📷Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on Monday refuted Vice President Sara Duterte’s allegations that the budget from 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) was mishandled.
In an interview with Palace reporters, Pangandaman said any adjustments in budget proposals depend on Congress and that 2024 GAA’s Department of Education (DepEd) allocation exceeded its recommended budget.
Pangandaman noted an increase in the DepEd’s budget, from P715 billion under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to P715 billion when it became GAA just to fund Duterte’s MATATAG K-10 curriculum.
“The executive, together with our dear President and the inter-Cabinet, we submit the NEP. Of course, when it comes to GAA, we have a budget process. We always respect the wisdom of our Congress if they have adjustments to make in the budget,” Pangandaman said.
“Ang masasabi ko lang po, ‘yung P700 billion, it was quite a huge increase po from ‘yung previous level niya noong 2023, kasi it was then kung kailan po ginawa and ni-launch ng Bise Presidente ‘yung kaniyang Matatag program, kaya binigyan po namin ‘yan ng pondo noong 2024,” Pangandaman added.
Duterte claimed in an interview last Aug. 8 that one of the factors she left her role as education secretary under consideration was the 2024 GAA.
She asserted that the budget was misused and sought to fix it; yet, other government departments disagreed about the proposal.
“Mahaba talaga ‘yung listahan ng mga rason at iba-iba pa siya sa kategorya merong personal sa aming dalawa lang, merong DepEd, merong budget at merong sa bayan din,” Duterte said in an interview, without further elaborating on the details. (TCSP)
