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Bella Cariaso - The Philippine Star
December 5, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Recent laws addressing the Philippines’ literacy gap are now covered by the amended guidelines on the use of the special education fund (SEF).
Allowable expenses now include programs implementing the Early Childhood Care and Development System Act, Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning Program Act and the national feeding program.
Schools’ results in the Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment, Philippine Informal Reading Inventory and Rapid Mathematics Assessment will be used by local government units (LGUs) for their SEF budget preparation.
The SEF is sourced from a one-percent additional tax on real property.
Agencies that issued the joint circular amending the guidelines are the Departments of Education (DepEd), Budget and Management, the Interior and Local Government and Finance.
“This landmark joint circular is what will enable us to fix the foundations,” said Karol Mark Yee, executive director of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2).
“More than just providing a list of allowable expenses, the new circular puts a strong focus on improving learning outcomes,” he added.
With the alternative learning system also included in the expanded guidelines, Yee asserted that LGUs can support the needs of learners and schools today.
The EDCOM2 had reported inequities and underutilization of the SEF.
Lawmakers have filed bills to amend the Local Government Code and strengthen the SEF’s impact.
Bills authored by EDCOM 2 Commissioners Rep. Roman Romulo, Rep. Jude Acidre, Sen. Bam Aquino and Sen. Win Gatchalian have been included as priority measures under the common legislative agenda of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.
Classroom backlog
Meanwhile, about 60 of the 1,700 classrooms targeted for completion this year have been constructed following the Sept. 1 appointment of Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, according to Education Secretary Sonny Angara.
“It tripled in the last few months,” Angara said at the Philippine Education Conference in Pasay.
Dizon earlier lamented that only 22 classrooms had been built this year.
Some 882 classroom projects are ongoing, while 882 more have “not yet even started,” translating to a “very deplorable” performance rate of 15.43 percent, he noted.
Private sector groups that would be tapped for classroom construction include the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Angat Buhay, Yellow Boat of Hope and Hope Foundation, Angara said.
Dizon, for his part, is seeking a partnership with the Mayors for Good Governance to address the delayed construction of classrooms.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, for his part, is pushing for more safeguards in the bill seeking to fast track classroom construction, to prevent another “Napoles” scam.
Convicted of money laundering, Janet Lim-Napoles created bogus foundations used in lawmakers’ pork barrel funds to get kickbacks from ghost livelihood projects.
Lacson said Aquino’s bill could lead to a conflict of interest as it would allow non-government organizations and civil society groups to lead classroom construction.
“If we involve NGOs and they will actively participate in bidding, monitoring, etc., (there is a) conflict of interest. Probably (we can include a) caveat, that provided they will not monitor themselves,” Lacson said.
The procurement law limits NGO participation to bidding and treats civil society groups as observers, he noted. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Rainier Allan Ronda
