Militant youth groups vow to fight move to slash 2012 education budget

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Militant organizations here in Southern Mindanao vowed to fight the Aquino administration move to cut anew the budget for the country’s 110 state universities and colleges (SUCs) next year.

The Anakbayan youth organization stressed that such budget cut will be met with more student walkouts and massive demonstrations should it push through.

“Students are outraged with this second round of budget cuts. President Aquino is roundly anti-student and anti-people. The previous (Arroyo) administration was criticized for providing meager budgets for SUCs. But with President Aquino’s proposed budgets for two consecutive years, things are heading for the worst,” said Cherry Orendain, regional spokesperson of Anakbayan in Southern Mindanao.

Orendain said the renewed budget cuts would mean more students dropping out from school as more families have been affected by financial problems and could not afford to send their children to school.

Instead of helping ease the situation by allowing more students to enroll in SUCs, government has made it impossible for them to accommodate more students.

The Department of Budget and Management approved only P21.8 billion for the country’s 110 SUCs for 2012, lower than this year’s P22.03 billion. Fifty-eight schools will have cuts in their personal services budget amounting to a total of P403.3 million, despite the enactment of the wage increase for government employees.

At least 45 schools will also have cuts in their maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) amounting to P250.9 million. There will be no budget for the Capital Outlay of the SUCs.

As reflected in Aquino’s budget message last year: “We are gradually reducing the subsidy to SUCs to push them toward becoming self-sufficient and financially independent, given their ability to raise their income and to utilize it for their programs and projects.”

Aside from the cuts on the SUC budget, the DepEd will be receiving an “increase” in its budget for the upcoming year.

“Although DepEd will receive an additional P238.8 billion, this is still insufficient because it won’t cover the existing deficiencies experienced by our public schools. The main reason for this so called “increase” is for the implementation of the K to 12 and it is clear that this government is unable to follow through with this program,” Orendain added.

According to a study done by UNESCO, 73 percent of students are forced to drop out because of the unattainable price of Philippine education. With the impending budget cuts, more students will be forced to drop out.

“The government should not claim that education is among its top priorities. It is clear from these budget proposals that it has continually become the primary agent in depriving the youth of its right to education,” Orendain said.

In the last quarter of 2010, thousands of students, teachers, staff and administrators nationwide joined in protesting against the budget cuts which resulted in the restoration of a small percentage of the slashed budget.