UP groups hold walk rally against budget cut

UP Students in their cropped tops and shortest shorts march with their banners around campus
in a symbolic protest against the 1.43B budget cut.

by Keiza Empleo

UP Cebu – The Student Council, in partnership with the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and the Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante (NKE), held a walk rally against the P1.43 billion Budget Cut from this year’s current P9.5 billion budget of the UP System.

The walk from the AS Lobby to the Oblation Square, dubbed “CUTwalk! Against 1.43B Budget Cut” was attended by students, teachers and faculty. Students were in cropped t-shirts and shorts as it was a symbolic protest, according to NKE member John Lord Escatro, which targeted student participation in the main call for higher state subsidy and the abolition of pork barrel.

“CUTwalk is a part of a continuous campaign from the Office of the Student Regent, answering to its panawagan to hold a one week rage against budget cut,” said Jun Marr Denila, the current SC Chairperson. The walk was a system-wide protest, also having UP Diliman shut down for their fourth strike since 2010 on the same issue.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved P8.1 billion for the system’s budget for next year, which is not half of the proposed P17.1 billion budget by the UP system for all its constituent units and for the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Next year’s budget cut of P1.43 billion might be UP’s biggest.

This, according to Escatron, is in line with the government’s Roadmap for Public Higher Education Reform (RPHER). “With RPHER, state university colleges across the country will be forced to generate income from within by raising tuition fees and shouldering half of their budget by 2016,” he said.

“While the system has earned P1.6 billion over the last three years from generated income and other sources, implications such as having millions of students transfer from private schools emphasize what Butch Abad, Department of Education Secretary, says that tertiary education is no longer a right, but a privilege.”

Aside from the call for protest against the intended budget cut, CUTwalk was also called for the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or Pork Barrel. “Ironic how pork barrel gets so much rather than state subsidy,” Escatron said. He however; along with his fellow students in LFS and the rest of the members of NKE believe that if PDAF was to be reallocated, it will be able to allow at the most a million students in UP to finish school. A second year Mass Comm student says she wants more transparency in the funding of social services, as well as on the PDAF if it doesn’t get abolished.

By next week a deliberation on the national budget will start, hence the sense of urgency the CUTwalk imposed on all the students. Denila said the budget cut approval will probably be in November and he hopes that the protest created an unforgettable impact on the students as well as on the government.

CUTwalk is the third in a series of activities conducted by the SC, NKE and LFS, and was joined by supporting school organizations like the Liberation of Gay Advocates (LIGAYA) and the Fine Arts Student Organization (FASO). The walk rally started at 4 and ended in the early evening.