KIKO HITS HOUSE OF REPS' FAILURE TO RATIFY
UP CHARTER BILL: "A SAD, SHAMEFUL DAY FOR EDUCATION"

Senate Majority Leader and principal sponsor of the Senate version of the University of the Philippines Charter Bill, Kiko Pangilinan, today expressed dismay over the House of Representatives' failure to ratify the said measure, due to lack of quorum.

"This is a sad, shameful day for our education system. The UP Charter Bill has been in the legislative mill for 14 long years, the Senate was finally able to ratify it last Tuesday, and now, at the eve of finally giving the country's beloved State University a new lease, we are back to square one, all because there was no quorum in the House of Representatives," Kiko lamented.

"The education system is in dire straits. It is in the Intensive Care Unit and the lack of quorum to pass crucial education bills is totally unacceptable most especially because the reason behind it is the failure of legislators to attend the session. The crisis in education is brought about in part by the glaring lack of a sense of urgency coming from our public officials. It is lamentable and totally shameful that a number of our political leaders have grown callous to the education crisis that now engulfs our nation," hit Senator Kiko.

The UP Charter Bill aims to avert the declining quality of tertiary education and the diaspora of highly-skilled professors by exempting the University from the Salary Standardization Act, allowing tax exemptions and giving incentives to donations, establishing safety nets for assets utilization, revitalizing the curricula and increasing the pay of teaching and non-teaching staff. It also gives UP more autonomy, as Malacañang loses its power to endorse the UP president and sectoral representatives.

"The University of the Philippines is under tremendous pressure: it needs to keep up with the competition and maintain its status as the premiere university, while stopping its looming deterioration. With its outdated Charter, this is almost impossible to do," Kiko added.

"It is frustrating how all the consolidated efforts of the UP community and the proponents of this bill, and the breakthrough provisions of the measure, will be for naught, all just because not enough representatives were present to ratify it. The price for this is too much. We challenge the inability of the House's leadership top have summoned a quorum to tackle this and other crucial legislation. The public cannot become hostage to the inability to enact meaningful measures because legislators fail to attend the sessions," Kiko ended.