Krisis Issue 2 AY 15-16

TUE 29 SEPTEMBER 2015 ISSUE 2 A.Y. 2015 - 2016 KRISIS presents UPJC’s take on the Philippine situation via news articles, news analyses, editorials and feature articles on current political issues.

Krisis

THE UP BUDGET ISSUE

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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE UP JOURNALISM CLUB NEGOSYO O KALAYAAN.

UP students stage a two-day walkout rally on September 23 and 24 against the P2.2 billion cut in the proposed 2016 budget, the biggest under the Aquino administration.

Photo by Yves Briones/UPJC.

Students protest against P2.2 B budget slash Stronger opposition needed as UP faces its biggest budget cut so far

by Christian Venus and Jenele Mane

DBM rebuts budget cut Office says money is only realigned, not decreased

by Christian Venus, Arianne Tapao and Rose Anne Solo

Source:

Department of Budget and Management, 2015

2016 UP BUDGET

Allocation of the 2016 UP Budget

PHP 13.4B

There are no budget cuts for the University of the Philippines (UP) system, a Department of Budget and Management (DBM) administrator said.

In a forum held Thursday, DBM National Capital Region director Ruby Esteban said the missing P2.2 billion from the proposed 2016 UP budget was just realigned under other sectors which, when totaled, is almost equal to the 2015 budget.

“Some parts of the budget are simply

lodged in other agencies, but they’re still specific for the university’s use,” she said in Filipino.

Prior to the forum, President Pascual said in an interview with Rappler that the decrease in the 2016 budget was due to completion of PGH modernization.

According to the 2015 General Appropriations Act (GAA), P3.15 billion was allocated to UP-PGH for the “acquisition and upgrading of various hospital equipment”.

When asked about the disbursement of the P3.15 billion fund, UP Vice President for Planning and Finance Joselito Florendo said it has not yet been used because of PGH’s strict screening process.

PGH has “to go through the specifications one by one...we have a procurement law to follow and its rules are strict,” Florendo said.

REGULAR BUDGET PHP 11,465,102 DPWH PHP 712,000 DOST E-GOV FUND PHP 100,000 PHP 600,000 REHABILITATION AND RECONSTRUCTION PROGRAM

PHP 342,138

MISC. AND PERSONAL BENEFIT FUNDS

PHP 205,570

Esteban said in determining UP’s annual budget, DBM considers revenues from tuition fees, other school fees, UP land leases and other income-generating projects which form the Special Trust Fund (STF) which is around P12 billion as of 2014. “[State universities and colleges] are actually lucky because they are able to earn income, keep and utilize it and dispose of it in any way they can,” Esteban said.

However, a student leader said the continuous decrease in UP’s annual budget only increases the university’s reliance on commercialization schemes and income-generating projects.

“They slashed the budget and pushed the university to resort to commercialization and profiteering schemes. They use the students for profit, through the Socialized Tuition Scheme, for one,” University Student Council (USC) councilor Bryle Leaño said in Filipino.

The Balitaktakan forum organized by the USC may see a second part with members of the UP Board of Regents as speakers, Chairperson JP Delas Nieves said.

The highest policy-making body of the university, the BOR drafts UP budget proposals.

Students denounced the proposed P2.2 billion cut for the University of the Philippines System’s 2016 budget as they walked out of their classes on Sept. 23 and 24.

The Department of Budget and Management allotted P11.5 billion for the university in its 2016 budget proposal, down from last year’s P13.7 billion.

Student Regent Mico Pangalangan said President Alfredo Pascual denied the existence of any budget cut and said the P 2.2 billion budget reduction in capital outlay was because of the completion of the PGH modernization program.

“From President Pascual, it is clear that we will not fight against the budget cut because as he sees it, there is no such thing as a budget cut,” said Pangalangan.

Department of Budget and Management National Capital Region director Ruby Esteban said in a Sept. 24 that part of the budget was realigned to other sectors, making it almost equal to last year’s P13.7 billion budget.

Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights (STAND UP) chairperson Menchani Tilendo said mobilizations helped decrease the cut from the proposed P 1.43 billion for the 2010-2011 budget the highest in history during that time. More or less 5,000 students organized then, and Tilendo added that with the larger proposed budget cut, the call for numbers to oppose is greater now.

“We’re not mounting protest actions just for the sake of making noise.

It’s also a form of pressure to the administration because they won’t be giving us our free tuition if we keep

PROTEST

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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE UP JOURNALISM CLUB

EDITORIAL

A Question of Right and Reponsibilty

The University and state officials confirmed their stance that tertiary education is a mere privilege in a budget forum Thursday – giving truth to accusations of neglect of the students they should instead be serving.

According to Article 26 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “everyone has the right to free education.” While the guarantee is technically limited only to basic and elementary education, the declaration maintains that “higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.” This is further supported by the World Declaration on Higher Education stating that no student should be discriminated against on the grounds of “economic, cultural or social distinctions,” including race and gender.

It seems that as international efforts are being made towards making higher education accessible to greater numbers, the Philippines seemingly heads towards the opposite direction.

Even now, the government tries to justify the P2.2 billion budget cut for the University of the Philippines (UP) proposed in the 2016 budget, the biggest under the Aquino administration. Adding insult to injury, the President’s communications point person Herminio Coloma Jr. said in an interview that state universities and colleges’ (SUC) income generation capabilities should compensate for

decreasing state subsidy. This has contributed greatly to UP’s worsening budget deficit as a result of the tertiary education system being rapidly commercialized.

According to RA 9500 or “The University of the Philippines Charter of 2008,” UP is the country’s national university. It is mandated under Section 8 and 9 of the Charter to “serve the Filipino nation” and to ensure “democratic access” to education, as no student should be denied admission to the university on the basis of economic status, among others.

But today, as a result of the government’s Roadmap to Public Higher Education Reform (RPHER), UP has added an impediment to the supposedly democratic system of tertiary education. Along with other SUCs, UP has been pushed to adopt socialized tuition fee schemes which have raised tuition fees from a mere P40 per unit before 1989 to P300 until

that as international efforts “ areIt seems being made towards making higher education accessible to greater numbers, the Philippines apparently heads towards the opposite direction.

2007 under the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP), up to a staggering P1,500 per unit under the current Socialized Tuition System (STS).

SUCs are now also forced to “become more self-reliant financially and less

dependent on government subsidy” under the RPHER. These are the administration’s own words, their means to free themselves from their responsibility to the national university.

In turn, they are passing the buck to the nation’s “Iskolars,” as if spitting on the latter’s name.

It is because of these reasons that the Congress has seen fit to slash the UP budget to ribbons on an annual basis – an almost chicken-or-egg debate arising from the state’s flawed logic.

UP, along with other SUCs, has been getting only half of their proposed budget due to their income generation capabilities, which was brought about by the same annual budget deficiencies – a disgusting violation of the Charter which states that “funds generated from such programs [...] shall not be meant to replace, in part or in whole, the annual appropriations provided by the national government.”

Also, while it is true that UP currently has more than P12 billion in revenues from socialized tuition fees and commercialized land assets stashed away as “special trust funds,” it is hindered by the problem of limited mobility. As UP Vice President for Finance and Planning Joselito Florendo and Commission on Audit’s Juliet Escaño said during the forum, it is kept only as a development fund for the implementation of future projects which seem to lack concretization as both students and faculty remain unaware of any immediate plans for infrastructure or facility development.

With the university claiming to possess the brightest minds of the nation yet unable to find an effective workaround

ISSUE 2 A.Y. 2015 - 2016 to dispense the funds for necessary facilities, dormitories and other expenses concerning the students, one has to question if they are even interested in finding a solution. Especially when the students themselves, unjustly paying for an education the state should be providing, built these funds in “trust” of

With the university claiming to “ nation possess the brightest minds of the yet unable to find an effective

workaround to dispense the funds for necessary facilities, dormitories and other expenses concerning the students, one has to question if they are even interested in finding a solution.

the state and of the UP administration.

Those bearing the helm of the government and of state universities like UP must turn their heads and work for the benefit of the students, and not see the latter as money-milking cows. At their current stance, however, only a collective call from the students themselves demanding accountability and responsibility from those in power, and reaffirming themselves as stakeholders of their own futures, would make these people jump from their plush seats.

The fact that the “state university” appears and is provided for with rights in the Philippine Constitution provides another simple fact: the government and UP owes every Iskolar ng Bayan the right to proper education, not the privileged few whose numbers continue to dwindle with every successive budget cut.

PROTEST

LUCKIER STILL. Julieta Escaño from the Commission on Audit says UP remains more fortunate than other SUCs because apart from IGP revenues, the national government still provides subsidy, September 24. The Balitaktakan speakers on UP’s 2016 funds rebutted claims that there are cuts to the university budget. Photo by Kenneth Gutlay/UPJC.

Editorial Board Allan Yves Briones Editor-in-Chief

Krisis Issue 2 A.Y. 2015 - 2016 Maisie Joven Editor

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silent,” Tilendo said in Filipino.

The student regent said the decrease in UP’s proposed budget increases the university’s reliance on commercialization schemes and income-generating projects.

“From the dorm issue, the accessibility of education and many other issues we’re facing, they’re all tied together with the fact that the state only approves around 50 percent of our budget request annually,” Pangalangan said.

Malacañang last month justified the P2.2 billion budget cut saying state universities and colleges (SUCs) can generate their own income through projects such as land leases like the Ayala Technohub and Town Center.

The budget for SUCs are based on President Aquino’s Roadmap to Public Higher Education Reforms (RPHER).

In Aquino’s reform, SUCs must adopt a fee scheme where students from more financially capable families pay a larger sum of tuition.

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