Party-list Rep. France Castro of the Alliance for Concerned Teachers wants to realign a portion of the proposed P19.1 billion 2021 budget for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. She said realigning half or even just a third of that money would greatly help produce modules that students can use in this distance-learning school year the Department of Education insisted on holding despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is tempting to assume Castro is driven by a sincere desire to help Philippine education, the ACT by its name being a teachers’ organization. But is she really? In the entire government bureaucracy, there are dozens upon dozens of departments, bureaus, agencies, and offices getting a share of the proposed P4.5 trillion 2021 national budget. Any of their budgets can be realigned. Why is Castro fixated on the money intended for NTF-ELCAC?
Since Castro represents a sector of education, and education is the beneficiary of her fund realignment proposal, why doesn't she aim for the DepEd itself. The DepEd has a humongous P606.6 billion budget for 2021 which she herself helped pass when it first went through the House of Representatives.
If it is true that Castro cares deeply in her heart for the distance-learning of students, why didn't she make sure that the production of modules get the adequate funding she thinks it needs while the budget proposal, including that of DepEd, especially that of DepEd, was still in the House, of which she is a member? Why is Castro focusing on NTF-ELCAC whose function has got nothing to do with education?
If Castro is being honest, her logical target for her concern would have been the DepEd. Producing modules is its responsibility. If it is remiss in its job, she has it within her means as a member of Congress and therefore with control over the budget to whip it in line. With such a gargantuan budget, it is strange why Castro has to go somewhere else to source funds for module production.
There is another reason why, as a lawmaker with investigative powers, Castro should have trained her sights on DepEd and its budget. She is, after all, a representative of the education sector in the Lower House. In its latest report, the Commission on Audit has flagged DepEd for P1.9 billion in unliquidated cash advances, and an even bigger P7.6 billion in questionable and undocumented expenses.
As an education sector representative, it is strange that Castro did not require COA to provide her with reports pertaining to DepEd. And if she has been provided, it is strange why she has been mum about these clear excesses and misuse of billions of pesos of DepEd's funds, money that could have gone a long way to produce modules without having to realign the budget of some other agency whose function has nothing to do with modules.
Castro has absolutely no business going after the budget of NTF-ELCAC. Unless, of course, her motive is something else, like maybe crippling the effectiveness of the NTF-ELCAC in running after the communists. But that is odd because, as a congresswomen who draws her salary, allowances, and other perks from government, she should be on the side of government. She should, in fact, publicly denounce the communists.