Students storm Senate over budget cut on state colleges, universities

Around 100 students from different state colleges and universities (SUC) stormed the Senate on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to stop the billion-peso cut on their budgets. Einstein Recedes, president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, said the budget cut is a "systematic scheme" to decrease the state's role in providing social services to the people. "The budget for SUCs (was) cut amidst increases in the budgets for military, debt servicing and pork barrel. We are here to appeal to senators to re-channel funds from these items, offset the cut in the SUC budget and increase the budget for education," he said. In a statement, the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges called on SUCs to stage strikes against the budget cut. The biggest of these strikes is scheduled to be held on December 1 in front of the Senate. "We are one with other SUCs in doing everything in our capability to stop the SUC budget cut and demand for greater state subsidy to education and social services," said Chaser Soriano, chairperson of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines student council. Soriano said they will also stage a nationwide protest on Thursday together with students from the University of the Philippines (UP) system and other SUCs against the cut. UP and the Philippine Normal University (PNU) will be among the top five SUCs who are set to receive the largest budget cuts. The budgets for UP and PNU will be reduced by P1.39 billion, a decrease of 20.11 percent from 2010 to 2011; and P91.35 million, a 23.59 percent decrease, respectively. The other three schools in the list are Aurora State College of Technology, with a 22.21 percent budget decrease; Cerilles State College, with its budget slashed by 21.95 percent, and the University of Southeastern Philippines, with a budget cut of 20.03 percent. Realignment to research and development programs Senator Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate education committee, said they cannot restore the budget cut on each and every SUC. He noted, however, that they have suggested a P268-million budget increase for the research and development programs of selected SUCs. He could not immediately identify which SUCs would be receiving the additional budget, but said that they would only give the money to institutions that have the capability to utilize their research. He also said that they would be seeking a P222-million additional budget for scholarship grants under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and another P100 million for science technology and engineering fellowships and scholarships for the Philippines to Taiwan and Korea. Angara admitted, however, that it would be impossible for SUCs to become fully self-sufficient. "What we can do is encourage them but we've got to incentive it. Maybe they can use their assets," he said. The senator said that there are around 111 SUCs all over the country, most of which are dependent on government support by almost 90 percent. - KBK, GMANews.TV