The Philippines’ national university begins its three-day strike today to protest the impending decrease in its 2012 budget with a Unity Walk along the UP Academic Oval.
More than 2,000 university officials, faculty members, employees and students of the University of the Philippines – Diliman marched along the 2.2-kilometer oval to demonstrate their unity against the decrease in the budget of UP and other state universities and colleges (SUCs) for next year.
UP Alyansa ng mga Mag-aaral para sa Panlipunang Katwiran at Kaunlaran (ALYANSA), one of the participants in the university-wide strike, appeals to the government to increase the UP budget and invest more in education.
“We ask this government to heed the call of the youth for a greater investment in education via a higher budgetary allocation to its national university and the enactment of a law that will automatically appropriate at least 6% of our Gross National Product to the whole education sector,” ALYANSA Vice Chairperson for Publicity and Publications MJ Aragones said.
According to Aragones, the government via the Department of Budget and Management only approved P5.54-billion out of the P17.07-billion budget proposal of the UP administration for 2012. With this measly figure, UP’s budget will be decreased by 3.6% from its 2011 budget.
“Prioritization of education should never discriminate tertiary education. As stipulated in the Constitution, the State must ‘protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels,’ and this includes quality education in our SUCs,” Aragones said.
In addition, Aragones said that even an increase in the budget for basic education does not conceal the fact that education ranks low in the government’s list of priorities. According to Aragones, the 2012 education budget in toto only amounts to 2.5% of the country’s 2010 GNP, which is a far cry from the ‘6%-of-GNP to education’ UNESCO standard accepted by over one hundred countries.
“If the President is serious in bringing this neglected generation out of the wedlock of injustice and underdevelopment, the government should adopt the ‘6%-of-GNP to education’ standard to our country,” Aragones said.
“Thirty-nine years after dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law, the Filipino youth are still fighting in the streets because they have yet to attain genuine freedom, which can only be achieved through quality, relevant and accessible education. We hope the government, especially President Aquino, realize our plight,” Aragones concluded. ALYANSA – UP Diliman
