Senate urged: Uphold House CIF realignment

MANILA, Philippines — Academics are calling on the Senate to uphold the House of Representatives’ realignment of confidential funds to government agencies involved in national security.

As senators conducted a hearing on the budgets of state colleges and universities and the Commission on Higher Education yesterday, academics who trooped to the Senate also called for sufficient higher education funding that addresses the big budget cuts on SUCs.

“The total budget cut for 30 state colleges and universities is more than P6 billion. In UP (University of the Philippines) alone, more than P2 billion will be cut, along with more than P400 million in PGH (Philippine General Hospital), which will benefit poor patients. Education is in dire crisis right now and is in equally dire need. So it is appropriate that the confidential funds be transferred here,” All UP Academic Employees Union national president Perlita Rana said.

About 10 government agencies, including the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education, are expected to be affected by the House of Representatives’ plan to realign confidential funds to national security agencies amid China’s continued aggressive acts in Philippine territory in the West Philippine Sea.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) earlier called on the House to ensure that the confidential funds of agencies that have nothing to do with national security would be realigned to public services.

Rana also assailed the confidential funds that Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte’s offices held.

“The P650-million confidential funds of VP Sara Duterte is equivalent to the funds given to SUCs for the education of 13,000 college students in one year. These (confidential funds) would be more useful to the nation if we are to allocate it to the future of the youth instead of giving them to agencies notorious for harassment and red-tagging,” Rana said.

SUCs nationwide earlier sought P331.3 billion in funding for next year. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM), however, allocated them P100.88 billion, which is significantly lower than the P107.03 billion allocated in the General Appropriations Act.

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