Aquino urged to reinstate P17B budget for SUCs

MANILA – A party-list lawmaker on Tuesday called on the Aquino administration to reinstate the P17 billion it slashed from the budget proposal for state universities and colleges (SUCs).

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casiño made the proposal days following the suicide of a freshman student at the University of the Philippines-Manila after she was reportedly forced to take a leave of absence for failure to pay her tuition fee.

The Department of Budget and Management proposed a budget of P37.1 billion for SUCs, up by 44 percent from the 2012 budget.

The huge hike in terms of percentage, however, was still short compared to the request of SUCs, which total to P54.61 billion.

"Of the P37.1 billion allocated to SUCs, only P6 billion will go to operations and P3 billion to facilities and equipment. This is ridiculously small considering that it will be divided among 110 schools servicing more than two million students," Casiño said.

Casiño also took a swipe at UP and called it the "University of the Privileged."

Aurora Representative Sonny Angara, chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education, also finds the budget increase in SUCs insufficient.

"We have successfully raised the budget for SUCs this year but this is not enough. The budget should be augmented annually," Angara said. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)