Manila: The proposed 2026 national budget is providing substantial funding to expand free internet access and energize thousands of public schools that remain off-grid. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, announced Thursday that the spending plan includes PHP5 billion under the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for the Free Public Internet Access Program.

According to Philippines News Agency, Sen. Gatchalian introduced an amendment to a special provision to ensure that the rollout prioritizes Department of Education (DepEd) schools and state universities and colleges (SUCs). DepEd is set to receive PHP1.5 billion to improve internet connectivity in public schools, with about 12,000 campuses still lacking access.

For school electrification, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) is allotted PHP3.6 billion to bring power to around 6,000 unenergized or off-grid public schools. "Hopefully in two years, wala na tayong problema with electrification and internet connectivity sa ating mga public schools (Hopefully in two years, we will no longer have problems with electrification and internet connectivity in our public schools)," Gatchalian said.

The combined allocations, he noted, are sufficient to meet at least half of the nationwide requirements for school connectivity and electrification.