Centennial Budget

In her investiture speech on July 21, 2005, Roman said the target budget for the UP Centennial is five billion pesos, half of which will come from the national government and the other half from the private sector.

She added that since Feb. 2005, the fund raising has been going on.

“All the deans and chancellors are doing the fund raising,” Roman said.

Roman said that in 2006 and 2007, 800 million pesos and “close to 400 million” pesos were added to the UP budget, respectively.

“So that’s 1.2 billion [pesos] for the two years,” she said. “Now, for this 2008, over and above the regular budget that we also got, I think we will get something like 1.5 or 1.6 billion [pesos].”

Roman said a part of the 800 million was used for the construction of the National Science Complex in the College of Science. A part of it also went to UP Visayas for the research about the Guimaras Oil Spill in August 11, 2006, Philippine General Hospital and the construction of the Media Center in the College of Mass Communication.

The additional budget given in 2007, on the other hand, was mostly for scholarships for masteral students, according to Roman.

Roman said, however, that the UP administration is still waiting for the approval and release of the additional budget.

This implies that the UP budget has increased in the past two years. “We are fortunate because the government has been very receptive, because I think they see they are also doing our best to raise money, and so they are trying to match our efforts.”

Despite this increase in the budget, the tuition and other fee increases (ToFI) was implemented in July 2007 affecting incoming freshmen. From 300 pesos per unit, tuition became 1000 pesos per unit.

Moreover, the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP) was restructured, with the previous nine brackets being reduced to only five.

Roman said the additional 800 million and 400 million pesos added to the UP budget in 2006 and 2007 were only for the capital outlay and do not cover the maintenance and other operating expenses.

Also, Roman said the ToFI was implemented to increase the stipends for students and for modernization.

“Kulang na kulang naman ang 1,000 [pesos] a month,” Roman said. Under the restructured STFAP, the standard stipend is 12,000 pesos per semester.

Regarding the other half of the Centennial budget, Roman said efforts are underway for it to be raised.

“On our side, we have also been doing our fund raising. By our data’s account, it’s close to a billion yung nakukuha na namin,” Roman said. These are in form of faculty development (professorial chairs), equipment donation, scholarships, donations of art pieces, research grants from private and government agencies, travel grants, among others.

Roman said this is based on reports from various UP campuses, but they are still being double-checked for accuracy of the figures.

UP is also expected to profit from the ongoing Ayala project – the construction of a Science and Technology Park along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City. The land is leased to Ayala Land Inc.

“We get a share of the rent that they will get,” Roman said. “They plan to give us an advance [of] 100 million [pesos] also this June in commemoration of the Centennial.”

Roman said all the fund raising efforts will benefit UP. “Everything will go to UP,” she said.

Out of the five billion pesos they are projected to raise, two billion pesos will go to faculty development.

“Part of it can go to faculty development [which means] allowing our faculty to study abroad and locally. Part of it can go to giving them additional allowances kasi ang baba-baba talaga ng sweldo ng faculty,” she said, adding that the highest paid faculty member gets only 33,000 pesos per month.

Meanwhile, 2.15 billion pesos will go to the modernization - new buildings, new facilities, additional subscriptions to online databases, among others, and 300 million will go to scholarships.

“This is on top of the socialized tuition,” Roman said.

Roman said at present, there are 100 scholarships available for UP Diliman students since 2005. Half a million is also allotted for artists and athletes of UP, Roman said.

Frank Cornejo, executive director of UP Alumni Association, said 300,000 pesos was left from funds used for the kick-off, and “it will be used to help the UP Basketball team.”

“Malaki kailangan doon para mabuhay ang ating basketball palyers. Walang sasakyan. Nagpa-public [transportation] sila. Di katulad ng mga [taga-] Ateneo, La Salle. Naka-coaster. Yung ating mga basketball [players] kung saan-saan kumakain lang… so how can you play na ganun mga kalaban mo, pampered,” Cornejo said.

The UPAA handled the Centennial Kick-off last Jan. 8.

“The kick-off is supposed to be a UP affair but they requested UPAA to handle it. And the UPAA accepted it because there are many frat leaders who volunteered to help. Tau Alphans, sigma Rhoans, APO, Upsilon [Sigma Phi]. And Beta Sigma,” said Frank Cornejo, executive director of UPAA.

To raise funds for the kick-off, Cornejo said Roman gave 500,000 pesos to UPAA, and the UPAA also looked for sponsors for the fireworks, t-shirts and meals for the kick-off. Cornejo added that some people donated 10,000 pesos and 50,000 pesos.

“A certain Manuel Zamora gave 50,000 [pesos],” Cornejo said.

He added that the meals were sponsored by Chancellor’s budget, and that they also earned Light-A-Tree project, where one’s name or organization, written on a streamer, will be hanged on trees along the academic oval for 5,000 pesos each tree.

“Mahigit 100 yung nag-sign up dun. We invited the organizations [and asked them] ‘would you like to put your name there and sponsor a tree? For 5000?’ Upsilon and Beta Sigma [got] five each. 25, 000 yun,” Cornejo said.

Other Centennial Projects

Roman also mentioned in her investiture speech that one of the UP Centennial projects will be the establishment of a UP presence in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig “to bring the professional colleges closer to their projected constituents.

“[Unfortunately], we could not find a building,” said Roman, adding that UP cannot afford to buy land in Fort Bonifacio.

According to the University of the Philippines Website, UP is negotiating with Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay to establish UP presence in Makati.

Roman also said they have asked Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to print the Oblation on 100-peso bills, which will come out in May.

“Bangko Sentral agreed to do everything for free,” Roman said.

Roman said the “uncut” version of the 100-peso bills – four bills together in a booklet – will be sold as collector’s item for 1000 pesos each booklet, 500 pesos of which will go to UP.

“If we sell 10,000 copies of that, we will get five million [from there]. That we will add up to our fund-raising,” Roman said.

Roman said the 100-peso bills will replace the commemorative stamps as part of the UP Centennial, mentioned in Roman’s investiture speech because the Postmaster General charged 500,000 pesos for the stamps. The plan to have commemorative stamps was then cancelled.

“[But] two months ago, sumulat ang Philippine Postal Corporation. Sabi nila ‘please reconsider. This time we will not charge you anymore. Gagawin na lang naming parang collector’s item,” Roman said. She added that 72,000 copies of stamps will be bought and placed in the museum.

Roman’s vision: UP in the next 100 years

The theme for the UP Centennial is “Excellence, Service and Leadership for the next 100 years.” How does UP President Roman envision UP for the next 100 years?

“We want to see a very distinguished Filipino university that is able to compete in a highly-globalized, highly complex and technologically-advanced world.

Roman said the top 50 universities in the world are “well-endowed financially.”

“In other words, given the budget that we are having, talagang mahirap tayo mag-compete. My own view, and some faculty members in UP share this with me, that despite the budget constraints, we are doing well,” Roman said.

Roman said she is hoping that the government will give high priority to education so “we can really advance the frontiers of knowledge, so that our people will benefit from it.”

In the field of science, Roman said research is hampered by financial constraints. “We need laboratories. We need library resources. We need the materials for research,” Roman said.

She added, “If we have all the facilities and a very enabling environment for us to discover and to innovate, the Philippines can become very, very competitive. And what we’d like is for UP to play a very critical role in making this country competitive in terms of the development of human resources, in terms of discovery, innovations, [and] inventions.”

But for the All-UP Academic Employees Union, UP’s Centennial cab also be celebrated through an alternative theme: Radikal na Sentenaryo.

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