SEN. JUAN Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara on Friday gave assurances that the P4.5 trillion budget for 2021 provides funding for new laws on education and other programs that have a far-reaching impact on the lives of Filipinos.

Angara said the budget gave first priority to Covid response. The allocation covers the purchase of vaccines, testing, contact tracing and treatment.

“In our budget deliberations we went over all of the priorities set by the government and the requirements of the different departments and agencies. We also made sure that our recently-enacted laws would be funded so as not to render them irrelevant,” Angara said.

Some of these “recent” laws were enacted three years ago. These include Senate Bill 1520 or the Medical Scholarship and Return Service Program or the Doktor Para sa Bayan Act, which is awaiting the signature of the President.

The measure seeks to produce more doctors to attend to the health needs of Filipinos by providing full medical scholarships to qualified and deserving students.

It also contains a provision for the development of medical schools in state universities and colleges, which was also addressed in the 2021 budget.

To further expand and improve the coverage of free Wifi in public places, the Department of Information and Communications Technology was provided a budget of P3.2 billion.

The Department of Education was provided with P1.365 billion, part of which will cover the teaching supplies allowance for public school teachers which was raised from P3,500 to P5,000 in 2021.

To provide more training for work scholarships under RA 11230 or the Tulong Trabaho Act, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority was provided with P1.021 billion.