UP national budget allocation a pittance

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Pia Cayetano raised concern Saturday over the “zero allocation” given to the University of the Philippines (UP) for its capital outlay under the proposed P2.264-trillion national budget for 2014.

Cayetano said it would be a “gross disservice” for the government to underspend on higher education, particularly for the premier state university.   

Cayetano said the government should be willing to invest in higher education to develop formidable leaders for the future. “It’s inexcusable and a gross disservice to our youth that the government has been underspending on higher education,” said Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture.     

The senator said she will push for higher funding for UP when members of the Senate and House of Representatives convene the bicameral conference committee this week to craft the final version of next year’s budget.     

In previous years, Cayetano noted that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) lumped together in one item the capital outlay for UP and other SUCs. But it was later agreed by CHED and DBM to itemize the lump sum item so each SUC would get a substantial capital outlay separate from UP’s.  

“The result however was that UP ended up with nothing. Then in the period of amendments, I submitted proposals to include a capital outlay for UP’s various campuses and programs amounting to almost P1 billion,” she recounted. 

In the Senate’s final version, UP’s capital outlay was raised to P400 million from zero, which was the amount indicated in the House version. 

“Although I am grateful that the Senate increased the zero allocation to P400 million, this is still a pittance and negligible compared to the enormous requirements to continue developing UP’s facilities to international standards and improve the quality of education,” she explained.   

Cayetano said she would lobby with the members of the bicameral committee in the hope that they would support her proposal to augment government funding for UP.

She noted that UP’s ranking dropped from 345 in 2012 to 380 in 2013 under the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, while UP’s overall budget has seen marginal increases in past years.