Militants blame budget cut for poor security in UP Diliman

Friday, February 3, 2012

MANILA—The latest robbery that wounded a female student at the University of the Philippines (UP) could have been averted if the government allotted funds for improving the school’s security, a militant group said Friday.

Lordei Camille Hina, a senior political science major, is currently unconscious after her skull was fractured when two men attacked her last Wednesday.

“Right now you can’t eliminate crime, but what the University can do is to prevent it from affecting the campus and its constituents. But thanks to cuts in the funding of state universities and colleges such as UP, university administrators are hampered from doing so” Anakbayan national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo said.

The number of regular security guards at the 429-hectare UP Diliman dropped from 149 last year to 111 this 2012 while the university has yet to provide replacements for retired members of the UP Diliman Police, Anakbayan said.

Some P69 million has been allotted for security of the campus, a P13-million slash from last year's P82 million funding. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)