Lawmakers cross party lines to push for higher SUC funding

MANILA, Philippines - Some 28 lawmakers from various political parties, including six vice chairpersons of the House committee on appropriations, have joined forces to push for higher funding for state universities and colleges (SUCs).

During the plenary deliberation on the budget of the country’s 114 SUCs yesterday, Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon announced on the floor the filing of House Resolution 2377, which seeks to “restore the P477.8-million budget slashed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) from the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) of 59 SUCs in the proposed P3.002-trillion national budget for 2016.”

The resolution also asked the DBM to study options to further increase the budget for public tertiary education.

Among the signatories to the resolution was Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo, chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education.

Despite the nominal four percent increase in the budget of 114 SUCs in the proposed 2016 national budget, from a total P42.3 billion in 2015 to P43.8 billion, 10 SUCs will incur a net decrease in their respective budgets, the lawmakers said.

They said an in-depth analysis of the budget of SUCs also reveals deeper cuts, with 59 of them set to incur hefty cuts in their MOOE and 40 SUCs set to suffer cuts in their capital outlay (CO) budget.

Ridon said Western Visayas is the region most affected by the MOOE cuts, with eight schools in the region affected. At close second is Eastern Visayas, with seven schools in the region also about to suffer MOOE cuts.

Forty SUCs will meanwhile incur cuts totaling P4.1 in their CO budget.

The largest decrease affected the University of the Philippines System (UP), which is set to incur a P2.2-billion budget cut for its CO.

Three SUCs also have virtually no CO allocation for 2016. These are Marikina Polytechnic College, Cagayan State University and Bulacan State University.

“The new spate of spending cuts, especially the P477.8-million decrease in the budget for school operations, will have a severe effect on state schools. In fact, several school presidents have already written legislators to express their deep concern,” the lawmakers said.

Ridon said the government has “a very wide fiscal space next year —P582.7 billion to be exact — so wide that we can even double the budget of all SUCs and still have plenty of room for more.”