DBM cuts UP’s proposed P53.5-B budget by half
The University of the Philippines (UP) will push for amendments to its P26.5-billion budget for next year—a huge cut from its original proposed budget, which its leader said could jeopardize the completion of long-delayed infrastructure projects and the capacity-building of its research program.
UP President Angelo Jimenez told reporters on Friday they would seek changes in the proposed funding “to be able to catch up with the level of last year’s.”
The Department of Budget and Management reduced the proposed budget for UP to P26.53 billion for 2027, about half the university’s request of P53.5 billion and lower than its current budget this year at P29.47 billion.
One of the priorities in UP’s funding agenda is the completion of construction of facilities and buildings that have been on hold, Jimenez said.
This includes the continuation of the construction of the UP Resilience Institute building and the Faculty Commons in the Diliman campus, as well as the National Institutes of Health building in UP Manila and libraries in the Los Baños campus.
‘Black Friday’ protests
“We want to finish the construction [projects] that are not yet finished … We inherited those things. We are on its way to resolving many of these difficult infrastructures,” Jimenez said at the sidelines of the 13th Korea-Asean Community of Public Exchange International Public Policy Symposium.
UP is also planning to boost its research program, Jimenez said, adding that he envisions the state university to be a center of research and innovation, not just producing outstanding graduates.
Even as the university chief talked about his plans for the institution, students from UP and other universities staged a simultaneous walkout on Friday to protest government corruption and the budget cuts in the education sector.
Called the “Black Friday” protests, the demonstrations in various schools—including the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, University of Santo Tomas and Far Eastern University—are also in preparation for the 54th anniversary of martial law on Sept. 23.
Activist, however, have made it a tradition to commemorate that historic event on Sept. 21—the date preferred by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
