NEARLY half of the members of the House of Representatives have signed a statement asking the Duterte administration to junk its proposed cuts in the appropriations for 57 state universities and colleges (SUCs.)
Party-list Rep. Sarah Elago of Kabataan said at a news briefing on Thursday 113 lawmakers have signed the unity statement initiated by the youth party.
The list includes members from both the majority and the minority blocs.
In the proposed 2017 national budget, SUCs are given an immediately accessible budget of P56 billion, an increase of P8.7 billion, or 18 percent, from the current P47.4 billion.
However, this budget showed 57 SUCs would suffer cuts in their budgets, the legislators explained in the unity statement.
Thirteen SUCs are set to incur cuts in their overall budget, while 35 schools are set to sustain cuts in their operating budget.
The total budget for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) for all SUCs will actually decrease by P256 million, from the current P11.5 billion to P11.3 billion in 2017.
A total of 57 SUCs will also sustain cuts in their budget for capital outlay, including the University of the Philippines (UP), which has suffered huge reductions in its budget for the past 16 years. “We call on the Honorable Committee on Appropriations and members of both chambers of Congress, to immediately stop the impending budget cuts and augment the funding for public tertiary education—with the end view of achieving free public education in due time,” the 113 legislators said.
Apart from calling for greater state funding for SUCs, the legislators also called on students and the public to join “in the fight to reclaim our right to education.”
The legislators also called for affirmative action to seek greater support to public education and asked students, teachers and the public to join the “Youth Action Day for Education and Human Rights” on September 21. In their plea, the lawmakers said: “We, legislators of the 17th Congress, believe education is a right. It is the Constitutional obligation of the State to prioritize education to inculcate patriotism and nationalism among the youth. We, thus, express our strong appeal for greater state funding for the qualitative functioning of our nation’s 114 SUCs. We believe that higher education is an instrument of empowerment and, thus, contributory for national development. Higher education serves a public and social purpose. Contrary to current market-driven economic policies, higher education is a public good and should not be left vulnerable to free market forces and commercial interests.”
Elaborating on the matter, the lawmakers said, “in the past years, we have witnessed the gradual dilution of the public character of our state schools. Education has been reduced to being a lucrative business milking the youth and our parents dry for profit. Since 2010, we have seen a steady increase in tuition rates and a sharp increase in the collection of other school fees. These collections are no less than profiteering measures driven by massive deregulation, privatization and denationalization of education.”
They concluded state schools are being compelled to earn more income as government’s annual funding for them has been largely insufficient.