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MANILA, Philippines — A former senator called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to “save the Constitution” by exercising his line-item veto power on the 2025 budget bill, citing the unconstitutionality of the budget cut for the Department of Education (DepEd). “Only the President can save the Constitution from becoming wastebasket-bound by exercising his line-item veto power once the Enrolled Bill lands on his desk,” Panfilo Lacson said in a statement Saturday.
Lacson underscored that DepEd’s budget cut violates Article XIV Section 5(5) of the 1989 Constitution which states that “[t]he State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.” He then pointed out how the Bicameral conference committee reduced DepEd’s budget to P737 billion but increased the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways to P1.113 trillion.
READ: Defense, MMDA, DICT budgets hiked; UP, SUCs, DepEd see cuts The DepEd suffered a P12 billion budget cut from the P748.6 billion funding approved by the House of Representatives. The budget for the Commission on Higher Education and state universities and colleges was also reduced.
The budget slash for DepEd was also slammed by Education Secretary Sonny Angara, emphasizing that it “reverses a trend” for the past years where Congress would add more funding for education. Angara said the funds that were cut could have been used to support the agency’s proposed computerization program for 2025. “That could have funded thousands of computers/gadgets for our public school children.
Infrastructure is important but so is investing in our people and human capital. The digital divide will widen,” Angara said in a tweet. READ: 2025 DepEd budget still tops 2024 level, Poe clarifies The Bicameral conference committee on Wednesday approved the committee report on the proposed P6.
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