Senators to students: Stop protesting vs 'ghost' budget cuts

At least two senators on Friday asked the students of different state universities and colleges (SUCs) to stop protesting against the supposed budget cuts, saying that the government did not take anything away from them. "(They) got it all wrong. Parang multo yung pinagdedemonstrahan nila (It's like they're demonstrating against a ghost)," Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto III said during Friday's budget deliberations. Senator Franklin Drilon, chairman of the Senate finance committee, said Malacañang had proposed a P21.72-billion budget for SUCs in 2011. However, the House of Representatives only approved a P21.72 -billion allocation while the Senate is proposing a budget of P22.02 billion. The budget for SUCs in 2010 was P19.59 billion. Sotto, however, explained that the budget of SUCs was not really cut and that the unused congressional insertions last year were just removed. "They were vetoed and were not there at all," he said. "There's nothing to demonstrate about. They are demonstrating against the cut on congressional insertions that were not even released," he added. Drilon, chairman of the Senate finance committee, said the congressional insertions were removed because the government's deficit is higher than when the budget was created. "Pwede lamang marelease ang budget na may mapagkukunan ng pondo o resources (The budget can only be released if there are funds and resources)," Drilon said during the budget deliberations. Drilon could not immediately name who were the lawmakers responsible for the congressional insertions to the budget of SUCs last year, but said he will provide the Senate with a copy once he has checked the records. On Wednesday, around 100 students from different SUCs stormed the Senate to urge lawmakers to stop the supposed cut on their budgets. On Thursday, over 3,000 students from the University of the Philippines Diliman walked out of their classes in what they described as a “strike" against the P1.39 billion slashed from the UP system budget for 2011. In a statement, the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges called on SUCs to stage more strikes against the budget cut. The biggest of these strikes is scheduled to be held on December 1 in front of the Senate. — RSJ, GMANews.TV