By Northern Dispatch
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VIGAN CITY–Around 2,000 students, administration staff, faculty members and other school personnel of the University of Northern Philippines (UNP) joined the protest action against budget cuts beginning December 1.
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“Today, we gather as one to make a strong voice to oppose the threat of stealing the youth’s future from us. We are one with our school administration, teachers, school personnel and fellow students in fighting for our right to education,” says Finela Mejia, Northern Luzon Coordinator of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP).
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In a forum, the different sectors including the administration, faculty, and students of the UNP community expressed their opposition to the budget cuts on state universities and colleges (SUCs). They held the forum inside the UNP gym, which they decorated with placards and streamers calling on the government to prioritize education and provide a higher state subsidy to state universities and colleges.
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A symbolic signing of a large tarpaulin with the call “Para sa bayan, para sa kinabukasan. Kilos na, laban sa budget cut!” followed the forum. The tarpaulin would be displayed in front of the university gates until December 6, when the bicameral committee is set to approve the 2011 budget.
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“We are here to dramatize our opposition against the budget cuts. The 112 SUCs’ budget, particularly the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), will be cut by as much as P1.1 billion,” says Dr. Lauro Tacbas, the President of the UNP and the current Chairperson of the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC). Earlier, the PASUC expressed their unity with the students against the budget cuts and announced that its members will hold symbolic protest actions Monday.
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PASUC explained that a large part of the education budget is cut from the MOOE, which the school uses for the acquisition and maintenance of equipment, payment of services such as water and electricity and the purchase of other supplies.
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In the Ilocos region, all the five SUCs will suffer an almost P14 M cut in MOOE. UNP’s MOOE will be slashed by P1.6 million.
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In a manifesto of unity read by the UNP Faculty Union President Mr. Generoso Gudelio Pajarillo, they said, they fear that the budget cuts will result to rampant tuition and other fee increases.
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“This is yet another pattern from the previous regime that the Aquino administration now chooses to uphold and continue,” said Pajarillo.
Meanwhile, Dr. Tacbas assured that tuition fee increases will be their last resort in case the budget cut persisted. “As long as I am around as PASUC president, I will not tolerate an increase in fees. It must be the last resort,” Dr. Tacbas guaranteed the students.
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On the other hand, Mejia said that if this cut was approved, this will worsen the situation of 40-percent of the youths enrolled in SUCs and will increase the number of out-of-school youth. “In 2007, the number of out-of-school youths in Ilocos Sur was already pegged at 84,127 and 71,717 in Ilocos Norte,” Mejia said.
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“Let us contribute to claiming our rights and in demanding from the government a more decent budget for basic social services. The chaos does not lie on the protests we launch, the chaos starts from the abandonment of the government of its responsibilities. Times like this prove that our collective action is the only order in the middle of the chaos,” Mejia said. (Bulatlat.com)
