VP Sara Duterte Attends Inauguration of School Covered Court in Oriental Mindoro
SARA DUTERTE – The Vice President expressed thanks to the Chinese Embassy for funding the construction of a school covered court in Oriental Mindoro.
The Department of Education was allotted the biggest budget for this year. In the 2026 national budget that was recently signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., DepEd is set to receive P1.015 trillion.
Here are the allocations for the different key departments under the government in the 2026 national budget signed by Marcos Jr.:
- Department of Education — P1.015 trillion
- Department of Public Works and Highways — P530.9 billion
- Department of Health — P448.1 billion
- Department of the Interior and Local Government — P310.5 billion
- Department of National Defense — P310.0 billion
- Department of Agriculture — P297.1 billion
- Department of Social Welfare and Development — P270.2 billion
- Department of Transportation — P141.0 billion
- Department of Labor and Employment — P73.6 billion
- Judiciary — P70.6 billion
However, based on the recent remarks of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte, the infrastructure fund of the Department of Education is seemingly limited to “in-classroom learning”. The Vice President recently made the remarks at the inauguration of a school covered court in Pola, Oriental Mindoro.
Based on a report on PhilStar, in her speech, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte thanked the Chinese Embassy for funding the construction of the covered court of a school in Pola, Oriental Mindoro. According to her, the Chinese embassy filled the gap in the amount needed for the construction as the DepEd infra funds are limited to the building of classrooms, laboratories, and in-classroom learning.
“I was telling the ambassador earlier that we are truly grateful since the Department of Education, we are not allowed to allot a budget for covered courts. We all know that our infrastructure are only limited to laboratories, classrooms, which are all related to in-classroom learning,” the Vice President said.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte acknowledged the contribution of the Chinese embassy through Ambassador Jing Quan. Based on the report, the Vice President stressed that the embassy and the Filipino-Chinese Youth Foundation Committee Inc. responded to the need of the Philippine schools for safe spaces for the students’ physical activities outside their classrooms.
In the 2026 national budget, the Department of Public Works and Highways get the second biggest fund for this year among the key departments under the government. However, the P530.9 billion allocated to the DPWH is far from its proposed budget. Previously, DPWH Sec. Vince Dizon spoke on the budget for the department which is over P300 billion lower than its proposed fund.