Tuesday, February 2, 2016

How to increase the budget allocation for National Defense without violating the 1987 Philippine Constitution?


1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XIV, Section 5 (5) says: "The State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education..."

Through the years, this has been interpreted as: "The Department of Education shall always have the highest allocation in the National Budget."

But the Constitution only says "Education" and not "Department of Education". And we all know that other national agencies of the Philippine Government also engage in educational activities, and not only the Department of Education.

For example, the PMA, PMMA, PAF Flying School, and the PNPA are essentially educational institutions. The same goes for the AFP Command and General Staff College, as well as the National Defense College of the Philippines. Shouldn't their budgets be counted under "Education" for purposes of evaluating compliance with the Education Budget restriction of the Constitution?

The expense for training PAF personnel in flying and servicing the newly-acquired FA-50 should also be counted as "Education".

In fact, all training-related and education-related costs of all government agencies should be counted as "Education".

The portion of the National Budget spent on "Education" should, therefore, be calculated as the Budget of the Department of Education PLUS the training-related and education-related budgets of all other government agencies.

If this formula is used, the allocation percentage for the Defense Budget can easily be 16% or more of the Total National Budget and exceed the Department of Education Budget, without violating the Constitution.

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