Opening statement of Senator Pia S. Cayetano
Senate budget hearing for higher education

This hearing is now called to order.

This is the Subcommittee D of the Committee of Finance. Our agenda today are the proposed budgets under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the Commission on Higher Education and State Universities and Colleges, including the University of the Philippines System.

The officers present are Sen. Zubiri and Sen. Drilon, and of course, our Chairperson on the Committee on Higher Education, Sen. Joel. Sen. Imee Marcos and Sen. Francis Tolentino.

Upon review of the NEP, we have observed that CHED budget increased from P50.51B to P51.54B. The budget for PS and MOOE increased but the budget for capital outlay decreased.

We also note that the overall budget of SUCs decreased to P71.199B as opposed to the 2021 budget of P85.956B. This amounts to a P14.7 billion-peso decrease in the overall budget of the 114 SUCs.

4 SUCs in the BARMM are not funded under the NEP. 40 SUCs (including the 4 in the BARMM) have zero capital outlay, including 2 medical SUCs - University of Northern Philippines and University of Southern Philippines. 75 SUCs have significant decreases in capital outlay, including the following medical SUCs, whose budgets we specifically augmented, including the 2 that I mentioned earlier, because of the dire need for doctors and pursuant to the Doktor Para sa Bayan law. This is the University of the Philippines, including UP Manila and UP School of Health Sciences, Mariano Marcos State University, Cagayan State University, Cebu Normal University, Bicol University, West Visayas State University, and Western Mindanao State University.

For the University of the Philippines, there is a decrease of P 1.326B, which includes a reduction of P737M for MOOE and a decrease of P 1.372M for capital outlay. For UP-PGH in particular, the budget decreased from P6.872B in 2021 to P5.666B. For the MOOE of PGH, there is a decrease of P130M from P3.156B to P 3.026B.

Alarming is the fact that there is no provision for capital outlay or equipment outlay for PGH in the NEP. In 2021, P1.204B was granted, for the record.

I will save my commentaries for later, but needless to say, we are dismayed, we are distraught that at a time like this, we are not supporting our higher education systems. We had hoped that this would be a good time to invest in higher education so that when COVID is over, we hope that there will be a new normal that we can go back to... the schools are ready. So these kinds of numbers are very disappointing.

In preparation for defending the budget of CHED and SUCs, my team and I take time to gather data and information on the utilization and implementation of budget items. Why? Because we need to answer the questions of our colleagues and we'd like to help clarify to lessen confusion by also being aware of what's going on.

It bears noting that for the last 3 years, I have chaired the budget for CHED and all SUCs, DepEd and all its attached agencies, and for the last 2 years, DOH and its attached agencies. I think my colleagues and I have similar experiences wherein on various occasions we are frustrated with the delays and inability to get the information we want. But of course, we also do our best to understand the situation and make do with what we can get. However, with CHED it has been especially difficult to get the necessary information and data to prepare for their budget.

Scheduling a briefing as well as this hearing had been difficult because CHED was not able to respond in a timely manner to our queries on the availability of the agency and the Chairperson. You will note, that is why this hearing for CHED and the SUCs is scheduled on the very last day of the original schedule. I think our Chairperson extended. But it's the very last day. I don't like to be the last, not only because I am competitive - that's a joke - but 100 plus SUCs tapos last day ang hearing. Ang hirap-hirap naman nun. Tapos may deadline kami over the weekend. So ayaw ko na nala-last ang CHED, pero ganun ang nangyayari because hindi tayo makapag-set ng meeting, hearing, and briefing.

The presentation for today's hearing was sent only late last night (almost midnight - 11:43PM). I am mentioning this because the Minority Floor Leader is very strict. His request, which the body has adopted, is that we are supposed to receive the briefing papers 3 days before. So I am letting you know, 11:43PM natanggap, and only upon continuous follow-ups of my staff who had to remind them that they should have sent it three days before. So bahala na kayo kung nagka-time pa ang ating colleagues because in the morning, we start with other hearings.

Last year, we had some difficulty crafting our Sub-Committee Report for CHED - that's for the 2021 budget - because, in spite of numerous follow-ups with CHED, we were not given the data needed to understand and justify their specific requests. Sir, kayo na po ang nagre-request, kami pa yung hirap na hirap na makaintindi. Ang hirap. Hindi ho kami magikero, we don't have the ability to fill in the blanks.

Some answers to questions on utilization and program details, especially on programs that are congressional initiatives have not been straight-forward. When asked about actual utilization, instead of answering that the budget has not been used at all, they mentioned that they are still working on guidelines, accepting proposals, etc.

Prior to this hearing, we asked CHED, on numerous occasions, to discuss the utilization of the budget for programs that are legislative priorities. However, we were disappointed to find out that some of these programs have yet to be implemented or that the implementations were done belatedly, such as:

The E-library. Di ba, pandemic nga? And also in the interest of being sustainable, e-library is the way to go. We have been following up since June. SUCs were only asked for a meeting yesterday, Oct. 20. They were asked to submit their proposal for the E-libraries.

SDGs and Futures Thinking Research Programs. This is my initiative because I chair the Committee on SDGs, Innovation, and Futures Thinking. Konti lang naman po ang pondo nito. Maliit lang. Last June 15, during a meeting for the Complete Staff Work for Futures Thinking Literacy for CHED executives, my staff also asked about the status of the SDGs and Futures Thinking funds lodged with CHED. My staff found that apparently CHED... I will not read na lang what my staff said to me. Erase. My staff said medyo may confusion kung ano ba ang Futures Thinking. So my staff was informed by Dir. Sylvette that they will consult us in the Committee for ideas. At the same time, she promised to make the Complete Staff Work for Futures Thinking Literacy for CHED executives as proposed by Comm. Aldrin Darilag for submission to be included in the agenda of the CHED En Banc meeting the following week. However, she failed to deliver. My staff followed up with Comm. Darilag but was informed that Dir. Sylvette failed to do the proposal. Then yesterday morning, CHED sent a message to my office requesting for another meeting on Futures Thinking. Budget na po kami, today ang budget niyo. Tapos kahapon kayo magfa-follow up sa akin ng meeting. And on that note, dear Chair Popoy, yes I received your message to us, asking me if I can take a call today. Hindi ko na kaya to take a call today kasi today na ang ating budget hearing. Tapos na ako sa mga briefings siguro on the day of the hearing, and I need to move forward with the hearing. That's why I have briefings. That's why I make calls so that I can clarify all of these things and help you with your budget.

Now, in order to improve and enhance - hindi pa ho ako tapos - our competitive advantage in English proficiency, which is an advantage we are slowly losing, because countries like China and Thailand are getting our English teachers and are working double-time to increase their English proficiency, I put a measly P10M pesos for training and programs to improve the quality of English in the Tertiary Level. We have been asking for updates on the utilization but we have yet to receive a response. Response lang. Ni wala pa tayo dun sa kung tapos na ba ang rollouts, sino ang mga SUCs na nakinabang, response lang. Wala.

Meanwhile, another problem that I am sure you are all aware of, dear SUC presidents, is the mental health of our students, right? So even in the basic elementary, in the secondary education level, what we discovered is that there really is a problem with our takers of guidance counselling because there does not seem to be a career track, and it is not an attractive course for students to take. Therefore, I have said we have to market this concept and really push guidance counselling because mental health is a big issue. The Office of Programs and Standards Development only submitted their request for approval of their project proposal last October 14, a week ago. One year na ang budget. So parang talagang...

I will not make conclusions, pero talagang lahat itong binanggit ko, hindi talaga mahalaga sa CHED. Anyway, you will have all the time to convince me because I have given you all this time to try to at least show support and show some respect for the legislative process and I have to say I am deeply concerned with your response.

Anyway, I mentioned already the SUCs that have medical schools and the seed funding provided for the medical schools, none was released to any of the SUCs. Now I know CHED will have an answer, kakatapos lang ng kanilang rules. I brought this up in the budget hearing of DOH yesterday because DOH is the one in charge of our very precious health human resource, and so I brought it up and I asked Sec. Duque to also be present because how much more can we do? We passed a law. We put in funding, pero wala pa ring movement. And so I know that will be the answer, wala ang rules. I don't know if Sen. Tolentino is here, he's the one who brought up how the rules have now been a major impairment in our laws becoming implemented. Because if you are going to use the rules to prevent the law... Yes the law is there and I have no problem with the rules, but there is nothing in that law that says you cannot support existing SUCs and their medical school programs without the rules. So a year has passed, and those SUCs never received any seed funding.

Another point, and I think this is my last, this is the initiative of the Chairperson of the Committee on Higher Education and TESDA, Sen. Joel Villanueva, the SUCs are still unable to use the budget for Smart Campuses under Bayanihan II. In a briefing, Chair Popoy explained to me that they had to go through the process of determining, but you know what, at the end of the day, what good is all that process if hindi na nila magagamit?

So I just wanted to put that on record. I take pride in the work that I do, I take responsibility for any oversight or any differences in views that we have among the senators. I take responsibility for my work. So I have to put this on record because I am prevented from doing the work that I want to do because of this kind of experience I've been having with CHED. You don't hear me say this often but I need to put this on record because we each have to be responsible for the quality of the work. And I can only produce so much depending on the input that I also get from our colleagues in government.

To be honest, I was inclined to suspend this hearing. But you know, there is a job to be done, and I know our other colleagues also have questions, so I decided that I won't suspend it. The issues are known to CHED. Everything I said is not new for the record. I am not just telling CHED this now. I am just making the information public to explain how I cannot finalize. I usually already have a draft even before the hearing because I have had numerous briefings. I cannot come up with those because I did not get the information I needed. And sometimes I do not get the information I want, but I still get information that allows me to do my job. So even if facts do not conform to what I want to do, it's okay I will still do my job. The thing is, I do not get enough to do the job properly.

On that note, we will proceed. The order of presentation will be PASUC, UP, CHED, Social Watch.