A TOTAL of 57 state colleges and universities (SUCs) will once again suffer cuts in their budget next year under the proposed National Expenditure Program for 2017, despite the 18 percent increase in the total budget of 114 state schools.
“At first glance, the budget for SUCs in 2017 is significantly bigger than last year’s budget. But if we analyze each component of the budget carefully, one will see deep cuts in the MOOE [maintenance and other operating expenses] and capital outlay components,” Kabataan partylist Rep. Sarah Jane Elago said.
For 2017, the total proposed SUCs budget amounts to P56 billion (net of retirement and life insurance premiums), which is an P8.7 billion or 18 percent increase from this year’s P47.4-billion budget.
But a total of 57 SUCs will incur cuts in either their MOOE budget or capital outlay budget, or both.
Despite the increase in the overall budget, 13 SUCs are set to suffer the biggest budget decreases next year, which includes the Philippine Normal University, North Luzon Philippines State College, Batanes State College, Quirino State University, Mindoro State University, Central Philippines State University, J.H. Cerilles State College, Northwestern Mindanao State College of Science and Technology, Compostela Valley State College, Cotabato State University, Adiong Memorial Polytechnic State College, Basilan State College, and Tawi-Tawi Regional Agricultural College of Science and Technology.
A total of 35 SUCs will incur cuts in their MOOE amounting to P256 million, from the current P11.5 billion to P11.3 billion in 2017.
Meanwhile, 33 SUCs will incur cuts in their capital outlay budget while 10 SUCs will incur cuts in both the MOOE and capital outlay components.
One SUC, Compostela Valley State College, will incur cuts in all three expense classes, including personnel services.
Elago expressed grave concern over the new spate of spending cuts, noting that decreasing the budget for operations will have a “severe effect” on state schools.
She said the Commission on Higher Education formula, which bases budget levels on key indicators like enrollment and a new “leveling” instrument covered by a Budget Department-CHED circular were to blame for the budget cuts.
In Congress, CHED officials were asked to explain why it had an unspent budget for scholarship programs amounting to P2.8 billion.
At a budget hearing conducted by the House committee on appropriations, Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano lambasted CHED chairperson Patricia Licuanan for the agency’s failure to provide more scholarship grants to poor students, despite the huge allocation in its budget.
Under the 2017 budget proposal, an additional P5.5 billion was proposed for this purpose, enough to provide more financial assistance to the students, especially the poor, who want to continue studying in college.
Since the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund after the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional, the supposed allocation of pork barrel for lawmakers was channeled to specific government agencies, including CHED, for the implementation of programs in education.
Since then, scholarship grants from CHED have become difficult to obtain and are limited, so the students affected were forced to stop studying, lawmakers said.
But Licuanan said there are several factors that contribute to the delayed release of the budget, one of which was the lack of manpower to process applications for such grants.
“We need to beef up regional staff to handle the program, because there is big number of graduates that pass through us,” Licuanan said.
“We have not been releasing our funds as efficiently as we should. I will admit that is a bit of a challenge… We feel we certainly have to beef up our regional offices to handle the large amount of grants that pass through us,” Licuanan added.
But Alejano expressed dismay over the CHED’s failure to handle the matter well.
“We have been hearing about that problem every year, but until now, you have not addressed it. Can’t you really hire additional staff?” Alejano asked Licuanan in Filipino.
Licuanan then said they would increase manpower by hiring at least three personnel for each regional office nationwide that will focus on processing the scholarship grants.
But Alejano said this is still not enough to deal with the needs of the thousands of applicants.