Opening statement at the DepEd budget hearing
By Senator Pia S. Cayetano
Senior Vice Chair of the Senate Finance Committee overseeing education and health

This is the Subcommittee of the Committee on Finance. We'd like to welcome the Vice President and Secretary Sarah Duterte, the heads of the attached agencies, DepEd undersecretaries and other officials and staff.

With us today is our Senate President Zubiri. Hello, sir. And our Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Sen. Angara and Sen. Marcos. I am sure there are a few senators who... Sen. Risa just arrived. And I am sure there are many other senators who will arrive later.

So on the agenda today are the proposed budgets under the fiscal year 2024 of the National Expenditure Program of the DepEd and its attached agencies:

For DepEd Office of the Secretary, in the NEP, it's P712,444,092,000
In the National Academy of Sports, it's P195,167,000
In the National Book Development Board, it is P128,471,000
For the National Council for Children's Television, it is P62,080,000
For the National Museum of the Philippines, it is P1,014,202,000
For the Philippine High School for the Arts, it is P98,241,000
And for the Early Childhood Care and Development Council, it is P221,166,000

This is the order of presentation: first it will be the presentation of DepEd; the Office of the Secretary; then ECCDC; followed by NAS; then NBDB; then National Council for Children's TV, Philippine High School for the Arts; and National Museum of the Philippines.

I believe all of you have been informed of this. May I ask our colleagues to bear with me and let us allow all the presentations to finish before we will entertain questions. Because if we do not follow that rule, then we will never get to the end of the presentations. So I will be strict about this rule.

The order of questioning will of course be the officers first, followed by the senators based on their order of arrival.