Education Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte is foregoing a total of P650 million in proposed confidential funds in the 2024 national budget.

Duterte, who earlier foregone a P500 million confidential fund for the Office of the Vice President, will skip P150 million of the same category for the Department of Education (DepEd), a senator sponsoring the 2024 budget of the agency said Thursday.

Senator Pia Cayetano read Duterte’s statement as the Senate tackled the DepEd’s budget for 2024.

“We are all parents who want to protect our children. The security of our children is the security of the future of our country. Nonetheless, DepEd will no longer pursue confidential funds,” Duterte said in a statement.

“We humbly request that the funds be realigned to the national learning recovery program because we do not expect good scores for the 2022 PISA (Program for International Student Assessment),” she added.

The House of Representatives realigned the confidential funds requested by the OVP and DepEd to security agencies that are monitoring threats in the West Philippine Sea. Jaspearl Tan/DMS