THE Senate Committee on Finance transferred the P150 million confidential funds of the Department of Education under the proposed 2024 budget to the voucher system program of the agency.

The move came after Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte let go of the DepEd’s P150 million confidential funds for 2024.

During the Senate plenary deliberations on the proposed budget, Senator Pia Cayetano disclosed that Duterte submitted a statement to the committee regarding the confidential funds.

“We are all parents who want to protect our children. Ang seguridad ng mga bata ay seguridad ng kinabukasan ng ating bayan. Nonetheless, DepEd will no longer pursue confidential funds,” said Cayetano, citing Duterte’s statement.

“We humbly request that the funds be realigned to the National Learning Recovery Program because we do not expect good scores for the 2022 PISA results coming out this December,” the senator added.

However, instead of allocating it to the National Learning Recovery Program, the committee decided to retain the amendment made by the House of Representatives of putting the funds under the GASTPE or Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education.