Restore P6 billion slashed from SUC budget, Senate asked

MANILA, Philippines — Teachers and students of state universities and colleges yesterday called on the Senate to restore the P6 billion slashed from SUCs’ budget for 2024 and instead realign some P9 billion in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) of several government agencies to the education sector.

“The P6-billion budget cut on SUCs is a big blow to the operations of our public universities, which, as they were, are already stretched beyond their limits,” Carl Marc Ramota, University of the Philippines System faculty regent and chairman of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)-SUCs, said.

“A large number of our SUCs could still not implement 100-percent face-to-face classes, not due to the dangers of the pandemic, but because of sheer lack of ample classrooms and facilities, and this is weighing heavily on the quality of learning,” Ramota added.

Clad in their university-themed protest gear, students and faculty members from UP Diliman and Manila campuses, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippine Normal University, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute for Science and Technology and Technological University of the Philippines simultaneously held rallies yesterday, in time for Senate’s plenary debates on SUCs’ proposed 2024 budget today.

Under the proposed 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) approved on third and final reading by the House of Representatives last Sept. 27, SUCs will be allotted a total of P100.8 billion, lower by 5.75 percent or P6.155 billion from this year’s P107 billion.

The protesters lamented that capital outlay, which covers long-term development of school facilities, equipment and other institutional investments, will suffer the largest cut under the proposed 2024 budget for SUCs.

They said that instead of decreasing SUCs’ budget, the Senate must abolish the CIF of several government agencies and realign the amount to the education sector.

“The government has the money, but it chose to prioritize the nontransparent and unaccounted CIF over the welfare of our youth and the future of our nation. The CIF now faces two cases before the Supreme Court for unconstitutionality,” Ramota said.

“Thus, we are calling on our senators to realign the remaining P9 billion in CIF (under the proposed 2024 national budget) to our SUCs, for the fund to benefit the youth,” he added in Filipino.

Meanwhile, teachers and education support personnel from public schools and universities called for “immediate” salary increase in 2024 as the last tranche of benefits under the Salary Standardization Law V is set to end this year.