A TEACHERS’ group called attention to the alleged neglect of state universities and colleges by the House of Representatives in the realignments it made on the proposed 2024 national budget.

The group urged the Senate to allot the remaining confidential and intelligence funds to public universities.

“Our public universities practically did not benefit from the P194.5 billion realignments made by the House of Representatives to the 2024 budget as even the more than P6 billion slashed budgets in SUCs were not restored,” UP Faculty Regent and Alliance of Concerned Teachers State Colleges and Universities President Prof. Carl Marc Ramota said.

“Of the P1.4 billion fund addition to SUCs, more than P1 billion will go to the Philippine General Hospital, leaving a mere P300 million for other SUCs, which is plainly pitiful if not insignificant,” he added.

“It seems our representatives have failed to see and heed the clamor of our iskolar ng bayan who, until now, are under hybrid learning modalities due to abject shortages in classrooms and other facilities. Moreover, it failed to address the government’s outstanding responsibility to 59 percent of the college-aged youth who are out-of-school,” Ramota added.

He said that some P9 billion in CIF remain intact in the 2024 budget.

Ramota said students and faculty from the University of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippine Normal University, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology and Technological University of the Philippines will hold a rally at the Senate on Wednesday, November 15, to lobby for additional budget for SUCs.