January 3, 2025 | 10:13am
MANILA, Philippines — A teachers’ group is preparing to take legal action against the government for allegedly padding the education sector’s budget with salary funds and other allocations to make it appear that education received the highest share of the 2025 budget as required by the 1987 Constitution.
The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) criticized the Marcos administration on Thursday, January 2, for how it calculated its compliance with the Constitution’s requirement to give education the highest budgetary priority. The group questioned lawmakers for combining traditional education agencies with military and police academies, among other items, to reach the P1.056 trillion education sector allocation in the 2025 budget.
The move follows TDC’s earlier condemnation of Congress’ decision to slice P12 billion from the Department of Education (DepEd)’s original budget proposal while increasing allocations for infrastructure projects and other programs, including the controversial Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita (AKAP).
RELATED: What we know so far: DepEd’s P12 billion ‘budget cut’
Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution mandates education should receive the highest budgetary priority and ensure quality teaching through “adequate remuneration” — a provision that TDC Chairperson Benjo Basas said was not genuinely fulfilled in the 2025 budget.
“If the government is sincere in fulfilling the mandate of the State, then it should have given the largest chunk of its resources to institutions of basic education and universities, ensuring that teachers in those levels are fulfilled and satisfied. But it did not. It lumped all the agencies together to achieve the minimum requirement,” Basas said.
“It’s a token,” he added.
‘Bare minimum’ compliance?
How did the government compute its P1.056 trillion education sector budget for 2025? A closer look at the budget documents released by the Department of Budget and Management shows a calculation that includes non-traditional education institutions and future allocations to reach this total.
While core education agencies account for P965.26 billion of this amount — DepEd (P782.17 billion), State Universities and Colleges (P127.23 billion), Commission on Higher Education (P34.88 billion), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (P20.98 billion) – the computation includes several other institutions.
Department of Budget and Management / Released
The government added seven other agencies to the education sector total:
Under the Department of the Interior and Local Government:
- Local Government Academy: P529.24 million
- Philippine National Police Academy: P1.37 billion
- Philippine Public Safety College: P994.3 million
Under the Department of National Defense:
- National Defense College of the Philippines: P334.64 million
- Philippine Military Academy: P1.76 billion
Under the Department of Science and Technology:
- Philippine Science High School System: P2.80 billion
- Science Education Institute: P7.49 billion
These additional agencies contributed P15.28 billion to the total of the education sector.
Despite these additions, the education sector budget would still fall short of the Department of Public Works and Highways’ P1.034 trillion single-item allocation. There is a gap of about P53.45 billion.
The government, however, included two more items under the education sector, under “particulars.”
- P14.76 billion in education-related infrastructure to be implemented by DPWH
- P60.59 billion representing the education sector’s share from the second tranche of salary increases, currently under the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund
Only after including all these additional items does the education sector’s budget reach P1.056 trillion, slightly overtaking DPWH as the highest allocation in the 2025 budget.
The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition argued this computation method allowed the government “to meet the bare minimum constitutional requirement” while still taking away funds from the basic education sector.
DepEd is the government’s biggest bureaucracy and hosts the government’s largest workforce of some one million public school teachers.
“It is clear in our Constitution that education shall have the biggest share in the budget and for a specific reason: teachers,” said Basas, who is also a teacher in Caloocan City.
“The budget should attract and retain the best teachers through adequate remuneration for job satisfaction and fulfillment. That being so, it refers to the agencies tasked with teaching young children, especially the basic education system,” the TDC chairperson added.
Basas said his group is now “consulting lawyers and advocates on the possibility of filing a case in the Supreme Court to question the constitutionality of this action by Congress and the Executive.”
‘Pure deception’
Progressive lawmakers from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers have similarly denounced the education budget computation. House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro called President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s veto of P26 billion in DPWH projects as “pure deception.”
“This is merely a deception to make the budget appear constitutional because the education sector supposedly has a larger allocation. But in truth, the cuts to education will not be restored,” Castro said in Filipino in a statement on Monday, December 30.
Castro also pointed out that the education budget still falls short of international standards. “The education budget should have been set at 6% of GDP from the start to meet UN standards. Instead, Congress even reduced it further, and it cannot be restored no matter what veto Marcos issues,” she said.
RELATED: Marcos signs 2025 national budget, makes last-minute cuts
TDC criticized the 2025 budget for “favoring the selfish interests of politicians by allocating resources for cash assistance programs and non-essential infrastructure projects that cater more to political interests than to the needs of the people, particularly education and healthcare.”
“Education must take center stage in our national agenda not just in words but in action. The current budget falls short of this ideal,” Basas added.
House lawmakers had earlier justified the P10 billion taken out of DepEd’s computerization program in the final bicam-approved budget by citing the program’s inefficiencies under Vice President Sara Duterte, who led DepEd from 2022 to July 2024.
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