Leftists blame budget cut for UP Diliman’s poor security

The stabbing of a student leader at the Vinzon’s Hall has prompted Anakbayan Chairperson Vencer Crisostomo to tell the media that the militant group blames the budget cut for UPD’s poor security.

“This is not unfounded,” one professor from UP said when asked to comment about the robbery that took place at Vinzon's Hall. The number of security guards inside the over 400 hectare campus dropped from 149 in 2011 to 111 this 2012.

The P13 million slash from the original P82 million allotted for campus security has been a concern for many student groups.

Outsiders say that UP demands too much but what most do not know is that the Philippine General Hospital is also covered by the budget given to UP.

President Noy: From Zero Coke to Zero love life to Zero Capital Outlay for State Universities and Colleges and Hospitals

(Source: U.P. Kilos Na)

Feeling thirsty? Dehydrated? Need a drink? Sure, go ahead and have your pot-belly busting Coke Zero but while you are doing that, please spare a thought for State Universities and Hospitals who have been given zero capital outlay by the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III making it difficult for them to carry out their missions effectively.

It would be different if we were a Somalia or some other bankrupt failed state. But we are in the Philippines and have been at least nominally democratic and self-governing since 1946, and we can certainly do much better with our existing resource base. After all, if the Department of Budget and Management Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad can allocate P800 million for his home province for capital expenditures in 2012 for the national budget when Batanes only has a population of 15,000; and allocates zero capital expenditures for capital expenditures for 2012 for the province of Davao del Norte which has a population of more than 700,000 then you know that something is seriously wrong. It becomes even worse when the proposed budget of the University of the Philippines System is slashed by 64% from P15 billion to P5.1 billion which is P800 million less than it got in 2011.

The problem boils down not to a lack of resources but to a misallocation of resources by the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III and its distorted priorities.

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