PNoy says there indeed is a budget cut
by Mon Ramirez
December 1, 2010
The past week saw Palace spokesmen and some Liberal senators say that there really is no budget cut. Students and SUCs admnistrators disputed it and showed facts and figures.
Now, comes PNoy validating what the students have been saying all along although he claims only P400 million was taken off, not P1.1. billion as the students showed in their lists (at the very least, and does not include yet the slashes in grants and scholarship, etc)..
Aquino earlier said in his 2011 budget message to Congress in August that "We allocated P23.4 billion to 112 State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in 2011. This is 1.7 percent lower than the P23.8 billion budget for 2010."
"We are gradually reducing the subsidy to SUCs to push them toward becoming self-sufficient and financially independent, given their ability to raise their [own] income," Aquino added.
Aquino said the executive branch only lowered the budget for SUCs like UP because the country's premier state university has other sources of funds, such as tuition hikes and tie-ups with private corporations such as the UP-Ayala Technohub.
So what was those denials all about when PNoy himself would admit the slashing of the budget?
What the students cannot understand is why PNoy would cut P1.1 billion in the SUCs' budget when he could increase by so many billions the following budget:
*Pork barrel funds for legislators will be increased by more than P13.9 billion for a total of P24.8 billion.
*Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be given an additional P2 billion in pork barrel funds.
*Lump-sum (read: corruption) funds for 2011 total P245 billion. Of this amount, P68 billion represents audit-free Presidential pork barrel.
*Dole-out and patronage funds under the Conditional Cash Transfer program of the DSWD has a budget of P29 billion.
*The military, notorious for violating human rights and killing civilians, will be awarded a P10 billion increase in its budget for a total of P104.7 billion.
*Debt servicing eats the chunk of the budget, getting an increase of P80.9 billion with P823 billion in total spending for both interest payments and principal amortization.
The young are our future, and we reduce our spending for them to increase the pork barrel, debt servicing, military budget, etc.
