By Herman M. Lagon

The first time you hear “P1.015 trillion,” your brain does what brains do when numbers get too big: it turns the figure into a mood. It sounds like rescue. It sounds like a national apology with commas. It sounds like a future finally being taken seriously. Yet my most honest “budget reaction” does not start in Congress or Malacañang. It starts in a public-school corridor at 6:45 a.m., where a teacher is already wiping a board that never fully turns white again, and a child is asking for a spare sheet of paper like it is a small luxury. That is why I read the headline about DepEd’s biggest allocation in history with two emotions in one chest: relief and suspicion. Relief, because a system this stretched cannot be repaired by motivational posters. There is excitement, but also a familiar worry. In our country, big promises sometimes outpace real change. Even Secretary Sonny Angara said the real question is not the size of the budget, but how quickly and fairly it reaches the people who need it.

The government’s story is straightforward: The P1.015-trillion DepEd budget is meant to fund a comprehensive approach — more classrooms, better nutrition, technology, curriculum work, and teacher welfare — so learning outcomes improve and gaps narrow. On paper, the line items look like they listened to what teachers have been repeating for years while waiting in faculty rooms with electric fans that sound like tired engines. DepEd itself has highlighted major allocations: addressing a reported 165,000-classroom backlog through new classrooms and repairs, expanding school-based feeding to millions of learners, improving procurement of learning materials, strengthening digital tools and connectivity, and hiring thousands of teaching and support positions, including school counselor associates. Those are not small things. Classrooms matter. Food matters. Time and support for teachers matter. Anyone who has watched a student try to read while hungry knows how “learning recovery” can collapse into simple survival. Still, the moment we treat the budget as automatic progress is the moment we stop asking the most Pinoy question of all: Saan mapupunta?

That question got sharper when some analysts flagged the celebration around hitting the Unesco spending benchmark. The administration’s claim that the education sector reached the recommended share of GDP sounded like a milestone, but the People’s Budget Coalition argued the math depends on what gets counted, including items outside core education agencies, and even local funds like the Special Education Fund. Their point is not that education should receive less. Their point is that it is easier to hit a target when you widen the goalpost. This matters because it shapes how we talk about the “trillion.” If we treat the number as proof of priority, we risk relaxing too early. If we treat it as a promise that still needs verification, we keep the right pressure in the room. And pressure is not always bad. Pressure is how concrete hardens. Pressure is how procurement deadlines stop being suggestions. Pressure is how “soon” becomes an actual date, not a season.

Here is where the conversation often turns unfair to teachers. When the system fails, the easiest scapegoat is the person closest to the child: the classroom teacher. But any teacher who has tried to teach reading comprehension to a class of 50 knows that the real bottleneck is often structural. If the money is real, then the first “trillion test” is visible and measurable: classrooms that exist, are safe, and are actually used. DepEd’s infrastructure push, including funds for new construction and repairs, is not glamorous, but it is foundational. A repaired roof is not a photo-op; it is the difference between continuing a lesson and canceling it because the rain is louder than your voice. A real classroom is the difference between a teacher doing remedial reading with a small group and a teacher simply trying to keep the room calm. If the backlog is as severe as reported, then every finished room is a quiet moral win. But that is also why the public has to watch closely: “Infrastructure” is where good intentions often go to die in change orders, ghost deliveries and projects that look complete from the road but fail inside.

The second test is nutrition, because learning does not happen on empty stomachs, and hunger has a way of turning even bright children into quiet shadows. DepEd’s expanded school-based feeding allocation is one of the most practical parts of the 2026 plan: It treats learning as something a body has to carry. Think of ROI as breakfast that actually arrives — daily enough that a Kinder pupil no longer sleeps through lessons. But feeding must be guarded: procurement, delivery and monitoring have to be real. Otherwise, meals become “accomplishments” on paper.

Technology is another test. We often confuse handing out devices with improving learning. With weak internet, laptops can turn into pricey paperweights. The work is in the unglamorous parts: right specs, teacher training, repairs, and lesson designs that don’t collapse without signal. If teachers say it helped after a month, it worked.

Teacher welfare is just as practical. More teaching items, admin staff and counselor associates mean time is returned to teachers. Less paperwork. More teaching. More support for students’ well-being, not just their worksheets.

Will the budget fix the system then? Only if we monitor it like we would a family budget. Don’t clap at the purchase — check the result. Did everyone eat? Did learning improve? Did waste shrink?

My hope is simple: learners reading by Grade 3, teachers no longer spending out of pocket, and schools that stop treating hunger and overload as normal. A trillion pesos is impressive, but learning is the true proof.

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Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with./WDJ