Budget cut stirs MPSPC rallies

HAPPY WEEKEND
Gina Dizon

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- Claims of students on non-consultation and non-transparency over the collection of development fees, and allegations of unimplemented release of increased teachers’ honorarium has raised ruckus here at the Mountain Province State Polytechnique College with the eventual strained resignation of MPSPC president Nieves Dacyon first day of July.

A controversial P500 “development fee” imposed by the school by virtue of Common Board Resolution No.8, s. 2007 and MPSPC Board Resolution No. 032, s. 2007 has been collected since 2008. Issues of non-transparency on where the collected amount goes and non-consultation before the fees are imposed hound the collection of this fee.

During the highly tense two-week rally of students and staff of MPSPC the last two weeks of June, teachers also especially those on the ranks of Instructor 1-111 demanded implementation of the increase of their honoraria from P75.00 to P180.00 as approved by the governing board in 2003 in accordace to the second cycle of the National Budget Circular 461. Salary increases of faculty members are primarily sourced from the government-subsidized tuition fees of students.

Alleged mismanagement by the school head ignited the said issues.

Whatever management or mismanagement of the school, the consultation or non-consultation of students, and release or non- release of honorarium lingers, the hounding issue is that MPSPC is in a state of financial quandary just like all other state universities and colleges in other parts of the country.

There are around 111 SUCs all over the country, most of which are dependent on government support by almost 90 percent. The University of the Philippines and the Philippine Normal University are among the top five SUCs with the largest budget cuts as high as 24 percent.

MPSPC has a reduction of 15 percent in its 2010 subsidy of P17.9 to P15.2 million for 2011. President Noynoy Aquino announced last August 24 during his budget message to Congress that he was “gradually reducing the subsidy to SUCs to push them toward becoming self-sufficient and financially independent.” As such, the P21.7 billion subsidy for 2011 is clearly lower than the P22.4 subsidy for 2010.

SUCs’ operations are divided into capital outlay, maintenance and other operating expenditures, and personal services. The capital outlay provides infrastructure and school facilities. MOOE covers everyday operations and payment of utilities such as electricity and water, maintenance of facilities, wages of contractual employees and scholarships. Personal services which eats up the biggest slice covers the salary of faculty and staff.

The SUCs budget for MOOE is reduced to P1.1 billion or by 28.16 percent in the 2011 budget. There are 15 SUCs with budget cuts of more than 50 percent on their operating expenditures.

For MPSPC, budget allocation for personal services of the College from the national Government has not increased in recent years.

Back to consultation, it is sad to note that the means by which the issue of non-consultation is disposed is the call for the resignation of the school head. That the president was made to resign under a state of violence with the destruction of school property must be that there is no room for students, the staff and the president to talk among themselves? Is the president that unreachable and unavailable that she does not provide room for consultation?

While students claim there was no consultation, Dacyon claims there was.
Whatever may be the case, students and faculty from other state colleges and universities of the country petition president Noynoy Aquino against budget cut in SUCs in his 2011 budget in the General Appropriations Act since late last year towards the early months of the year.

The budget cut will significantly and ultimately mean privatization of SUCs. Tuition will be raised coupled with the imposition of other fees to answer for personnel and operating costs. The country will be in a state where education which is ideally and legally mandated, as the Constitution of the Philippines says that education is for all, is not anymore, thus making education affordable to only those who can pay.

It means the deprivation of lower income families not having the means to send their children to school, not see a son or daughter earn a college degree. This reduced budget for SUCs demands to be protested now and in the next years to come.

For MPSPC, the budget cut along with the lingering increase of tuition and student fees and unimplemented teachers’ honorarium will remain even with the resignation of Dacyon and whoever will head MPSPC, until and unless a strong national protest shall reach the ears of the Senate and the President of the Philippines, or until and unless the SUC will find other ways to generate income aside from raising student fees while not sacrificing its main mandate to provide education.