Quality education is not a favor, it is a constitutional right and a global commitment under Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Yet is questionable, for millions of Filipino learners, this right exists only on paper. While the government promises free and accessible education, many still lack access to it. In a country overflowing with political speech and reports that billions of peso budgets are allocated with different priorities, where are the funds that were supposed to ensure every student can learn?
In the recent school-based press conference, James B. Lomocho—a law student, tackles students having the right to quality education. Yet, as I observed a crowd of students wearing their uniforms, it made me wonder if all Filipino children had the same opportunity as them. Do these rights apply to all?
It is very disappointing to hear that in a community where poverty is highest, classrooms are at their worst. Schools in rural areas have no choice but to operate with collapsing ceilings and public schools were lacking classroom. According to the news, 165,000 pesos was funded to Department of Education (DepEd), and it would take 55 years to solve the problem in classroom shortage. This heart-breaking scene made me realize that the poorer the community, the lower the government’s urgency.
Read More: DepEd: 165K classroom shortage could take 55 years to solve | GMA News Online
Data reinforces the tragedy. According to multiple investigative reports, over ₱1 trillion in education funds have either been delayed, mismanaged, or lost to corruption—money that could have built thousands of classrooms, supplied millions of textbooks, and provided digital tools to remote learners. Instead, poor students are told to “be patient” while their future is taken away by projects that never reach completion. Corruption is not an oversight. It is an operation. And its casualties are children whose only crime is being born poor.
Read More:PIDS – Philippine Institute for Development Studies
I was dismayed knowing that not even urban communities are exempted from this kind of tragedy. Minimum-wage families, already worrying about the rising prices, are forced to pay for hidden costs of education, material needed for projects, since public school budgets are woefully insufficient or inadequately reported. Problems in overcrowded classrooms are still existing, yet budget requests for the construction of more classrooms are frequently belatedly approved after so much effort. This is not so much inefficiency as a system that punishes the poor who dare to seek that education the government promised.
Read More:article_210691_9e6154cf85b3295f5900e309becc6597.pdf
It demands public, transparent budget tracking and immediate punishment to all who commits crime. I am calling out those officials robbing the nation’s future, no more reassignments. no more quiet resignations. no more reports hidden behind administration.
If our leaders continue to starve the education system that truly belonged to all Filipino learners, then they must suffer consequences that are according to the damage they inflict.
It is already the time that our government should act. Quality Education will always remain a privilege and not a right until integrity in government is elected above self-preservation. And the Philippines will continue raising generations whose dreams are built on breadcrumbs stolen from budgets that would have filled their future.
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