Press Release - Transcript of Senior Finance Vice Chairperson Sen. Pia Cayetano's Opening Statement

Welcome to the Subcommittee hearing on the Committee of Finance. I'd like to give a short introduction and then at the same time, give you some of my house rules.

First of all, I'd like to greet our Chairman, Popoy De Vera, our PASUC President Tirso Ronquillo, all the PASUC Regional Coordinators and Presidents of the SUCs that are here. Everyone else present, welcome.

Let me just read the budget so that we know what we are discussing. What is provided in the NEP for the Commission on Higher Education is Php 30,109,399,000; the State Universities and Colleges, including UP, Php 113,749,891,000; and for the University of the Philippines, total new appropriations of Php 22,337,123,000.

What I'd like to address, which is no longer as surprising to me as back when I was first Vice Chair, is what I would say somehow is a bit of misinformation about the budget, ngayon hindi na ako nagpa-panic, kahit hindi ko na explain, alam niyo na yun. Kasi kayo, those of you who know, know. But I understand that you need to ensure that you get the appropriate budget. Every year, we go through this. Every year.

The NEP contains a budget that will be lower than the previous year's GAA - the law that was passed. Why? Because in the Senate - I can only speak for the Senate, but I know the House has their own - we rally funding for the SUCs and for higher education. That's why the final amount will always be higher, because we do not decrease, we increase. That's why, every year, the following NEP will be lower because they may or may not agree with the changes that we made. Thankfully, and one good example, is the funding for our medical schools. If you will recall, Dr. Tirso, Popoy, a lot of the funding for the medical schools emanated from the Senate. Not a lot, all. And then, I think it took a year or two for DBM to put it in their NEP. We're always arguing and fighting for these fundings to become institutional funding. So that every year hindi kami naghahalukay ng funding for these programs. But obviously, when you have a capital expenditure (e.g. there's an SUC that this year has a science laboratory, and another one has a multi-purpose hall, and another one has a dormitory) hindi