Transcript of Sen. Pia Cayetano's manifestation EDCOM report (Privilege Speech of Sen. Bam Aquino)

TRANSCRIPT OF SEN. PIA CAYETANO'S MANIFESTATION EDCOM REPORT (PRIVILEGE SPEECH OF SEN. BAM AQUINO)

Thank you, Mr. President. The Majority Floor Leader is correct. This is not an interpellation, this is just a manifestation of support. We are very happy to have another education advocate in the Senate. It has not been an easy task to navigate the lack of budget over the past 6 years, I speak of 6 years because this representation has handled the budget of education for the past 6 years. And everything his honor says is accurate, all the challenges we've faced pretty much remain the same. But I want to share some good news, which his honor in some way has also mentioned.

Number one is we have a Secretary, as you know, who stood in our shoes, has been among us, and was one of the proponents for the forming of the EDCOM 2. So I'm happy to hear that his honor had met with Secretary Angara.

The second thing I'd like to point out is in terms of the budget. I join his honor in expressing our joy that the President has made it very clear that it is a priority, and in the three years, we really hope to see, at the end of the day, it all boils down to funding. I think there is no one who will deny the importance of education, but it will boil down to how we allocate funding.

And I'd like to share one situation. I'm just gonna share data from last year... 159,00 shortage of classrooms. But the budget allocated was good for 7 billion. But to address the 159,000 if you divide that. The needed budget is 398 billion. So kung yung 159,000 shortage, you try to fill that gap in 10 years, that 398 billion, you will spend 39.8 billion per year... And yet, ang na-budget natin last year, for this year, was 7 billion. So we will have the same conversation, your honor, in a few months, because it will all boil down to political will to address this.

And I also want to point out that this does not include the damaged classrooms. That is actually the low-hanging fruit. Paayos mo na lang. Unfortunately, you know, without any malice at all, I think many local would want na mapakitang may bagong classroom pero on the ground, paayos mo na lang diba, para magamit naman ng mga estudyante. And I think his honor wanted to say something, Mr. President.

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Yun na, more or less yun na ang amount na kailangan for the 159,000 classroom shortage.

Anyway, Mr. President, just one last point on the classrooms, the former Chairman of the Committee on Education will recall that one of the biggest problems we face also is absorptive capacity. So many of these LGUs will include in their wish list budget for classrooms, pero hindi pa nila nagagawa yung pag-survey doon, tapos minsan yung property na i-allocate nila, yun yung mala-landslide. So in the first three years that I handled the DepEd budget, that was the biggest problem. Hindi makagalaw, nagtuturuan yung DepEd and yung DPWH, kasi sabi ni DPWH hindi nila magalaw dahil kulang yung preparatory work that must be done. So just sharing this with his honor because these are the issues, I think paikot-ikot lang ito.

Two last points, very quickly. This representation, as Chairman of the Committee on Sustainable Development Goals and Futures Thinking, we came up with a report. It's called The Future of Education. We will be happy to furnish his honor with a copy. And finally, I just also want to put on record that nakalimutan niyo ako na banggitin, kasama din ako sa EDCOM. I just graciously resigned to make room because nung naging Chairman of Energy ako, Senator Alan became higher ed Chairman. So with a reluctant heart, I gave up my seat, but I continue to be very supportive, as I will still be under his honor's term. Thank you, Mr. President.

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