Losing support
| FRONTLINE |
 |
| Ninez Cacho-Olivares |
Less than six months in the presidential office, and Noynoy Aquino has largely lost an important sector of his constituents — the students and the youth, many of whom were his supporters and even devotees — until Noynoy and his Budget secretary slashed the budget for the state universities and colleges, with the two even going to the extent of challenging the SUCs to lay bare the funding they get from several sales of property and raise funds themselves.
And to add insult to injury, while over a billion and a half was cut from the SUC budget, the senator allies of Noynoy provided some P170 million to the SUC budget as an addition to placate the students. That’s peanuts, if one realizes just how many SUCs there are in the country.
Then there went Sen. Franklin Drilon, claiming that the P1.7 billion that was cut from the SUC budget was a congressional insertion during the time of Gloria Arroyo, who had vetoed this insertion, and that the Senate can’t put this amount back.
This is truly illogical, considering the fact that this is a new budget under a new administration. This is a budget for 2011, not 2010, and there is no reason to claim that as this 2010 congressional insertion for the SUCs was vetoed by Gloria, this can no longer be undone by the Noynoy administration..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101206com2.html
0 comments
Post a Comment