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 (hyperlink) in August 11, 2006 (hyperlink http://www.haribon.org.ph/?q=node/view/364), 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.

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.�

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