DEEPEST CUT BLEEDS AFTER 22 YEARS
UP suffers P2-B budget chop, pushes infra projects over healthcare
By Axel Cainglet
Despite the University of the Philippines (UP) system’s proposed P39 billion budget for 2025, the UP system faced its largest budget cut since 2003 amounting to P2.08 billion as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the 2025 national budget last Dec. 30, aggravating UP Manila’s construction impasse and the lagging healthcare system of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
Misaligned priorities over patients’ woes
As stipulated in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2025, the allocated fund for hospital services program has been augmented from P4.96 million to P5.014 million. The budget increase, however, is not centered upon providing financial subsidy to needy patients as several line items added in the 2025 GAA include only the structural and operational expenses of the laboratories and programs in the College of Medicine.
Previous year’s P633 million budget for medical assistance for indigent patients was also slashed to P549 million amid the influx of patients who cry for free medical services.
In October 2024, during the forum for the selection of the PGH director, Gerardo Legaspi, the reappointed director, laid out his visions which include the continuation of the eight-storey parking building and the construction of PGH extensions in other UP campuses.
However, All UP Workers Union — Manila/PGH laments that behind this ambition lies the inadequate benefits given to healthcare workers, notwithstanding the P77 million budget intended for the benefits of public healthcare workers from last year’s GAA.
To exacerbate the issue, the 2025 budget also failed to allocate funds to the concerned group of workers and even reduced the budget for Magna Carta for Public Health Workers from P401,000 to P374,000, which is supposedly aimed to ensure proper compensation for health workers.
UPM construction in gridlock
As per the 2024 GAA, P100 million was allotted for the completion of the Rizal Hall in UPM. The sluggish renovation, however, which has been underway as early as 2021, still persists in the facilities of the College of Arts and Sciences, resulting in conflict in room reservations due to uneven ratio of classes and classroom availability.
Meanwhile, P167 million of this year’s budget has been apportioned to the restoration of Lara Hall, the main building of the College of Public Health, the construction of which has been ongoing since the onset of the first semester and is supposed to be completed at the start of this year as pronounced during the student town hall meeting held in May 2024.
Furthermore, in September last year, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and UP Manila inked a memorandum of agreement aimed at increasing the capacity of the College of Medicine. This is subsequent to their initial partnership for the university’s plan to rehabilitate the drainage system of the campus along Pedro Gil, which commenced on Aug. 1.
Currently, the first phase of the construction of the water sewerage system that is supposed to be accomplished by Sept. 4 is still on-going, along with fourth and fifth phases, which are expected to be completed by June 10 and Aug. 14, 2025, respectively.
Neglected education sector
The constitution mandates that the education sector must be given the highest budgetary priority, a provision that has been bypassed by lawmakers in the signing of the 2025 national budget.
Lawmakers made a questionable move as they inserted the Local Government Academy — an institution for the development of human resource and local government officials — the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), and Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in the share of the education sector in the budget allocation.
Traditionally, the fund for the said sector merely consists of the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and state universities and colleges (SUCs) which have yet to recover from last year’s budget deficit.
In the 2025 GAA, the construction projects of the education-related infrastructures were also taken out of the DPWH’s budget and were shoved into the education sector’s line items, which is yet another “clever” move to increase the fund of the education department in the name of constitutionality.
Aside from the UP system, 27 state universities and colleges (SUCs) will also bear the budget decline amounting to P22.6 billion from last year’s P24.7 billion, after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) dismissed the call for the P14.4 billion budget restoration.
Double-edged solution
To cope with the continuous dwindling of the institution’s budget, the UP Board of Regents (BOR) implements through the 2024 Master Development Plan revenue-generating projects that utilize the land assets by renting them out to private enterprises. This move has led to the construction of commercial establishments within the UP campuses, particularly the controversial Dilimall at UP Diliman in Quezon City.
Albeit such an alternative solution provides a band-aid remedy to the budget deficit, the commercialization of establishment within the UP campuses displaces small vendors and allows big, private businesses to sell products — a move that is far cry from the university’s public character.
Teachers’ groups, including Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), expressed their dissent over the administration’s self-serving policies, questioning the P11 billion slashed from basic education funding.
“Malinaw kung saan nakalaan ang pondo sa taong ito, at mas malinaw na hindi ito para sa tunay na pangangailangan ng bansa at ng mamamayan,” said Vladimir Quetua, ACT chairperson.
Students and educators’ groups alike dissuade the government from rubbing more salt into the wounds and call for a genuine solution, that is, budget restoration in the education sector, and compliance to the UP System’s proposed funding.
