Faced with inexplicable budget cuts, the faculty and student leaders of state universities and colleges have urged the government to also consider the education sector when it realigns the billions of pesos in confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs).
When the House of Representatives approved the P5.768 trillion 2024 national budget on September 27, it included a P100.882 billion appropriation for SUCs, which is unfortunately lower than this year’s allocation of P107.0297 billion.
In a joint statement, students, regents, student councils and publications, and faculty and employees’ unions of four SUCs called on the House and the Senate to restore the budget cut and even increase education spending for next year.
They noted that maintenance and other operating expenses dipped, while the capital outlay, which covers long term development of facilities, equipment, and other institutional investments, had the largest cut.
“Excessive and unnecessary confidential and intelligence funds should be redirected to revamp our educational institutions in sustaining efforts to recalibrate and provide long term holistic learning to Filipino youth from all walks of life,” the statement said.
UP faculty regent Carl Marc Remota cited the “alarming trend” of budget cuts in the education sector while CIFs have been allocated to “questionable” projects and programs of the Marcos Jr. administration. He added that many SUC teachers have no job security due to the lack of plantilla positions in the government.
PUP student council president Kim Modelo lamented the looming P3.9 billion budget cut from the P6.9 billion proposal from the university. Among the challenges facing her university are shortages in classrooms and laboratories, lack of spaces for learning and organizations, and frequent power outages.
The recent realignment of CIFs, from government agencies that don’t need it to those that actually do, can be considered a small victory for good governance, but it doesn’t change the fact that government’s priorities are still skewed in the wrong direction.
The education sector in the Philippines is already suffering, and despite having Vice President Sara Duterte at the helm of the Department of Education, the situation still hasn’t been looking brighter. How often and how hard do we have to beg for government officials to back up their words with money?*
