2 Congress Bills Eye UP’s Full Commercialization

The commercialization of the University of the Philippines may yet be fully realized if two bills filed in Congress are enacted into law. Instrumental in the implementation of the bills is the Board of Regents (BoR) which are given new powers to track the university’s full commercialization.

By Bulatlat.com

Thousands of students, faculty and non-academic personnel from the University of the Philippines (UP) are set to converge at the Don Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola) on Nov. 26 to protest the budget slash of the university and other state colleges.

The protesters, led by top UP officials, are also expected to take up the issue of the state university’s commercialization and privatization. The issue appears to be urgent given reports that the privatization move is being pushed in Congress through the filing of two similar bills.

Dr. Edberto M. Villegas, a faculty of UP-Manila, this week revealed that two bills have been filed in both houses of Congress that would legitimize the commercialization of UP. Senate Bill 1955 has been filed by a former university president himself, Sen. Edgardo Angara, while the House version, HB 3757, is authored by Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri.

The Zubiri bill is a mere photocopy of the Angara bill, Villegas says. While both bills seek to revise the UP charter of 1908, they retain the authoritarian character of the Board of Regents (BoR) with broad powers that could be used to commercialize the state university, Villegas said.

In his paper, “Angara-Zubiri Bills: Road to UP’s Commercialization,” Villegas, who used to chair UP-Manila’s Department of Social Sciences (DSS), cites in particular Section 10(m) of the Angara and Zubiri bills which empowers the BoR to impose tuition and other school fees. Along with other sources of income, the fees can be used by the board for any purposes in light with the university’s growth and development.

This provision, Villegas contends, will open “the gate for the discretionary power of the BoR to undertake any income-generating programs including… the leasing of properties to any takers.” This legitimizes what UP constituents have been accusing university administrators of doing – the commercialization of UP education.

Section 19 of both bills makes more explicit the commercialization UP, the educator, who is also former secretary general of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), says. Under it, the BoR is empowered to undertake “financial mechanisms, such as joint ventures, long-term leases, fully-owned subsidiaries, securitization and outright sale” in order to generate revenues from the university’s land grants and other real property.

The two bills, Villegas hinted, were filed in Congress surreptitiously and without the benefit of full public disclosure and consultation especially among the UP constituents. If allowed to pass, both bills would make the years-old struggle by university constituents against privatization and commercialization to naught, he said.

Recent UP administrators, with the blessings of BoR, have opened the university’s wide campuses for the entry of commercial owners and property developers. On the sprawling Diliman campus, for instance, the Ayala-financed technology park is reportedly expanding while similar projects are also in the blueprint.

UP’s commercialization has been the bone of contention of students and faculty, accusing national government of reneging on its responsibility to subsidize the state university as provided by law. Over the past several years, however, the UP budget has been slashed thus displacing the university’s major programs to the consternation of students who see in it not only yearly tuition increases but also a deterioration in the quality of education. Bulatlat.com

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