Aumentado bill seeks P100M Kindergarten budg

kindergarten classroom

By Marlon Balmadrid    

QUEZON CITY. - Rep. Erico B. Aumentado has filed House Bill No. 6367 which seeks to appropriate the amount of Php100,000,000 to the kindergarten education program of the Department of Education. 

The amount is intended to be used for the construction of kindergarten classrooms and sanitation facilities, acquisition of teaching equipment and hiring of qualified teachers in public schools. 

Aumentado filed the bill after discovering that RA No.10157, The Kindergarten Education Act, which made kindergarten an integral part of the basic education system in the Philippines, does not carry an appropriate budget to support the program.

The solon anchored his measure on section 5, paragraph 5, Article 14 of the 1987 Constitution that provides: “ The State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.”

The Kindergarten Education Act provides equal opportunities for all children to avail of accessible mandatory and compulsory kindergarten education, it also effectively promotes physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and skills simulation and values formation which are designed to sufficiently prepare the young children for formal education. 

Under the present condition of our public education, however, the effective implementation of the law would be difficult without the necessary funding support Aumentado reiterated.  He also noted that the public school system faces recurring problems such as the shortages in classrooms, inadequate school facilities and lack of textbooks and qualified teachers. 

Aumentado believes that there is a need to remedy these problems now, otherwise, without these educational provisions and resources, the objective of the law to provide quality kindergarten education will be defeated.

In his explanatory note, the solon stressed that the funding required under this bill will complement the public kindergarten program and will facilitate the effective implementation of the law in the entire archipelago.

Meanwhile, Rep. Erico B. Aumentado was among the ten solons cited by the Philippine Star for filing the most number of bills in the 1st and 2nd regular sessions of the 15th Congress. 

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. and Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan De Oro City) lead with the most number of national and local bills filed.

Aumentado was credited with 72 vital national and local bills, and Rep Eduardo Gullas (Cebu) with 71 bills.

In another development, Aumentado filed 4 national bills under the 3rd regular session of the 15th congress, including the measure appropriating P100m for the kindergarten program of the Department of Education.        

Rep. Rico urges grads: Go agri-entrepreneur

sample photo only

By JUNE S. BLANCO

REP. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) has urged agriculture graduates to pursue entrepreneurship dreams over employment – push massive production over test tubes and petri dishes experiments in fancy laboratories.

This, Aumentado explained, is the essence of House Bill 6387 or The Agriculture Entrepreneurship Act of 2011 he is introducing.

In his explanatory note, the solon said manpower development programs in the agricultural sector have been focused primarily on technologists and scientists. Every year, universities and colleges in the country produce sizable numbers of graduates in agriculture-related courses.

Many of these graduates find work in government agencies, companies engaged in agriculture, but unfortunately a good number do not end up working in agri-related jobs.

Because of this bias, he said, few graduates have ventured into the business of farming or agricultural (or agri) entrepreneurship, contributing to the historical underperformance of Philippine agriculture and the transformation of the country from an agricultural exporter into a major importer of agricultural products. He said the Philippines is already the largest importer of rice in the world.

Many see agriculture as less of a profession or a business enterprise than a means to daily subsistence, he observed, often equated with poverty and underprivileged status. Many children of farmers prefer education in the professions or work in the factories or in the service sector in large urban areas to farming, he explained.

Aumentado said there have been initiatives to address the need for agricultural entrepreneurship training programs. Family Farm Schools or Rural Development Schools have been established in various parts of the country since 1988 based on the original French model.  These provide boys and girls with vital actual experience in agricultural operations and farm management during the formative high school years.

This concept, he said, can be extended to the post-secondary and collegiate level. In 1994, Congress enacted Republic Act 7686 or The Dual Training System Act of 1994 that institutionalized the dual training system, fusing technical and vocational education with actual training. This system has since produced thousands of graduates who have given technical and vocational education an impetus into the industrial, manufacturing, and service sectors.

The new approach to education in agriculture espoused in the bill takes inspiration from RA 7686. The solon said the country will train men and women as agriculture entrepreneurs, with actual or “hands on” experience in farming business, who would consider agriculture as an entrepreneurial activity.

This can be accomplished through a ladderized system of agricultural education and training that begins from the secondary level especially in the proposed Senior High Schools under the K+12 program.

He emphasized that the bill does not seek to create new government agencies at a time when there is renewed thrust to streamline the bureaucracy. It will not entail large appropriations either, he added.

Instead, it empowers the Department of Agriculture, through the Agricultural Training Institute, to pursue the plans, goals and objectives of the bill, in partnership with the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – a Private Public Partnership for manpower development for the agriculture sector.

Aumentado envisions an Agricultural Manpower Education and Entrepreneurship System (AMEES) that will assume a leadership role in secondary and tertiary level agricultural and entrepreneurship education.

Rico proposes P100M for kinder education

kindergarten school

By JUNE S. BLANCO

REP. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) has proposed the appropriation of P100 million to implement the kindergarten education program of the Department of Education (DepEd).

Cited by the Philippine Star to be among the most prolific lawmakers during the 2nd regular session of the 15th Congress, Aumentado makes a splash in the 3rd session with House Bill 6367 that seeks to appropriate the amount for the construction of kindergarten classrooms and sanitation facilities, acquisition of teaching aids and equipment as well as hiring of qualified and regular kindergarten teachers in public schools.

Aumentado proposes the amount to be released to DepEd, for the purpose intended in accordance with existing accounting and auditing rules and regulations.

Disbursement shall be through implementing rules and regulations that the secretary of education shall issue within 30 days after the effectivity of the law which is 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in two national newspapers of general circulation.

The Bohol solon pushed the appropriation bill after RA 10157 of the Kindergarten Education Act made kindergarten an integral part of the basic education system in the country.

The law provides equal opportunities for all children to avail of accessible mandatory and compulsory kindergarten education. It also promotes physical, social, intellectual and emotional health as well as skills stimulation and values formation designed to prepare the children for formal education.

However, Aumentado said, under the present condition of public education, the effective implementation of the law would be difficult without the necessary funding support, hence his bill.

Rico pushes 2nd eng’g district office upgrade

Rep. Aumentado

By JUNE S. BLANCO

PLANS to upgrade the Bohol 2nd Engineering Sub-District Office go into high gear this year as the Committee on Public Works and Highways has submitted to the Senate its committee report recommending approval of the proposal, with amendment.

Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) co-sponsored the report with Rep. Ronald Cosalan (Lone District, Benguet), committee chair.

House Bill 386 originally proposed the funding for the operationalization of the office to be included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of the year following its enactment into law.

The proposed amendment provides that the public works and highways secretary shall immediately include in the department’s program the operationalization of the office, with funding to be charged against the current year’s appropriation of the Bohol 2nd sub-district office. The amount necessary for the continued operation of the same shall be included in the following year’s GAA.

Rep. Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya (1st District, Cavite), chair of the committee on appropriations to which the Aumentado bill was also referred earlier informed the Cosalan committee of the proposed amendment.

The full-fledged district office will still cover the 14 towns of the 2nd district – Pres. Garcia, Ubay, Bien Unido, Trinidad, Talibon, Getafe, Buenavista, Inabanga, Clarin, Sagbayan, San Isidro, Dagohoy, Danao and San Miguel – around one-third of Bohol’s land area. It is maintaining 209.931 kilometers of national roads and 1,525.4 linear meters of bridges.

The sub-district office located in Ubay currently has a staff of 94 personnel including the district engineer and his assistant and some redeployed from the 1st and the 3rd engineering districts stationed in Tagbilaran  City and Guindulman town respectively.

In the bill’s explanatory note, there will be no need for creating new positions except those of the district engineer and assistant, and administrative and personnel officers whose salaries will be charged to the items for the present positions of redeployed employees, subject to be upgraded to the level of the salary grades/positions proposed in the new plantilla of personnel.

This means, Aumentado explained, the amount to be appropriated would be considerably minimal as the redeployed employees can draw their salaries from their present positions plus the upgrading of their positions/salaries as may be necessary.