CHED loses P1-B research budget

MANILA, Philippines – Like the Department of Health, Congress has also removed P1 billion from the proposed budget of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) this year, The STAR learned yesterday.

Budget documents showed that the original P1.763-billion proposal of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the Philippine-California Advanced Research Institutes (PCARI) project was reduced to P763 million in the appropriations law.

The agency confirmed that more than half of the original budget proposal for PCARI was scrapped by legislators after learning that there are still unused funds from previous years.

PCARI is a multibillion-peso international research project initiated by CHED in partnership with various universities in California.

It provides grants to Filipino researchers who submit proposals for research projects aimed at addressing development priorities identified by CHED.

The project received an initial funding of P1.763 billion in 2013, followed by another P1.767 billion in 2014.

However, Congress did not allocate any budget for the program last year after the agency failed to utilize the funding for the first two years due to delay in implementation.

The reinstatement of the budget for PCARI, albeit lower than the initial request, was due to the initial implementation of the program last year.

Eight projects, to be conducted by researchers from the California schools in partnership with those from the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University, were initially approved for implementation.

Among the collaborative projects to be undertaken are studies on screening of Philippine terrestrial and marine organisms for anti-malaria properties, accessible detection of dengue, Philippine-University of California “collaboratory” for device innovation, and expansion of shared genomics core facility.

The agreement also covers funding for studies on resilient sensory swarms for smart energy, village base station, resilient cyber-physical societal scale systems and cost-effective manufacturing using printing fabrication technologies.

CHED Chairman Patricia Licuanan said they expect more projects and universities to take part in the program.

“PCARI is a capacity-building, technology-generating collaborative initiative designed to upgrade to global standards the research development and innovation capabilities and competencies of Philippine higher education institutions,” she said during the launch.

100 percent increase

Despite losing funds for PCARI, CHED will still enjoy more than 100 percent increase in its budget, from P2.368 billion in new appropriations in 2015 to P5.635 billion this year.

Automatic appropriations from the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF), which is on top of the new appropriations, also increased from P1.011 billion in 2015 to P3.999 billion this year.

The increase is mostly due to the funding allotted to projects in support of educators who will be affected by the implementation of the K to 12 program.

Budget documents showed that P2.275 billion from this year’s new appropriations and another P3 billion from the HEDF are solely allotted for scholarships for faculty development.