Unang-una po, gusto kong batiin ang ating mga local government executives na nandirito. Siyempre, ang ating kasama sa bukas na pamamahala, Mayor Benjamin "Benjie" Magalong ng Baguio City, Mayor Erick M. Wagan ng San Antonio, Quezon, and Mayor Atty. Jemina Sy ng Marilao, Bulacan;
To Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Rolando C. Puno;
Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) Undersecretary and Executive Director Angelo M. Tapales;
Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) Executive Director Consolacion Q. Agcaoili;
Members of the Public Finance for Children (PF4C) Committee, as well as the Regional Directors of the DSWD, DILG, and the Subcommittee for the Welfare of Children and other regional and local counterparts;
Colleagues from the national government and fellow public servants;
European Union in the Philippines Head of Cooperation, Mr. Marco Gemmer;
UNICEF Representative to the Philippines, Mr. Behzad Noubary;
Social Watch Philippines Co-Convenor Jessica Reyes;
Our civil society and development partners, as well as our friends from the media;
And my team from the DBM, Undersecretary Wilford Will L. Wong, Assistant Secretary Diana C. Camacho-Mercado, and Director Ryan S. Lita:
Since we are celebrating Buwan ng Wika, allow me to greet you —isang maganda at maka-batang araw po sa ating lahat!
Assalamu alaikum wa Raḥmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
I am excited to join you here because today marks another milestone for our children.
Yesterday, we officially turned over to Congress, the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives, the proposed budget or the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for FY 2026. ‘Yan po ‘yong tinatawag natin na President’s Budget. Nabigay na po natin sa Kongreso ‘yong ating ginawang budget for the last six months together with all our Cabinet Secretaries, at magsisimula na po ang ating budget deliberations. Malinaw po ang direktiba ni Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.: While we are investing significantly in our infrastructure, we will also invest more heavily in our people.
Anchored on the theme, “Agenda for Prosperity: Nurturing Future-Ready Generations to Achieve the Full Potential of the Nation,” the proposed FY 2026 National Budget will prioritize human capital development through upholding the fundamental rights of our citizens, including the most important of them all, the right to learn through quality and accessible education.
And so we are putting our children at the heart of our budget.
Following the Constitutional mandate to prioritize education above all else, we are allocating Php 1.224 trillion for basic and higher education for the FY 2026 proposal.
And I am proud to share that, for the first time, we are meeting UNESCO's recommended education spending of at least 4.0 percent of the country’s GDP. This is a testament to our commitment to investing in our children which really translates to investing in our future.
In recognition of the crucial role of teachers in honing our next generation of leaders and nation-builders, we are creating over 65,000 positions—almost 33,000 of which are for teachers. Meanwhile, more than 32,000 non-teaching positions will help ease their burden on administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on teaching and spend time with their family.
This allocation will effectively close the gap in the teaching workforce as identified in the Year II Report of the Second Congressional Commission on Education or EDCOM 2.
In February this year, the DBM and the Department of Education (DepEd) also signed the Joint Circular on the “Modified Position Classification and Compensation Scheme and System of Career Progression for Public School Teachers and School Heads.”
Ito naman po makikita natin na mayroong succession plan ang ating mga guro. Sabi nga po ng ating Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. sa nakaraang SONA, wala pong teacher ang magre-retire na Teacher I lang.
Patunay ito na handa tayong magbigay ng suporta at oportunidad na nararapat para sa kanila, lalo na’t sila ang frontliners natin pagdating sa pagsugpo ng learning poverty.
At mas mataas na rin po ang budget natin para sa DepEd Computerization Program, na magbibigay ng laptops sa ating teachers and non-teaching personnel, kasama na rin ang school-wide Internet connection.
We are also building more classrooms to address the backlog in educational facilities. Mahalaga na may maayos na espasyo para sa ating mga mag-aaral. Kaya naman noong 2024, mahigit tatlong libong silid-aralan na ang itinayo natin at higit apat na libo pa ang itatayo natin sa 2026. We are also ensuring that these learning spaces are disaster resilient and tech-ready. Ang mga silid-aralan na ito ay gagawin nating handa sa mga hamon ng climate change at pati na rin ng makabagong teknolohiya.
And because nurturing begins in early childhood, we recently approved the release of Php 1 billion to support the establishment of Child Development Centers (CDCs) in 328 low-income LGUs nationwide—sa Luzon, sa Visayas, sa Mindanao, at kasama rin po diyan ang Bangsamoro region. Hangad natin na ang bawat batang Pilipino ay magkaroon ng magandang edukasyon mula sa murang edad, sapat na pagkain, at tamang brain development sa pinakamahalagang yugto ng kanilang paglaki.
And in 2026, we are going to expand the CDCs in more barangays, addressing undernutrition through the School-Based Feeding Program, and bringing quality education to remote areas with the Last Mile Schools Program.
We have a lot more programs and projects in education, but these are just some of the many ways that the government prioritizes the needs of our children and youth.
And I am sharing all of these with you because in the DBM, especially as we are the Chair of the Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH-OGP), we are committed to transparency, accountability and public participation.
We have been working for years to institutionalize transparency, and we are happy that now, both the Senate and the House of Representatives (HoR) are following suit and opening their processes to the public. The Senate recently adopted Senate Resolution No. 4, requiring all budget-related documents to be published online. In the HoR, House Resolution No. 94 was filed to institutionalize public participation in budget deliberations. And just yesterday, the Speaker of the House announced that they will now make the Bicameral Conference Committee deliberations open to the public.
And now, the public will also be able to monitor our child-related expenditures through our Child Budget and Expenditure Tagging and Tracking or CBETT tool.
It was just two months ago when we were presented with the results of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessments, which analyzed the country’s PFM systems and processes vis-à-vis international PFM standards and good practices. I am pleased to note that for the first time, the assessment also included a Child-Responsive PFM Report.
While this report showed that the foundational elements of a child-responsive PFM are emerging at the national level—as children-related priorities are reflected in our national budget documents—it recommended that we implement a policy to institutionalize structures and systems for child-focused budgeting. With this new tool that we are launching today, we are heeding that call.
Developed by the PF4C Committee, the CBETT Tool enables the systematic identification, classification, and monitoring of child-focused budget and expenditures within local budget frameworks. This directly addresses the critical gap in expenditure tracking identified in the Child-Responsive PFM Assessment Report.
The tool will likewise strengthen and harmonize our existing efforts and investments for children, establishing a cohesive, efficient, transparent, and sustained mechanism for child-responsive public financing.
As we are keen on using a whole-of-government approach, the CWC, DBM, DILG, and BLGF are all signing the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) today. In fact, we will employ not just a whole of government but a whole-of-society approach and mobilize as well national, regional, local, and other stakeholders, allowing a sustainable and scalable implementation of CBETT across the country.
Together we can truly propel the Philippines to “become a pioneering voice in the global movement to institutionalize child-responsive PFM”—as UNICEF Country Representative Noubary said a few months ago.
And we are grateful for the unwavering support of the European Union and UNICEF—for pushing for this key initiative under the EU-UNICEF Public Finance Facility, which supports the development and implementation of a system for child-sensitive sectors, among others.
To our LGUs, we are counting on your full support and cooperation in translating our vision into reality. As we all know, you all play a crucial role in the delivery of education, health, nutrition, and child protection services on the ground. Rest assured that we are all rallying behind you.
And we, at the DBM, are committed to integrating the CBETT into our existing PFM systems and initiatives. As a member of the PF4C Committee, we will also provide policy direction and technical guidance on budget and expenditures tagging for child-focused programs.1
Finally, we have our civil society partners who will not only let us know what is needed on the ground but who will also help us in ensuring accountability for implementing all these programs and fulfilling our promise of a better life and future for our children.
Together, we are sure to reach more lives and make more dreams come true.
And through the CBETT tool, we are reaffirming our shared aspiration of a Bagong Pilipinas—kung saan bawat bata, anuman ang relihiyon, kasarian, pagkakakilanlan, o pinagmulan—ay may pagkakataong makapag-aral, umunlad, at matupad ang mga pangarap.
These are all part of our Agenda for Prosperity, and we are fighting for all of these for our children.
Dahil sa Bagong Pilipinas, #BawatBataMahalaga, #BawatBuhayMahalaga, at #BawatBukasMahalaga.
Mararaming maraming salamat po at mabuhay ang kabataang Pilipino!
Wabillahi Tawfiq Wal Hidaya, Wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.
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