President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. can tap the Department of Education’s unused funds of P36 billion to augment the agency’s 2025 budget, Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero said Tuesday.

In a plenary session, Escudero explained that the President has the authority to augment any budget item using savings or unspent funds from the budget.

“This way he need not veto other line items in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) to provide the additional funds to the DepEd,” Escudero said.

“There are several unspent items in the budget that can be used, particularly from the funds allocated for DepEd’s computerization program from 2022 to 2024,” he noted, citing figures from DepEd’s report submitted to Congress during the budget hearing.

He noted the DepEd had more than P36 billion in unused funds from its computerization program over the last three years.

In 2022, P13.068 billion was allocated to the education department for its computerization program, of which about P10.03 billion remained unobligated.

Last year, DepEd only spent 50 percent of its P20.4 billion allocation under the 2023 GAA.

Under its current budget, the agency has yet to spend P15.9 billion of P18.08 billion earmarked for computerization.

“That is a total of P36.13 billion in unspent funds over the past three years, more than thrice the P10 billion the DepEd would like restored to its 2025 budget. So there are funds the President can tap,” Escudero said.

He, however, noted that the P10.034 billion in “unobligated funds” will revert to the National Treasury at the end of 2024.

“Education has many champions in both chambers of Congress, and we are all committed to providing our public schools with the support they require. But DepEd must also ensure that its funds are used properly,” he said.

“These allocations for education will not help anyone unless the DepEd properly spends them on the projects they are intended for,” he added.

From 2022 to 2024, Escudero said that 70 percent of the P51.5 billion allotted for the DepEd computerization program was unspent.

“So one can see why Congress has to be circumspect with regard to budget allocations. We are not only looking at the purpose of the funds but also the agency’s ability and capacity to utilize them. All these factors are taken into consideration,” he said.