Report: Students stage walkout over 2011 budget cut

Students from state universities and colleges (SUCs) in Metro Manila walked out from their classes Thursday to protest a major cut in their schools' budgets for 2011. Radio dzBB's Carlo Mateo reported that students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Manila walked out of their classrooms before noon Thursday in protest of the budget cut. A separate dzBB report said students and employees of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in Quezon City also walked out of their classes. The protest action came a day after students from SUCs picketed the Senate to urge lawmakers to stop the P1-billion cut on their budgets. In their picket, the students lamented the budget cut for SUCs came amid increases in the budgets for military, debt servicing and pork barrel funds. A major protest is scheduled on December 1 in front of the Senate, which is now holding hearings on the national budget for 2011. "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," Chaser Soriano, chairman of the PUP student council, had said Wednesday. Soriano said they will stage a nationwide protest on Thursday with students from the 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 will be reduced by P1.39 billion, a decrease of 20.11 percent from 2010 to 2011. The PNU budget, meanwhile, will be cut by P91.35 million, a 23.59 percent decrease. The other three schools in the list are: