ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro urged both houses of Congress to restore in the final version of the General Appropriations Bill a total of P9.66 billion cuts and deleted items from the Department of Education’s 2021 budget.

Castro wanted to restore P9.39 million for Management and Administration of Learning Re-sources; P256.59 million for Disaster Preparedness and Response Program; P3.89 million for National Literacy Policies and Programs; P5.06 million Basic Education Curriculum; P19.59 mil-lion for Early Language Literacy and Numeracy; P5.35 million for Basic Education Facilities; and P616.03 million for Conservation and Restoration of Gabaldon and Other Heritage School Build-ings.

The lawmaker also moved for the restoration of P100 million Quick Response Fund for DepEd; P61.16 million for Indigenous People’s Education Program; P500 million for School-Based Feed-ing Program; P184.99 million for Implementation of the Grant of Cash Allowance, Hardship Pay, Equivalent Record Form, Conversion to Master Teacher and Reclassification of Positions; P104 million for Human Resource Development for Personnel in Schools and Learning Centers; and P8.61 million for Teacher Quality and Development Program.

Castro also proposed to retain deleted items which were present in the 2020 General Appropria-tions Act equivalent to P2,431,323,000 which includes P107 million for Special Education Pro-gram; P1.4 billion for School Dental Health Care Program; and P900 million for World Teachers’ Day Incentive Benefits.

“It is high time that we prioritize education to ensure the learning continuity amid the Covid19 pandemic. How come that the education sector received only a meager increase and that most of the vital and critical items received cuts and in worst cases, some of them were removed in the proposed 2021 budget when in fact the slashed budget will be hardly enough to ensure the delivery of safe, equitable and quality education,” she said.

Castro stressed that teachers have adapted to the so-called new normal and have suffered enough.

“We urge the Lower House to restore these slashed and removed items in the 2021 proposed budget. We’ve seen how this pandemic surfaced the shortages and problems in education, health, aid and all other social services, this is the time that we address the demands of the Filipi-no people,” she said.