Facebook Pixel Brace for impact | The Philippine Star - newspaper - Read this story on Magzter.com

Try GOLD - Free

Brace for impact

The Philippine Star

|

January 07, 2025

Much has been said already about the 2025 budget, touted as the crookedest of all, but one glaring implication I'd like to stress is that it would set our country back, by at least a decade and possibly generations.

- IRIS GONZALES

Brace for impact

And we should brace for impact, not the sudden, forceful, instant-death kind of crash but an ugly, slow burn of sorts—a death by a thousand cuts.

Education

First of all, this year's budget will severely and negatively impact our future, given the cuts in the education budget.

As we all know, Congress, during the bicameral conference, slashed the budgets of core education agencies while raising the budget for the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Core education agencies account for P965.26 billion—Department of Education (P782.17 billion), State Universities and Colleges (P127.23 billion), Commission on Higher Education (P34.88 billion) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (P20.98 billion) (Philstar.com, Jan. 3, 2025).

However, to make it appear that the education sector still gets the biggest budget as mandated by the Constitution, the government added other agencies to the education sector, such as the Local Government Academy (P529.24 million), the Philippine National Police Academy (P1.37 billion), the Philippine Public Safety College (P994.3 million), the National Defense College of the Philippines (P334.64 million), the Philippine Military Academy (P1.76 billion), etc.

This is a good cop-bad cop move. Congress is the bad cop, while the government pretends to be the good cop. At the end of the day, however, Filipinos are still at the losing end.

As many have pointed out, the Marcos administration is taking us for fools.

MORE STORIES FROM The Philippine Star

The Philippine Star

SEC issues new compliance rules for one-person corporations

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to improve compliance among one-person corporations (OPCs) by establishing new monitoring guidelines.

time to read

2 mins

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

SETTLING HOOPDOM'S GOAT DEBATE

Preceding the year-end holidays, my gratitude addressed special friends for a couple of books sent from the USA.

time to read

5 mins

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

Senate sets caucus on talks with China, Bato absence

The Senate is set to convene an all-senators’ caucus today to establish ground rules for potential dialogues with the Chinese embassy regarding the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue, while also addressing the prolonged absence of Sen.

time to read

1 mins

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

Stocks to ride positive momentum

The local stock market hopes to keep its winning streak alive this week, inspired by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s recent rate cut and a slew of corporate earnings results.

time to read

1 mins

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

The Philippine Star

Rody's family can't visit until Feb. 27

Members of the Duterte family will not be allowed to visit the former president during confirmation of charges hearings at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

time to read

1 min

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

Peso recovers lost ground

At the start of 2026, many analysts had been bracing for the peso to drift toward the psychological 60-per-dollar level.

time to read

2 mins

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

The Philippine Star

ICC begins confirmation hearing on Rody case today

He may not be present in person or even virtually, but everything that will be discussed inside Courtroom 1 of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague this week will be all about former president Rodrigo Duterte.

time to read

4 mins

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

The Philippine Star

'UNTIL SHE REMEMBERS' EXAMINES LOVE WHEN MEMORY FAILS

AMID THE WELL-PHOTOGRAPHED, CRISP TRAILER of \"Until She Remembers,\" images of women emerge one by one, accompanied by their voices.

time to read

3 mins

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

Sunset for sugar?

The sun is setting on the Philippine sugar industry but our government refuses to acknowledge it, delaying efforts to transition the poor workers who are dependent on it.

time to read

4 mins

February 23, 2026

The Philippine Star

The Philippine Star

HOW A KAPRE AND 6,7 ARE ENGAGING GEN-Z

We never heard such deafening screaming at a theater for some time, thanks to high school students reacting to kilig moments between a hot kapre and an alluring provincial maiden who have undercurrents of desire that were titillating these Zoomers.

time to read

4 mins

February 23, 2026

Listen

Translate

Share

-
+

Change font size