HOUSE Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez batted for a P5 billion increase in the 2022 budget of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

TESDA Director General Isidro Lapeña said the P5.2-billion proposed augmentation is needed for the implementation of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.

“The P5.2-billion is needed to continue the skills training and education of scholars,” Lapeña said during the hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations on TESDA’s P14.5-billion proposed budget.

Rodriguez said the agency should be given more funding support because it handles high school graduates who take technical and vocational courses and provide them with skills training.

Earlier, Marikina City Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo proposed to lower the budget of TESDA from P14.54 billion to P8 billion because of the low utilization rate of the agency.

Quezon City Rep. Jesus Suntay said that since 2017, there had been increments in the budget of TESDA.

“But it was also very clear that every year, the unobligated and unutilized portion of the TESDA budget also increased considerably,” Suntay said.