Only the President can save the Constitution from becoming wastebasket-bound by exercising his line item veto power once the Enrolled Bill lands on his desk.
How so? The bicameral conference committee reduced the DepEd budget to P737 billion and increased that of the DPWH to P1.113 trillion.
This blatantly violates Art XIV Sec 5(5) which declares that “The State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.”
Had the bicameral conference been transparent and not just a two-person bicameral committee meeting, I’m quite sure at least one member from either contingent would have seen this basic constitutional flaw. Taon-taon, tanggap ng lahat na edukasyon ang may pinakamalaking badyet.
The DepEd budget cut per se is not unconstitutional. It is the act of Congress to “assign the highest budgetary priority” to DPWH (infrastructure) instead of DepEd, SUCs, CHED, TESDA or the entire education sector (P912B) that violates Art XIV Sec 5(5) of the 1987 Constitution.
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