Transcript of Senior Finance Vice Chairperson Sen. Pia Cayetano's Opening Statement
October 1, 2024
Transcript of Senior Finance Vice Chairperson Sen. Pia Cayetano's Opening Statement
Budget Hearing on the Proposed Budgets of CHED, SUCs, and the UP System
October 1, 2024
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 naman nagiging continuing funding yun.
I say this for the sake of those new to these hearings na hindi niyo alam na ganun yun. That doesn't prevent you from fighting for the same or more amounts for other projects. But we have to help educate the people para hindi nasasayang energy natin. Gamitin natin ang energy natin kung saan kailangan. We want to fight for increased funding for multiple projects. Natapos na yung whatever, natapos na yung isang dormitory, ang kailangan naman another academic building. Then we fight for that. But we have to also educate the people and the students. Kasi sayang din energy ng students natin. Nag-rally sila na, bumaba yung funding. Ipaliwanag niyo naman kung saan pumunta at ano yung next battle. Hindi yung same battle, same chant. Hindi. The battles change. We have to educate them.
That's my little lecture of the day. Because after this, I allow the resource persons to take the floor and I actually give the floor to my colleagues to ask questions. As Chairman, I'm a facilitator. I will ask my questions in the end unless there is something that I feel just needs to be clarified for a more educated discussion.
What I'd like to emphasize before I give the floor to our colleagues and then to the presenters is that every year for the past 6 years... with me as Chairman and with the support of course of our former Chairperson Senator Angara, now DepED Secretary, and hopefully with the new Chairperson, we have been able to increase the funding for our state universities and colleges.
Our goal for 2025 is to ensure that the SUCs receive funding at least equal to last year. But I'm not aware that we have ever just given equal. From my recollection, we've always increased it over the years, because your needs have not been addressed. That's very clear to me. Even if you look at the Committee Report that we submit, and it's not just for the sake of yabang na ganito na-submit natin. Kasi hindi ko job na pahirapan yung Chairperson ko. Yung job ko is mag-submit sa kanya ng amendment na reasonably, the Chairperson, he or she would be reasonably capable of supporting. Merong wish list, tier 1, wish list, tier 2, so that mabigay ng Chairperson ang best na kayang mabigay. That is the goal.
And that is what we hope to achieve in 2025. I apologize for the late start, but many of you were at the event that we had, which was the seed funding for the medical program grants, that we wanted to give a few minutes to celebrate. Because four years ago, this did not exist. We have to celebrate the milestones. And that is a milestone. We now have regular funding for our medical schools. It can be better and we keep fighting for it to be better. And based on the briefing I've had, in my recollection, I think there were two years that medyo low yung utilization and then now, kulang na yung funding, which is a good thing because nakakaiyak naman kung low yung utilization. Pero now that we have a good problem that means nagagamit yung pondo, and the challenge is to find the proper funding.
Our order of presentation will be higher education, you have 10 minutes, then the state universities and UP will have 8 minutes each. I ask our colleagues to ask their questions after all the presentations. Maiksi lang naman. And then my house rules are, you are all welcome, and since we are with educators, I hope that you also encourage this in your own schools, in your own board meetings, in your own classrooms. We encourage mobility breaks... You are more than welcome to stand up, go to the restroom, stand up to stretch, you don't need my permission. There's only a few speakers so they're the only people who need to be seated and ready to present. Everyone else is welcome to take care of their own personal needs.
And then I'm happy that everyone here did not bring a PET bottle because we are also trying to be sustainable. I hope in the back, we encourage. And I hope it's in our notice. Before it's in our notice, please bring your own water container. We have water dispensers that you can use. I think that's it. I recognize Senator Joel Villanueva as well... We'll start with Chairman Popoy, and then please be ready after this, President Tirso Ronquillo.
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