Lawmaker bats for higher budget for PUP, other SUCs

MANILA, Philippines - San Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito Estrada lamented yesterday the deteriorating state of Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), and how it struggles to fix and update its dilapidated facilities with a measly 2012 government allocation of P734 million. The budget may seem huge in figures, Ejercito Estrada said, but it is grossly insufficient for the country’s largest state university with over 20 campuses and 71,000 students. “PUP suffers extreme shortages. Students have to bear with small classrooms, leaking ceilings, outdated laboratories, and rusty university equipment,” the young legislator frustratingly said. “Some students even sit on floors since classrooms cannot accommodate 50-60 students.” Ejercito Estrada reiterated his appeal to the Aquino administration to increase the 2013 State University and College (SUC) budget to P45 billion to be able to provide quality and accessible tertiary education, while rationalizing it into a more strategic distribution for the SUCs.