U.P. Kilos Na: Concerned U.P. Faculty Statement on the Budget Cut

CONCERNED UP FACULTY STATEMENT

November 26, 2010

"As faculty members, we are called to be one with our students’ call for unity and action. Our students have spoken, and have expanded the space of learning beyond the classroom and conference halls. It is time we join them. It is time to strike."

"We faculty members of the University of the Philippines, forge solidarity and unity with our students who protest the 2011 budget cut to the University of the Philippines of the Aquino government."

"Our fight against the budget cut is also a counter-argument against those who continue to deny that the budget cut is not even real and is not a threat to the university. The difference between the 2010 budget and the proposed 2011 budget proves the reality of the pending slash in the subsidy for UP. The refusal to recognize this fact is an attempt to douse the spirit of solidarity among the different sectors within the UP community, a solidarity that has been growing despite and because of the worsening conditions in the university. survival, justifying state abandonment of its constitutional role to protect public education. In response to protests against the budget cut, President Noynoy Aquino himself cited UP’s partnership with the Ayala corporation as supposed proof of UP’s self-sufficiency, thereby justifying the pending budget cut. Aquino’s reasoning goes against the UP 2008 charter which clearly states that income generated from commercial ventures cannot substitute state subsidy.”

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