The struggle continues.
After a series of militant and widespread protest actions in the final weeks of 2010, which saw students flooding by the thousands into the streets, marching to Mendiola, the Senate, and even the Department of Budget and Management, the Aquino administration has been left with no choice but to respond.
At first, several officials, including President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III himself, attempted to justify or outright deny the budget cuts in the education sector. When that did not work, and the protests and rallies escalated, minimal budget increases were granted.
For state universities and colleges (SUCs), the senate budget deliberations — held while some 8,000 students waited outside the gates of the Senate, calling for greater state subsidy for the education sector — ended with P146-million in additional funds for maintenance and other operating expenses allotted to SUCs.
(We note that Senator Alan Peter Cayetano attended the program at the Senate to express solidarity with the youth; however, Senators Tito Sotto and Franklin Drilon, who have loudly denied that there are even budget cuts in the education sector, elected not to step out and explain their side directly to the students.)
In UP, meanwhile, several senators pledged to give the unversity some funds from their pork barrels, or priority assistance development funds. These pledges, also called “congressional insertions,” amounted to a total of P781 million.
(However, it is not certain that these congressional insertions will ever actually be given to UP; indeed, it is already December, yet the congressional insertions pledged to UP for this year, supposedly earmarked in the 2010 budget, have yet to be released.)
The additional funds for the education sector are victories. But they are not enough.
In the end, the figures are unforgiving. Consider: the budget for SUCs in 2010 was P24.8 billion, already inadequate. Now the government slashed it to P24.4 billion for 2011, and the P400-billion budget cut is only partly dented by the additional allotment of P146 million to SUCs.
And in UP, the proposed budget of P18.53 billion for next year is very far removed from the pittance granted to the university for 2011 — some P5.53 billion — even with the additional P781 million in congressional insertions. The resulting P6.31 billion budget for 2011 is still lower than the P6.92 allotted to UP for the current year, which has already been proven insufficient.
Thus, the protests are not over.
The truth that prompted the protests and mobilizations remains: the budget for SUCs is inadequate, and this inadequacy has forced the rising costs of education upon students and their parents. The fact that they are unable to bear it means that education has been demoted from a basic right granted to every Filipino, regardless of economic status, to a privilege granted only to those who can afford the bloated tuition and other fees.
For there is another truth the Aquino administration seems determined to ignore — that the very purpose of SUCs, the reason that there exist colleges and universities which are funded by the government, is to democratize access to education. To provide a viable alternative for those who cannot afford private schools, should they wish to pursue tertiary-level studies. To ensure, as mandated in the 1987 Constitution, that quality education is accessible for all Filipinos at all levels.
And Aquino’s grand plan is the complete antithesis of this ideal. His proposal to “gradually decrease funding for SUCs,” leaving them reliant on their own income-generating measures, is nothing less than a plan to turn SUCs into private schools. And that would defeat the rationale behind SUCs.
We condemn Aquino for the failure of his administration to grasp these fundamental truths. We call on the youth to remain vigilant in asserting their rights, and to remain militant in fighting against those who stand in our way. Over the past month, we have experienced the victories to be gained when we stand united. Let us continue and escalate our protests — for, as we have seen, only through principled collective action can we force even the slightest of concessions from the government. Yet we demand and deserve more.
On one side, administration officials denying and justifying the budget cut, seeking to appease the youth through minimal increases; on the other side, students in solidarity with other sectors, calling on the government to fulfill its responsibilities to the education sector. History will show who is right, and why we must carry on with the struggle.
No comments:
Post a Comment