa for now but we maintain our position na we also want that fund to be in the national learning recovery,” Bringas said.