THE BUDGET of the University of the Philippines this year increased by more than P2.8 billion.

From last year’s P21.5 billion, the university’s budget went up to P24.4 billion.

More than half of this amount — P13.9 billion — will go to employees’ salaries.

Meanwhile, P7.9 billion will be used to support UP’s daily operations, such as utility payments, and P2.6 billion will be for infrastructure projects.

The budget will also fund the second phase of the Palma Hall renovation (P50 million), the construction of Balay Atleta (P100 million), the UP Diliman football stadium (P30 million), and the School of Library and Information Studies (P50 million).

It also allocated P41.4 million to purchase ventilators to increase the Philippine General Hospital’s capacity to accept more Covid19 patients. The hospital will also get a fire protection system costing P90 million, following the fire that gutted part of the PGH in May 2021.