ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro urged the House of Representatives to realign the confidential and intelligence funds of President Rodrigo Duterte so these can be used for the printing of self-learning modules.

Castro made the call after the Department of Education said that it may have to implement a module-sharing scheme next year due to budgetary constraints.

The DepEd estimated that P74.6 billion will be needed for the printing of modules for the whole school year. However, only P15 billion was provided in the proposed budget for 2021.  The President was allotted P4.5 billion intelligence and confidential funds.

“Halos taon-taong kinakaltasan ng gobyernong ito ang budget para sa instructional materials. Teacher at estudyante ang kumakargo sa responsibilidad dapat ng gobyerno para sa free access to education. Sa panahon ng pandemya, nagagawa pa ni Presidente Duterte na makabili ng 2 bilyong jet para sa kanya, mga alipores at militar niya, ito ba ang sinasabing ‘pandemic response’ nila sa panahon na lumalala ang krisis at pandemya sa bansa?” Castro said.

She said that students would not have to share learning modules if the government allotted sufficient budget for the Education department.

“Kung may sapat na pondo lang na ilalaan ang administrasyong Duterte para sa edukasyon, nasisigurado sana ng DepEd na walang bata ang maghihiraman ng mga self-learning modules, walang bata ang maiiwan dahil sa kawalan ng access sa kalidad at ligtas na edukasyon,” she added.