SENATOR Risa Hontiveros urged Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio to realign her department’s confidential funds for 2023 to finance the agency’s indigenous peoples education program which suffered budget cuts.

Hontiveros said the proposed budget for IP education programs of P53.4 million is far from this year’s P144.3 million allocation.

The DepEd chief said they can internally work out a system to fund programs and activities.

“With regards to the budget cuts within the DepEd, we can work out realignments in our budget so that we can fund programs, activities, and budget that need funding,” Duterte said.

The senator also wanted to know how the department will spend its requested funds for surveillance and security amounting to about P150 million.

Without giving much details, Duterte-Carpio cited issues and cases involving teachers and students, such as illegal drugs, abuses, extremism and terrorism, pornograpy and other illegal activities.