In my preparation of the budget briefer for state universities and colleges (SUC’s), several points have become apparent.

President Noynoy Aquino’s budget proposal for the country’s SUC’s for 2011 is nominally much lower from the budget two years ago by as much as P2 billion. Though nominally it is larger than earlier years, it is possibly the lowest in more than a decade, when computed against a constant consumer price index.

President Aquino’s proposal also reflects the lowest per-student spending on SUC’s, again when computed against a constant consumer price index.

This trend is simply a continuation of a long-standing government policy of reducing state subsidies on social services such as higher education in order to ensure debt servicing on its foreign and local creditors. This follows the neoliberal dictates of multinational financial institutions forcing governments around the world to treat higher education a service commodity that must be left alone, and thus vulnerable, to free market forces. This is the same neoliberal dogma being forced by creditors upon the throats of governments worldwide from Greece to Bangladesh to California. This neoliberal dogma challenges the long-held ideal that higher education is a public good that serves a social purpose, crucial and necessary in the development of a sovereign democratic society.

What does the budget cuts mean? Corollary to budget cuts on state universities are tuition and other fee increases in campuses nationwide. In the context of the Philippines where a third of the population live on less than P100 a day, this neoliberal policy on higher education reinforces the tragic social and economic conditions of many Filipinos by depriving them of their right to higher education.

Protest actions have been set these days leading up to September 24, Friday next week, when thousands of students and out-of-school youth are expected to walk out and march to the gates of Malacanang to demand for greater state subsidy for education. Let us collectively reject the budget cuts on state universities and colleges, and on other social services!