DBM: UP budget cut won’t affect student admissions

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Thursday said the budget for the University of the Philippines (UP) under the proposed 2024 expenditure plan will not affect student admissions.

At a Palace briefing, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman explained that the P2.93 billion cut in the 2024 budget of UP was due to the removal of budgetary requirements for several infrastructure projects up for completion this year.

“So if it's for completion in 2023, we don’t need the funding for 2024,” Pangandaman said.

Under the proposed P5.768-trillion 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), submitted to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the UP got a budget of P22.59 billion, lower than the P25.52-billion budget allocated for the educational institution under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

In a statement, the DBM explained that the “seeming decrease” in UP’s budget “is attributable to the congressional initiatives in the 2023 GAA for various capital outlay projects for infrastructure, which are one-time or non-recurring expenditures, hence no longer included in the FY 2024 NEP.”

Asked if the budget cut will translate to a reduction in the number of students admitted to UP, Pangandaman said, “Wala po [None].”

Meanwhile, the DBM said it also took into consideration the budget utilization of UP in the previous year prior to budget allocation in the proposed NEP.

“Hence, in our review and evaluation of UP’s budget proposals, we considered its absorptive capacity, which is 69.48% as of end-2022,” it said.

Nonetheless, the Budget Department said the education sector shall remain as being the highest budgetary priority of this administration as mandated by the 1987 Constitution, with a total proposed budget of P924.7 billion, reflecting a 3.3% increase from its P895.2-billion budget in 2023.

DBM Undersecretary Joselito Basilio earlier said that 15% to 20% of the fiscal year 2024 budget will be for the education sector and shall be used for “items to address learning losses” during the pandemic, when schools were closed and modular and online learning methods were implemented. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News