State university to go on strike over budget cuts

MANILA, Philippines – A state university announced that they will hold campus strikes in the coming week in their campaign against the budget cut of state universities and colleges.

Representatives of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines community stated in a press conference at their main campus in Sta. Mesa, Manila that they “are ‘uniting’ against proposed budget cuts to education in the 2011 national budget.”

PUP president Dr. Dante Guevarra headed the press conference along with administration officials, faculty members, non-academic employees, and student representatives who announced their continued fight against the P23 million cut to PUP’s operating budget.

The PUP community said that student and teacher organizations under the multi-sectoral Ugnayang Multisektoral Laban sa Komersyalisasyon ng Edukasyon (UMAKSYON) lead the campus strike in PUP next week.

PUP student regent Sheryl Alapad stated that by Monday, PUP will be under what she dubbed as a “new management,” which will “dismiss President Benigno Aquino III’s justification of the budget cuts.

Alapas has previously called for a P2 billion budget instead of PUP’s approved budget of P672 million and added that it is the “minimum amount required to maintain the present state of operations and facilities of the university.”

The student regent stated that the said amount would ensure that there would be no tuition and other fee hikes next year. –Karen Boncocan, INQUIRER.net