ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro denounced the huge cuts in the proposed budgets of several programs of the Department of Education for next year.

“This is very alarming considering that these programs and projects of the DepEd need significant increases especially amid the pandemic, not budget cuts,” she said.

The lawmaker said that the budget for the Basic Education Facilities decreased by P5.7 billion.

“How can the Duterte administration say that it is preparing for the gradual reopening of face-to-face classes if it significantly slashed the budget for school facilities?” she said.

The School-Based Feeding program also suffered a whopping P2.7 billion budget slash, Castro added.

“Porke ba wala sa paaralan ang mga bata ay hindi na kailangan ang School-Based Feeding program? Ngayong panahon ng matinding krisis pang-ekonomiya kung saan ang mga magulang ng milyon-milyong kabataan ay kulang o walang trabaho para sapat na mapakain ang kanilang mga anak, napakahalaga ng programang ito upang siguraduhin ang nutrisyon ng mga kabataan,” she said.

Castro stressed that the P1.4 billion budget cut in the Flexible Learning Options would greatly affect students under these programs which should have been given a bigger allocation because of the pandemic.