Recto: Senate won’t cut budget of SUCs despite Duterte’s threat of defunding UP

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Wednesday said the Senate will not let state colleges and universities (SUCs) to suffer from budget cuts in 2021.

"Insofar as the Senate is concerned, the unanimous consensus is that SUCs are no-cut zones, insofar as their NEP budget is concerned. They have been vaccinated against budget cuts," Recto said in a statement.

"Calls for academic freeze will not be met with a funding brake. The correct response is not to defund any, but to increase the funds of as many as possible," he added.

On Tuesday night, President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to defund the University of the Philippines (UP) after accusing it of recruiting the youth to become communists.

Duterte lashed out at the state university after students of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) called for an academic strike to protest the government’s "criminally neglectful" typhoon and pandemic response.

For his part, Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan said depriving UP of government funding would be "legally infirm."

"Why are the students protesting? Let's go back to that. This is not unique to the Philippines... And I was a student leader and activist during my student days in UP," Pangilinan said in an interview on ANC.

"The youth will always be a source or a catalyst of change. I think more than anything else if you try to stop that, you’re going against how history unfolds. They are who they are, the youth and students will always be catalysts of change."

Based on the National Expenditure Program, P20.8 billion was earmarked for the entire UP System for 2021.

Recto said the initial allocations approved by the Department of Budget and Management for SUCs should be "benchmarked as the floor, meaning it can still be increased."

The Senate is currently deliberating the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021 in plenary. — RSJ, GMA News