U.P. Faculty, Organizations call for Dec.1 March to Senate to protest Budget Cuts to State Universities and Colleges; Decry Aquino Administration's Gobbledygook to justify Budget Cuts

THERE IS A BUDGET CUT! 
Oppose the language of technocracy, assert the language of common sense! 


December 1, 2010

Statement of UP Faculty and Staff of UP Kilos Na Laban sa Budget Cut

A lot has been said in the past week, not just about the extent, but more fundamentally, about the existence or non-existence of a “cut in the budget” or “budget cut” affecting the UP System in the proposed 2011 "Reform Budget." Some have asserted that there has in fact been no “budget cut” at all, or that if there has been, it is much less than the P1.39B being bandied about by the student activists. The gist of the argument is that the “capital outlay” part of the budget which is project-specific and meant for the construction of buildings, equipment purchase among others, is “non-recurring.” That is to say the amounts for the past year’s capital outlay will not necessarily have to appear in next year’s budget.

Let’s look at some figures: In 2008, the national budget allocated P1.5B as capital outlay for the UP System, in 2009 it was P2.05B while in 2010 it was pegged at P1.28B. In the budget which UP initially proposed for the coming year amounting to a grand total of P18.5B, almost half or P8.87B was to have been set aside for the much needed development of University infrastructure and upgrading of equipment. However, in great contrast to this stated need, the “Reform Budget” does not allocate a single centavo as capital outlay for the UP System for 2011. The net result is that the UP System has been given a zero amount for this particular component instead of its proposed P8.87B.

It is correct that the amounts requested for “specific projects” within a fiscal year are non-recurring. But it is crucial also to take note of the fact that the need for capital outlay itself (given current trends) is always recurring and in fact, seems to be mounting yearly. Even a superficial comparison of UP with other leading universities in Asia would suffice to underline the sordid and decrepit state of its infrastructure and equipment. The argument that there has been no budget cut because the relevant projects covered by capital outlay terminate on a yearly basis anyway, mistakes the trees for the forest.

Given that the language of business administration and management seems to have colonized all domains of human speech and asserted its supreme right to determine the semantics even of activist slogans, it might be useful to go back to our trusty Merriam-Webster Dictionary which defines “budget” as “the amount of money that is available for, required for, or assigned to a particular purpose.” In addition, according to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, one of the meanings of “cut” is “to reduce or decrease (expenditure, etc.).”

Now let’s say the particular purpose we are looking at is the very legitimate budgetary component called “Capital Outlay.” Following the above definition closely, the budget for “Capital Outlay” is therefore the amount of money available for, required for, or assigned to it. In the past few years, the money which the national government has made available or assigned to this budgetary component for the UP System has never been zero. Next year it will be zero. Now isn’t the reduction of the money available for “Capital Outlay” from last year’s amount of P1.28B to absolutely nothing a huge reduction in expenditure or “cut” for this component? Isn’t this a drastic negation of the amount which UP claims it requires of at least P8.87B? And on top of this, this translates to a net reduction in the total budget at the disposal of the whole UP System.

We may quibble over the amount, but to deny that there has been a cut, and a huge one at that, is pure sophistry. To accept this would be to let the language of technocracy take over the truth of the language of common sense. Going beyond semantics, we are faced with the very real fact of state abandonment of tertiary education on a large-scale. In line with World Bank prescriptions on higher education “reforms,” President Noynoy Aquino admits openly that “we are gradually reducing the subsidy to SUCs [State Universities and Colleges] 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.”The current budget cut and those still to come will imperil UP’s ability to provide affordable, quality education for the youth of this nation. These will erode and undermine our central values of academic excellence and academic freedom. We must act now to stop the budget cut!

Join the December 1 Anti-Budget Cut Rally at the Senate! 

College teach-ins: 7 am – 10 am.

Assembly 11 am, Dec. 1 at Quezon Hall before departing for the Philippine Senate.


UP KILOS NA LABAN SA BUDGET CUT
Concerned Faculty Against the Budget Cut
All UP Workers Union
All UP Academic Employees Union
CONTEND-UP

UP Cebu Isko and Iska Walkout to protest budget cut!

Editor's note: The following statement and pictures are from University of the Philippines (U.P.) Faculty Regent Judy M. Taguiwalo who was present at U.P. Cebu to attend the 1263rd U.P. Board of Regents meeting there on November 26, 2010.

Protests against the budget cut were not limited to Metro Manila universities. U.P. Cebu students, professors and staff walked out today to send the same message to the Aquino government--education is a right, no to the reduction in the already inadequate government subsidy to U.P. and other state universities and colleges. As the U.P. BOR held its meeting in U.P. Cebu, the protest also called for the implementation of the May 2010 decision granting Sarah Raymundo tenure, the grant of tenure to U.P. Cebu professor Roberto Basadre, financial allocation for U.P. Cebu which will be autonomous from U.P. Visayas starting January 2011 among other concerns. We are so proud to have been part of the U.P. Cebu protest. Padayon!!

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To see the remaining pictures, please click here: UP Cebu Isko and Iska Walkout to protest budget cut!

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.”

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

Senator Santiago criticizes Aquino administration for slashing budgets of State Universities and Colleges to fund its Conditional Cash Transfer program

Even as students from State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Metro Manila are marching to Mendiola today to reject the budget cuts of SUCs by the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III, the Senate Secretariat confirmed that the Senate is meeting today to rush the passage of the 2011 national budget so that a bicameral conference committee (Senate and House) can meet to pass the final version of the budget before President Aquino signs it into law.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has promised to pass the 2011 national budget out of the Senate by December 1.

But Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, a member of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA),

criticized budget cuts to SUCs, linking them to the Aquino administration's need to find sources of funds for its controversial Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, the terms of which several legislators are questioning.

The problem may not necessarily be with CCTs per se, however. An August 24, 2010 U.P. School of Economics white paper found that CCTs were one of the few bright spots in the policies of the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (see: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/08/4.html) and reccomended that they be continued. Rather, it is the conscious choice by the Aquino administration to target SUCs and slash their budgets that has created a major problem. Ironically, it is CCTs that have a very high approval rating for external funding from multilateral agencies and institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and World Bank because of their high success rate in temporarily alleviating poverty (see: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/09/cash-in-hand-conditional-cash-transfers.html) . Thus there may not even be a necessity to cut SUCs budgets in the long-term as CCTs can be funded from other sources.

Senator Santiago said that as a result of cutting SUC funds to fuel CCTs, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman might find it “hard, if not impossible,” to get a CA confirmation, because her budget of P21 billion for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program is “indefensible.”

“It is unconscionable to make drastic cuts in the budget of the University of the Philippines and other state universities and colleges, which cater to poor students, in order to support a program of dole-outs without the necessary preparation,” Santiago said.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad proposed massive cuts in the budget of UP and other state universities and colleges (SUCs) for 2011. From P6.9 billion in 2010, Abad decreased UP’s budget to P5.5 billion, or a difference of P1.4 billion. Other SUCs are also threatened with budget cuts. Abad wants them to have a budget of P21.7 billion, down by some P700 million from their budget of P22.4 billion in 2010.

Meanwhile, Soliman wants the CCT program to have a whopping P21 billion allocation in 2011, which is more than a 100% increase from its 2010 budget of P10 billion.

“Cutting the budget of UP and SUCs to expand the CCT program is not the answer,” Santiago fumed.

Santiago said that the CCT program should go hand in hand with improvement of health and welfare services and infrastructure.

“Under the present CCT program, parents must ensure that their children go to school, and undergo regular health check-ups to continue to qualify for the program. But how can they do this if there are not enough schools or barangay health workers to see to their needs?” Santiago asked.

Last year, Santiago and Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to discuss the formula for the success of his Bolsa Familia program.

The Bolsa Familia program has been a huge success in Brazil. It is hailed all over the world for reducing poverty in Brazil.

After her meeting with Lula, Santiago filed Senate Bill No. 92, entitled “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program Act,” which is her own version of the CCT program. It is patterned after Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program.

(Sources: Philippine Senate Secretariat, Office of Senator Santiago: http://miriam.com.ph/newsblog/?m=201010)

Agham Youth: Scientists on Strike at U.P. Diliman

"It was truly a sight to see. And I would have missed it if I didn’t think of dropping by the University of the Philippines – Diliman to check out how my comrades from the Agham Youth were doing. It was the first day of UPD’s strike against the impending P1.39B budget cut on the state’s subsidy for the entire UP system, and I just wanted to see the new faces of AY."

"What I saw instead was history unfolding before my very eyes."

Read the rest here: Agham Youth: Scientists on Strike at U.P. Diliman

SpotlightPhilippines.blogspot.com: U.P. Diliman holds strike against 1.39B budget cut

(Palma Hall at U.P. Diliman filled to the brim with students 

protesting the U.P. budget cut. Source: http://tinyurl.com/2fq7vyh)

November 25, 2010 - "Around 2500 people joined the strike today, held at Palma Hall. The students who participated came from various colleges and sectors in UP Diliman."

"The University of the Philippines-Diliman will be holding strikes today and tomorrow, November 26, 2010, as an expression of opposition against the government's proposed 1.39B peso budget cut in UP."

Read the rest here: SpotlightPhilippines.blogspot.com: U.P. Diliman holds strike against 1.39B budget cut

U.P. Diliman Engineering Student Council says No to 2011 Budget Cuts

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Dean of U.P. Diliman's Asian Institute of Tourism (AIT) Strongly Opposes the cut on the proposed U.P. budget

Statement on the Proposed UP Budget Cut

Dr. Miguela M. Mena, Dean - UPAIT

November 25, 2010

I strongly oppose the cut made on the UP budget proposed by the Aquino administration in the 2011 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Recognizing that the productivity of a nation is highly dependent on the investments made on the health and education of the people, the proposed UP budget certainly will not translate to higher level of productivity thus affecting country’s economic development in general. The quality of the teaching, research and extension services in the University had been extremely affected by the limited resources provided by the national government.

In this light, I strongly urge the Faculty, Staff and Students of the Asian Institute of Tourism to support and actively participate in the various multi-sectoral efforts of the UP Diliman community to provide greater subsidy to higher education and increase the budget of UP.

Dr. Miguela M. Mena

Dean

Asian Institute of Tourism

University of the Philippines

Diliman, Quezon City

STRIKE: Fight the P 1.39 Billion Budget Cut in U.P.

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