BUDGET Secretary Florencio B. Abad assured over the weekend that the Aquino administration remains committed to meeting its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of eradicating poverty by 2015, with a total of P131 billion for inclusive growth programs.
Abad said that, of the P2.606- trillion national budget for 2015, the approved allocation for basic education to effectively implement the K-to-12 revised curriculum is at P68.7 billion.
At the same time, he said, the Department of Budget and Management has allocated an increased budget of P62.3 billion for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program assistance of some 4.3 million families this year.
“The government remains committed to providing ample social protection and basic social services to boost the capacity of people to rise from poverty,” Abad said in a 2015 national- budget briefer.
He added that, of the P68.7 billion allocation for basic education this year, P53.9 billion will be used for the construction of 31,728 classrooms, as well as the repair of other facilities in public elementary and high schools nationwide.
Also, he said, P11.3 billion of the allocation will be used to hire 39,066 new public- school teachers and 1,500 nonteaching personnel.
He added that P3.5 billion of the funds will be used to buy 70.5 million new textbooks and other instructional materials to augment the increasing needs of textbooks in public schools.
Meanwhile, Abad said, as part of the MDG commitments, the government is seeking to reduce chronic and multigenerational poverty with P62.3-billion allocation for the CCT program, also known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.