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

In a plenary session, Escudero explained the President has the power to augment any item in the budget from savings or unspent items in the budget. 

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

“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,” Escudero said, citing figures from the DepEd’s submitted report to Congress during the budget hearing. 

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

In 2022, some P13.068 billion had been allocated to the education department for its computerization program, and yet about P10.03 billion had remained unobligated. 

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

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

“That is a total of P36.13 billion of unspent funds over the past three years, more than thrice the P10 billion that DepEd would like to be restored in its 2025 budget. So may pondo naman na pwedeng i-tap si Presidente (So, there is funding that the President can tap),” Escudero said.

He, however, lamented the P10.034 billion in “unobligated funds” will be reverted to the National Treasury by 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. Pero kailangan din masigurado ng DepEd na magagamit ang pondo nito ng maayos (But there’s a need to ensure that DepEd could properly utilize the funds),” 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 cited that 70 percent of the P51.5 billion allotted for the DepEd computerization program were unspent.

“So one can see why Congress has to be circumspect with regard to budget allocations. Tinitingnan natin hindi lang ‘yung purpose ng pondo, kundi ang kakayahan at kapasidad ng ahensya gamitin ang pondo nila (We are looking not only at the purpose of the funds, but also at the agency's ability and capacity to use them). All these factors are taken into consideration,” he said.