MANILA, Philippines—A student group branded the government's 2011 budget as “anti-student, anti-people” for bearing severe cuts in subsidies for public tertiary education and for President Benigno Aquino III’s veto on several critical provisions.
League of Filipino Students chair Terry Ridon said the approved budget gave “mere bread crumbs” to students who have been protesting the budget cuts since the last quarter of the year.
Government granted an additional P146 million to fund 12 state universities and colleges (SUCs) earlier this month after students mounted massive protests against the P1.69-billion allocation for higher learning, which was slashed from this year's P2.54 billion.
“The approved budget is nothing but anti-student, anti-people. The increases to the SUC budget were mere bread crumbs to douse the growing student unrest,” Ridon said.
“Aquino retained the cuts in health care, agriculture, agrarian reform, housing, migrant benefits, among others. How in the world can that even be called a reform budget?” he said.
The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) had said that the budget in fact increased by P683 million, explaining that the 2010 budget appeared larger than the actual release because of congressional initiatives that were not released.
The commission, however, admitted that budget for operations decreased by P110.3 million and that “no budget was released for capital outlay (CO) in 2011 because all the projects in 2010 were already completed.”
CHEd said supplemental funding might be tapped if needed and the agency urged state universities and colleges to pursue income-generating projects, usually commercial ventures that student groups have long frowned upon.
Ridon said groups were preparing a new wave of protests at the start of the year.
“We’ll soon focus on Aquino’s PPP (public-private partnerships) as the general framework for the cuts in the budget and the intrusion of the private sector into education,” said Ridon.
By Tarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Budget activists on Tuesday expressed disappointment over the P1.645-trillion budget for 2011, saying it is "problematic in many ways" and does not address the real needs of the people.
Leonor Magtolis-Briones, convenor of Social Watch Philippine, said signing the budget on time was not enough. It has to be a budget whose substance will answer the needs of the poor, she added in a statement.
“They put more emphasis on the time in signing into law the budget measure but not its content and substance,” Briones, a former national treasurer, said.
President Benigno Aquino III on Monday signed the so-called Reform Budget, which hues closely to the one submitted by Malacañang to Congress.
The P1.645 budget for next year is 6.8 per cent higher than the P1.54-trillion national budget for 2010.
However, even with such increase, however, Social Watch remains skeptical that it will be able to finance government operations and fund anti-poverty programs that will trickle down to the poorest of the poor.
Social Watch, through the Alternative Budget Initiative, submitted an alternative budget to Congress during deliberations.
While having a new budget on time is commendable, Briones said Malacañang failed to explain the billions of lump sum appropriations.
This shows the lack of transparency and people's participation in the budget process, she said.
The lump sum items identified by Social Watch include the P21 billion Conditional Cash Transfer Program budget under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the P30.5 billion Unprogrammed Funds – Support for Infrastructure Projects and Social Programs, the P1 billion fund - subsidy for contingencies, and Public-Private Partnership Support Fund.
Briones said Social Watch and the network of non-government organizations and people's groups under the Alternative Budget Initiative will continue to engage the executive and legislative in the budget process and demand for a broader citizens’ participation.
She said the public should be vigilant in seeing how these lump sum funds are spent, especially those at the disposal of the President.
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
INQUIRER.net
The number of jobless Filipinos increased to 2.8 million as of October, up from 2.7 million in July, the National Statistics Office said Wednesday.
Based on the NSO's latest Labor Force Survey, the unemployment rate inched up to 7.1 percent in October from 6.9 percent three months earlier.
The October unemployment rate stood at 7.1 percent, unchanged from a year earlier but up slightly from July's 6.9 percent, according to the latest quarterly report from the National Statistics Office.
The rate of underemployment -- representing people working less than 40 hours a week and looking for fuller employment -- jumped to 19.6 percent in October, compared with 19.4 percent a year earlier and 17.9 percent in July.
The weak employment numbers come despite the economy growing 7.5 percent in the first three quarters of the year.
The official figures also understate the employment problems in the Philippines, where a third of the population lives on a dollar a day or less.
Although 61.2 million of the Philippines' 95 million people are aged 15 and over, the statistics agency said just 39.3 million could be considered part of the labour force, with many others not even looking for work.
The October data also showed that one in three members of the Filipino workforce were unskilled.
Foreign business leaders in the Philippines say that to cut widespread poverty, annual economic growth must reach 9-10 percent and overseas investments need to rise more than 40-fold to 75 billion dollars.
This would create 10 million jobs yearly instead of just the one million or so being created now, seven chambers of commerce said in a study released on Monday.
With a report from Ronnel Domingo, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 14:37:00 12/15/2010
First Posted 14:37:00 12/15/2010
Group lauds cancellation of Laguna dredging contract
ANTIPOLO City, Dec. 18, 2010—The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and the Save the Laguna Lake Movement are elated over the cancellation of the P18.7 billion (US$423.076 million) Laguna Lake Dredging Project by a Belgian firm.
“The victory belongs to the fisherfolk and the people of Laguna Lake. Their collective resolve to stop this shotgun piece of public-private partnership project is the decisive element behind the cancelation of the project. We ask President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to serve the notice of cancellation with finality and refrain from resurrecting this project in the near future,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap and SLLM convener Pedro Gonzalez in a joint statement.
According to Pamalakaya’s public information officer, Gerry Albert Corpuz, it was on December 5 when the Department of Environment and Natural Resources officially cancelled the contract with the Baggerwerken Cloedt En Zoon (BDC), a Belgian dredging contractor. The cancellation was approved by President Benigno S. Aquino III.
However, Pamalakaya and SLLM pressed that the cancellation of the P 18.7 B contract should not proceed with the Filipino taxpayers paying $10 million to BDC for the junking of contract, as previously asked by the Belgian contractor.
“We should not pay 10 million US dollars to BDC because the contract is junked. That would be unfair to the Filipino people and to the fisherfolks of Laguna Lake. It is tantamount to betrayal of national interest if the Aquino government pays 10 million American dollars to BDC. That is not acceptable,” the militant leaders said.
In the meantime, Pamalakaya and SLLM have slammed the European Union (EU) over the report stating that the Belgian government, which the current president of the EU, is planning to stop importation of coconut oil from the Philippines in connection with the scrapping of the P 18.7 B Laguna Lake dredging project.
Belgium is the biggest Philippine coconut oil importer, according to the United Coconut Associations in the Philippines (UCAP) Incorporated. If the importation stoppage will happen, it will adversely affect the Philippine coconut industry.
Noel Sales Barcelona; www.cbcpnews.com
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