Noy evades anew pursuing militant students opposed to SUCs budget slash

For the third time now, agitated members of militant student organizations have tried but failed to attract the attention of President Aquino — in their continuous pursuit to oppose his fiscal policy involving the 2011 budget of state universities and colleges (SUCs) — as the Chief Executive just evaded their presence when they attempted to block his convoy on his way to the University of the Philippines (UP)-Ayala Land techno hub on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City yesterday.

The protesters were students from the UP Diliman who are perceived to be the loudest and the most active when it comes to staging rallies to express condemnation on the supposed slashes that Aquino’s fiscal managers have meted out for the budget of the SUCs next year.

Aquino was at UP-Ayala techno hub that day to deliver a speech for the inauguration of the three new service delivery facilities of an American multinational computer technology and IT consulting company, International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation.

The presidential convoy had to enter the premises through an alternate route for Aquino to make it on his official engagement on time because students, according to reports, have barricaded the area leading to the main entrance of the UP-Ayala techno hub.

Aquino, nonetheless, managed to proceed with his activities and was able to convey his commendations to IBM for its significant contributions to the country’s economy in the last 10 years since the advent of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

The Chief Executive has taken advantage of the occasion to further push the agenda of his public-private partnership (PPP) program by way of giving assurances to foreign investors that his government will restore business confidence in the country.

“The forecast for your sector is highly encouraging. We expect your industry to generate even greater revenues in the coming years. The government predicts around 12 to 13 billion dollars in revenues by 2011. By 2020, your profits are expected to rise to as much as 100 billion dollars, comprising 20 percent of the market share in the global industry,” Aquino said in his speech.

“As the second largest global delivery location in the world, we are honored by IBM Philippines’ recognition of our country’s potential to provide world-class service to your clients and customers. You have raised the bar, and together, we hope to even surpass it,” he added.

The UP-Ayala techno hub was among the factors cited by Aquino in his effort to make the militant students understand that they are not going to lose anything just because his administration decided not to increase the budget allocation for the SUCs next year.

Aquino earlier had mentioned the UP administration is authorized to retain and utilize the revenues that will be generated by the UP-Ayala techno hub to support its needs. He said other SUCs were also given the same opportunity.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) side-by-side with Malacañang has time and again claimed the restive students have nothing to complain about because the budget for the SUCs has not been slashed.

In an effort to set the record straight, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda insisted during a press conference last Tuesday in Malacanang that the SUCs did not actually suffer any cuts in their budget under the Aquino administration.

“The books are open. Let’s compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges. Let’s compare 2010 NEP to 2011 NEP and not 2010 GAA (general appropriations act) to the 2011 NEP because in the 2010 GAA, let me emphasize there were congressional insertions made and which are never spent, which are never released anyway by the national government because of the veto message of then President Arroyo,” Lacierda explained.

“There are certain groups who have been sowing disinformation and have been trying to ride on this particular issue. There’s no issue at all, this is really a non-issue… there’s nothing to hit back on the President. We’ve been very open, we’ve been very transparent in our statements,” Lacierda said.

Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte, meanwhile, reiterated the communication channels of the government will remain open just to be able to make the students and teachers understand where their justifications are coming from on this issue.

She said she doesn’t want to consider the mere fact that the UP Diliman has tried to disrupt Aquino’s official engagement yesterday as a sign that they are not going to accept the repeated explanations provided by the government.

“Sa pagkakaalam ko nakakasa na po kasi ‘yung rally bago po nakapagbigay po ng briefing si Secretary Lacierda kahapon. So hindi rin po natin alam kung nakarating po doon sa mga nag-protesta ‘yung naging paliwanag po natin kahapon… Ang magagawa lang naman po namin is mag-offer po kami ng explanations at ‘yung pag-asa po namin na bukas po ang puso at isipan para po marinig ‘yung aming explanation

(From what I understand, their (militant students’) plans to stage a rally were all set even before Secretary Lacierda gave a briefing yesterday (Tuesday). So we just don’t know if our explanation yesterday reached the protesters…The best we can do is to continuously offer them our explanations with hopes that they will open their hearts and mind to listen to our explanation),” Valte stressed. –Aytch S. de la Cruz, Daily Tribune