Majority Leader Martin Romualdez of the House of Representatives on Thursday said enough funds should be given to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to ensure more employment for Filipinos.
Romualdez, chairman of the House committee on rules and representative of Leyte’s First District, made the statement in support to the clamor for more funding for TESDA for 2020.
Romualdez attended the Thursday’s House committee on appropriations hearing on the proposed P11.851-billion TESDA budget that Director General Isidro Lapeña defended under the 2020 P4.1-trillion national budget.
“TESDA should be given more funds to ensure better and competitive employment opportunities for Filipinos. It’s their mandate to reach out the unemployed and marginalized people,” Romualdez pointed out after learning that TESDA budget for next year is lower by 6 percent or from this year’s P12.55 billion to P11.85 billion in 2020. The agency proposed P19.9 billion.
“Our budget proposal [is] in the amount of P19.9 billion and we are just given P11 billion, your Honor. We will be needing about P8 billion,” Lapeña told the panel.
Romualdez and Lapeña also held a brief meeting at the Majority Leader’s office at the Batasan Pambansa Complex where the TESDA chief admitted that the agency needs additional P2.8 billion.
Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Mike Defensor backed Romualdez’s call to give additional funds for TESDA.
“Let us allocate more resources to TESDA whose main mandate is to provide skills, livelihood and job opportunities for Filipinos,” said Defensor who also attended the hearing.
Unlike other agencies which mandate is to promote education, TESDA budget for next year gets a smaller amount than the Department of Education’s P551.7 billion and the Higher Education’s P68.5 billion.
In the same hearing, RECOBODA Party-list Rep. Godofredo Guya also echoed the call for additional TESDA funds for skills training.
Lapeña said more funds are very crucial for TESDA operations, explaining Filipinos should have better access to job and livelihood opportunities at all times.
“If we have more budget, we can serve more kababayans that need assistance, especially the unemployed and even those marginalized, and this will improve the pyramidal structure of our society, improving our middle class,” said Lapeña.
Reports said that out of P11.851-billion TESDA budget for next year, P11.302 million will go to Technical Education and Skills Development Program, P84.3 million to Technical Education and Skills Development Regulatory Program and P49.8 million to Technical Education and Skills Development Policy Program.