Up Budget Cut Seals Rp Future

The P155 million cut inflicted on the budget of the University of the Philippines may not seem much to a senator or a congressman looking at about a hundred billion pesos in deficit. But taken together with similar cuts in the budget of the Department of Education, we may have reason to fear what the future holds for our children.

Okay, I am an alumnus of the State University but outside of that, I have no axe to grind. None of my children are studying at UP. My son passed the entrance examination at UP but we decided to enroll him at the Ateneo precisely because we were worried about UP's ability to continue with its proud tradition of academic excellence. This was a difficult decision for me since I come from a family where everyone studied in UP from high school to graduate school.

The commitment of UP academics is still there. But that can only go so far. Many UP academics now have to take on extra work with corporations simply because the UP pay scale is grossly inadequate in today's times. Somehow, the quality of teaching will have to suffer. The divided time of UP academics and inadequate facilities on campus see to that.

While academic excellence is not primarily about money, it isn't possible to pursue that either unless there are sufficient resources. But UP over the past years had to struggle harder to make ends meet. I can see the problem first hand every time I drive through the campus. The physical plant has deteriorated and from recent news reports, the campus is also no longer safe.

There were attempts by past UP administrations to augment the university's financial resources by commercially developing parts of the campus. But even that did not sit well with the UP community. And with the property downturn, even that option isn't quite there and won't be there for a while.

The justification of Sen. John Osmeña for the budget cut does not hold water. UP has, through the past few years, taken extra efforts to take in more students from the lower socio-economic classes and from the provinces. Actually, because of the deterioration in the quality of education given by the public school system, this meant having to compromise the normal admission standards of UP as well.

The budget cut for UP and the Department of Education all boils down to a lack of appreciation on the part of Congress in the importance of investing on our youth. An educated work force had always been a competitive edge we enjoyed in the past. Now, even UP graduates I have interviewed for employment could hardly express themselves well in English or Pilipino. Sadly, UP is no longer considered among Asia's top universities.

I cannot see how the pork barrel of legislators could be more important than making our future generations more competitive in a harsher globalized environment. I can't figure it out. Our officials are ready to absorb hundreds of billions of pesos in Napocor losses (mostly because of corruption tainted overpriced IPP contracts) but would cut a measly P155 million from the UP budget. That's the amount needed to operate two off Diliman campuses.

Oh well. We get the government officials we deserve. We just have to suffer the curse we inflicted upon ourselves. The cuts in the UP and Education budgets seal our future among the world's poorest nations.

I was told that the Bureau of Internal Revenue had issued a memorandum requiring those who get non payroll income like consultancy or talent fees to register for VAT. With outsourcing becoming a trend, this affects a lot of people. This means starting this year, I will also have to report income and pay taxes every month and every quarter.

I thought that is a real pain in the behind. It isn't as if I was a thriving business with an army of accountants. It is just that the fees I collect for writing this column for the STAR, for ABS-CBN and a couple of consultancies fall under this category.

For a while I thought I got a raise when one of my consultancies gave me a check that turned out to be what is supposed to pay for VAT. This also means, I will have to convince the other folks who pay me talent or consultancy fees to add 10 percent to keep me whole after VAT.

The terrible thing is, it is no joke trying to register for VAT. The forms are bad enough, but the worse part is how the BIR clerks tasked to accept your application make things difficult. They refused to accept my application because I do not have a PTR number. Well, I do not have that because journalists are not licensed by any government board. I am sure, Dolphy and Fernando Poe who are also covered by the same VAT rule, will be unable to produce PTR numbers too.

In the meantime, I have missed two deadlines and the BIR will happily impose penalties. This is so unfair. Maybe Daki Fonacier, who was my editor-in-chief in our high school paper at UP Prep, can straighten his boys out. Here is one harassed taxpayer trying to do what the law requires him to do at great inconvenience and the BIR isn't even helpful.

A reader using a bworldonline address, sent me an e-mail reacting to the e-mail of Philamlife's Manny Ortega. Michael Olivares believes the prepayment penalty is unfair and likely illegal too.

Your article on Philam Life caught my interest and I would like to comment on it. I am inclined to disbelieve Mr. Ortega's claim that there is a scarcity of lending funds. Logic dicates that if the lending rates for housing loans are going down then that would mean that funds are not scarce but in abundance (obviously if funds are scarce then the there would be a premium on lending such funds hence higher interest rates.)

After the Asian Financial Crisis, non-performing loans have become a burden to most financial institutions. In fact, it seems more likely that banks are more than willing to restructure the loans of their customers rather than call in their credit.

The imposition of a pre-termination fee is an unfair practice that could lead to a customer losing the shirt on his back. The implication of rising or falling interest rates can be significant but there really is no loss for Philam Life if the loan is pre-terminated, just lower profits which they could also easily gain back by quickly re-investing.

At worse they could restructure the loan to reflect the prevailing interest rates, that way everyone could be happy. It seems to me like Philam Life is making it difficult for its borrowers to pay off their loans and that they would be more willing for their customer to break his back paying off the loan.

Isn't this the reason behind the enactment of the Consumer Code - to protect ordinary people?

Lastly, Philam's response to your article is clearly self-serving. The issue is clearly about the legality of imposing a pre-termination or penalty fee. By limiting the discussion on the question of fairness, is Philam conceding to the weakness of their position?

Thank you for your kind attention.

Ernie Espiritu sent this one and not because he knows exactly what they mean.

Jill: So, Lin, how's your sex life these days?

Lin: Oh, you know. It's the usual, Social Security kind.

Jill: Social Security?

Lin: Yeah, you get a little each month, but it's not enough to live on.

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])