Congress’ bicameral committee cut down the respective original 2025 budgets on education and health.
DepEd’s budget was reduced by nearly P12-billion from P748.6-billion to P737-billion. CHED’s budget was reduced by P3.4 billion from its 2024 budget of P36.7-billion. SUC’s budget was reduced by 5.8-billion, ending with only P122.2-billion.
It’s a great letdown for the Filipino people, as budgets for the DPWH and the DND were given huge allotments. This was carried out, deceitfully (as social media enthusiasts described it) as the legislators ignored calls for a transparent session open to the public, aware that their tax-money has been funding such legislative meetings.
At the same session, a zero budget was allotted to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
Anti-People Decision
This zero budget effectively strips the premium of tens of millions of PhilHealth’s indirect contributors, namely, the poor, the senior citizens, and the PWDs, and thus makes the direct contributors, many of whom are from the working class, bear the sole burden of funding PhilHealth.
In fact, this anti-people decision by the bicameral committee was strongly condemned with a Public Statement by more than a hundred CSOs, NGOs, Partylist groups, and concerned citizens. They pointed out, among other arguments, that the lawmakers practically decided in violation of the Sin Tax Reform Law and the Universal Healthcare (UHC) Act.
Noteworthy, too, is that mobilizations were carried out calling for the bicameral committee to meet again to make the necessary pro-people corrections on the budgets of PhilHealth, DepEd, SUCs, UP, Ched, as well as adjustments on the DPWH and DND budgets.
Surely, the development of people, especially the children and youth, in terms of their physical health and personal educational growth, are obviously much more important than infrastructures and confidential funds for Red-tagging, EJKs, or imagined threats to national security.
Did lawmakers practically decide in violation of the Sin Tax Reform Law and the Universal Healthcare Act.
A Healthy Environment
Education and Health of the Filipino people are the key foundational concerns of any government administration. The level of education of the people of any nation serves not only as the springboard of creativity, but the necessary steady engine, as it were, of new ideas, new inventions, new technologies that lead to progress in various fields of endeavors.
Primary target for development, as history has shown, has been the need for eliminating diseases and maintaining the health of the people – to ensure a healthy environment and a robust economy for society.
With a healthy population, any society with its top leadership can then focus its development efforts in the many key fields of concerns, and most importantly, on the education of the people.
An educated population cannot but lead to responsible citizens, who are able to acquire decent jobs, be productive and be able to contribute to a healthy economy.
A sustainable economy can bring about, in turn, a progressive spiral of advances in the various fields of endeavors of society, especially in medical science. This cannot but lead further to maintaining a healthy population – and on to a progressive country.
Heartless Leaders
Education where knowledge starts and is sustained spells POWER – particularly to minimize, if not eliminate the evils that hound a society.
An educated and healthy population cannot but lead to a society’s progressively healthy growth in its politics, continuing robust economy and even the preservation and enrichment of its culture.
Can’t our lawmakers craft laws and come up with realistic budgets that should benefit the people and the country as a whole? Their basic job is essentially to improve the lives of all Filipinos, as called for in their mandate as government officials. Such has been the people’s expectation from their representatives in Congress for too long.
Are they a heartless bunch of leaders for the people?!
