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Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Echaves: Of roads taken
By Lelani P. Echaves
When political analyst, writer and university professor Francisco Nemenzo became UP President in 2000, the country’s conditions were near dismal. The national economy continued to deteriorate, UP suffered the worst budgetary cut, and low interest rates greatly reduced UP’s income from endowments.
For the new president, the race for more finances was between smartness and catastrophe.
Strengthening academic excellence, modernizing UP’s facilities and incentives system, and broadening access to UP education meant heavy funding. So, the new administration went creative.
First, it crafted an allocation formula anchored on its commitment to academic excellence. This meant cutting down administrative expenses, and spending more for modernization.
Second, it lobbied for the reduction of taxes and debt obligations. UP got tax exemptions for interest income, and importation of donated equipment. The accumulated interests and fines for the huge loan of the Philippine General Hospital were condoned.
Third, UP tapped its alumni all over the world for donations to its modernization program. As of December 2001, UP had churned out 204,931 30,228 alumni since its creation in 1908. All these were in 229 alumni chapters worldwide. Together with Regent Eduardo Fernandez and the alumni association, Nemenzo elicited generosity totaling P 812 Million by September 2004.
Fourth, UP updated the rentals of government agencies and private companies. For longer than anyone could remember, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) had been paying a rental of P1 a year. After a two-year negotiation, the IRRI agreed to make a large financial assistance.
Fifth, UP trained its sights on three multinational companies operating on UP properties. These had “donated” their lands to avoid the effects of the termination of the Laurel-Langley Agreement. Entering a 25-year lease agreement, they had been paying ridiculously low rentals. When these contracts ended in 2002, UP required rentals at commercial rates. Two of the companies sued, but one eventually relented and abandoned the property. The third also negotiated with UP.
And sixth, UP strengthened its linkages with industries.
Replacing the controversial move to convert that large part of the UP property across the Commonwealth Avenue into a mammoth shopping center, Nemenzo applied to have this lot proclaimed as a Science and Technology Park. Though presidential proclamation still had to come, some IT firms already wanted to locate their R&D facilities in this park. The Ayala Foundation and UP entered into a joint venture to manage and expand the Technology Business Incubator along C.P. Garcia Avenue. Also, Intel Philippines, Mirant, and SUN Microsystems signed MOA’s with UP.
While these arrangements will not earn as much as the shopping center plan, they effect a win-win situation. Through these academe-industry linkages, UP students have access to state-of-the-art equipment, which UP could never get through normal budgetary processes. UP faculty also have opportunities for additional income without compromising their teaching duties.
Throughout his five-year term, Nemenzo never increased undergraduate students’ tuition fees. I asked, “Why not? When the government needs more funds, it increases taxes.” He smiled, “That’s the traditional way, but unimaginative.”
True. Simpler and easier, too, than collecting from the big tax evaders, and arresting graft and corruption. Aside from simply being lazy, lazy, lazy.
(February 16, 2005 issue)
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