Students, faculty hold protest marches vs budget cuts

MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of students and teachers from different state universities and colleges (SUCs) yesterday walked out from their classes to press the government for higher state subsidy for education and social services.

Members of the Iskolars ng Bayan from University of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippine Normal University, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology, Rizal Technological University, Marikina Polytechnic College and Technological University of the Philippines walked out to join the 13-kilometer march from Quezon City to Manila.

According to Vencer Crisostomo, national chairman of Anakbayan and convenor of Kilos Na Laban sa Budget Cuts, students from La Union, Baguio, Pampanga, Bulacan, Laguna, Bicol, Iloilo, Tacloban, Cebu, and Lanao also joined the walkout to protest the budget cuts on the education sector.

“The youth and people are extremely fed up and will not allow another round of budget cuts and misprioritization,” he said.

“We will not tolerate a government which chooses not to provide adequate education and health services for its people. This is both a wake-up call and a warning,” Crisostomo said.

He said P21.8 billion was allotted for 110 SUCs in National Expenditure Program for 2012, which is far from the more than P45 billion requested.

He said this is lower than this year’s SUC budget of P22.03 billion.

Crisostomo said 50 schools will have their total budget slashed by a combined P569.8 million, 45 will have cuts in their MOOE funds by P250.9 million, and 58 will have cuts in personal services by P403.3 million. He added there is no budget allotted for capital outlay.

Crisostomo said the basic education budget of P238 billion is also insufficient, which in real value will amount to only P6.68 per Filipino per day.

The United Nations’ recommendation is six percent of the gross domestic product, which is at P550 billion, he said.

Crisostomo said the budget for health services at P44.4 billion is far from the P90 billion proposed by the health sector and the P440 billion recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), while health spending for every Filipino is at P1.20 per day.

“Meanwhile, they have increased the military budget by 9.9 percent to P114.4 billion. Last year, pork barrel funds have been increased by P10 billion. They have a P39 billion budget proposed for dole-outs from only P10 billion in 2010.

“Billions of ‘intelligence’ and PPP funds are inserted. These should be realigned to social services,” Crisostomo said.

Crisostomo warned bigger protest actions are being prepared in the next few months to push Congress and Senate to reject the 2012 budget.

He said they would anticipate the Senate hearings and the bicameral conferences and “do whatever it takes to fight for the peoples’ rights and increase budget for social spending.”

Teachers, on the other hand, also lamented the small budget for education.

They also bewailed the nonpayment of the salary of public school teachers in kindergarten since June by the Department of Education (DepEd).

Emmalyn Policarpio of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) said that numerous complaints have been raised from the thousands of public kindergarten school teachers about the DepEd’s non-issuance of their P3,000 honoraria since the start of classes.

Policarpio, a public school teacher in Valenzuela City, said the nonpayment of the preschool teachers’ salaries was another proof of their position that DepEd was overreaching in its pursuit to implement its much-ballyhooed K (Kindergarten) + 12 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) plan that seeks to add two years of senior high school, as well as compulsory kindergarten, to students entering Grade 1.

“We appreciate the effort of the DepEd especially Secretary Armin Luistro to institutionalize the kindergarten program, but never at the expense of the welfare of our teachers,” Policarpio said.

She said they had lobbied for free and universal preschool education that would eventually resolve learning discrepancies among learners, one of the major reasons kids drop out of primary school.

“If the government is sincere enough to reform and improve the public education system, it should have been manifested in the education budget for 2012. Unfortunately, the government only set aside P1.9 billion for preschool program of the DepEd,” Policarpio said.

The TDC last week trooped to the House of Representatives to lobby for a higher budget for education and an allocation of funds to cover the shortages in teachers, classrooms and books, among others.

The group challenged President Aquino and the lawmakers to raise the socio-economic status of teachers by providing decent salaries and other incentives.

“While we appreciate the President’s recognition of teachers through his proclamation of national teachers’ month, we challenge him to do more tangible and concrete measures to improve the system,” Policarpio said. – With Rainier Allan Ronda