SUC support redounds to more taxpayers, says senator

The government should disabuse itself of the notion that college education is the parents’ responsibility and instead, increase its support for state universities and colleges (SUCs) as it will ultimately redound to the benefit of the State, a senator said Thursday. During the weekly Kapihan sa Senado, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano expressed support for petitions to hike the government’s support for SUCs, saying the problem is not lack of funds but a policy flaw on the part of bureaucrats. "Ang tingin nila, kung gusto mong mag-college, sagot dapat ng pamilya yon," Cayetano explained. "Kahit wala kang magulang, you should be able to go to college na sagot ng State." He said the State, in time, will reap the benefits of spending more on SUCs. "We all know that if you are a college degree holder, you will be able to work, and when you work, you pay taxes," Cayetano said. In the past two days, SUC students staged walkouts to protest the budget cuts for their schools. On Wednesday, students of the University of the Philippines walked out of their classes to protest the SUC budget cut. A day earlier, their counterparts at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines staged a similar walkout. — Paterno Esmaquel II/RSJ, GMA News