State schools stage protests over budget cut

MANILA, Philippines – Students and faculty members from state colleges and universities in Metro Manila staged simultaneous rallies and walkouts yesterday to protest a government proposal to reduce the P24-billion budget of the country’s 110 SUCs in 2011 by P1.1 billion.

State schools all over the country have been staging protest actions since Nov. 17, but yesterday’s coordinated class walkouts and protest actions are the biggest so far.

The National Union of Students of the Philippines and the Kilos Na Laban sa Budget Cuts (Move Against Budget Cuts) have issued a “call to strike” to protest the reduction of the SUCs’ 2011 budget in next year’s proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA), which also allotted nothing to the state schools’ capital outlay and slashed the scholarship funds of the Commission on Higher Education by P650 million.

The groups said the 2011 budget slashed allotments for education and health but increased “pork barrel funds, dole-outs and patronage funds, budget for military and debt spending.”

Walkouts, shutdowns

At the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila campus, all of its estimated 4,000 students walked out of their classrooms, together with all the faculty members and other university employees. No classes were held and no offices were open at the campus.

The UP Manila protest will last until today, as students and faculty members planned last night to camp out on the school grounds to hold a vigil and a concert.

UP Manila appealed to President Aquino to “undo the budget cut on education.”

At UP’s Diliman campus, around 3,000 students walked out of the classrooms. They blocked University Avenue and held a noise barrage around campus.

Protests were also held at the Philippine Normal University, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Technology, and Rizal Technological University.

‘Dropouts to increase’

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who attended UP Manila’s protest action, expressed opposition to the SUC budget cut during Wednesday’s Senate budget hearing.

He told reporters at the UP campus that the budget cut would mean some of the students at the state schools would drop out due to the increase in tuition rates.

Cayetano said only 23 percent of the country’s youth are able to enroll in colleges and universities, and out of this percentage, only 17 percent are able to graduate.

According to reports, UP and the PNU are among the five SUCs expected to suffer the largest budget cuts – UP by 20.1 percent, and PNU by 23.6 percent.

The other three schools with large budget cuts are Aurora State College of Technology in Aurora province, with a 22.2-percent budget cut; J.H. Cerilles State College in Zamboanga del Sur, 21.95 percent; and the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City, 20.03 percent. –Rainier Allan Ronda and Sandy Araneta (The Philippine Star)