P1-B allocation for UP capital outlay lauded

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Pia Cayetano on Thursday welcomed the inclusion of a P1-billion allocation for the capital outlay of the University of the Philippines in the consolidated version of the P2.264-trillion proposed national budget for 2014.

Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, lauded the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives for considering the proposal to augment UP’s budget.

“With its capital outlay raised to P1 billion from zero, UP would have a fund to work with next year to support the completion and rehabilitation of classrooms, buildings and laboratories, and to establish research centers and other facilities in its various campuses in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao,” Cayetano said.

She also said the 2014 budget approved for the Commission on Higher Education included a P2.5-billion capital outlay fund that has been itemized for several state universities

and colleges across the country, and a separate P2.5-billion fund to support scholars.

The approved version of the national budget also included P275-million funding for the capital outlay of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), another vital public institution which subsists on meager state subsidies.

The additional P275 million makes up barely a third of the P900 million that PGH originally requested for its budget next year.

“This wouldn’t be enough, considering that the poor depend on the PGH for medical care and hospitalization,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano is hopeful that Congress could find other sources of funding, such as the incremental revenues from the Sin Tax Reform Law, to support the operations of the PGH and public health care in general.

The senator said she would file a resolution to look into the status of these funds which were earmarked by Congress when it passed the Sin Tax Reform law precisely to improve public health services and facilities.

“It should be noted that the sin tax is not meant to take the place of funding for health care, but to augment existing funding provided in the General Appropriations Act,” Cayetano stressed.