July 13, 2020 – The Department of Education (DepEd) would like to thank Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla for voicing out his thoughts on the funding of the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Program (BE-LCP).

The Special Education Fund (SEF) of LGUs is only one of the six (6) fund sources available to finance the BE-LCP, and DepEd will continue to closely collaborate with the LGUs to efficiently and productively align this fund with the different learning delivery modalities to be implemented in our schools. The SEF is sourced from real property taxes collected by local government, in behalf of the national government.

DepEd has identified six (6) strategies to fund the BE-LCP. These will come from the following internal and external fund sources:

1) Recalibration or reprogramming of DepEd’s budget through alignment and modification of Programs, Activities and Projects (PAPs);
2) Use of available balance of the School maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE);
3) Use of the LGU- Special Education Fund (SEF) in coordination with LGUs;
4) Enhanced partnerships with Development Partners and access to Official Development Assistance (ODA);
5) Enhanced Brigada Eskwela and maximized private sectors contributions; and
6) Request to DBM and/or Congress for Supplemental Budget.

These strategies will be able to help DepEd and its regional offices and school divisions offices to fund the remaining budget requirements needed for the success of the LCP.

The internal reprogramming of existing programs and projects is the major funding source for the BE-LCP. With it, the DepEd Central Office will download funds to regions and SDOs for the development and production of self-learning materials, and implementation of the blended learning delivery.

We appreciate Gov. Remulla for putting education as a priority investment and for sharing the same vision with DepEd: that education must continue despite the crisis we are facing to this day.

We look forward to a strong partnership with our local government officials as we strive to promote Bayanihan in overcoming the challenges of the upcoming school year.

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