President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the General Appropriations Act for 2025 despite the contentious budget proceedings including protests over alleged blank portions in the document. 

The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, particularly the Kabataan Partylist, reported budget cuts on state universities and colleges (SUCs), raising negative reactions. After all, the fiscal operations of SUCs are highly dependent on their approved budgets in line with the constitutional mandate of Congress and its “power of the purse.” 

Budget cuts on SUCs impact the scholarships to be provided to beneficiaries of Republic Act No. 10931 (or the free tuition law), as well as capital outlays, the hiring of personnel and staff, and the institutions’ fiscal capacity to provide quality yet affordable tertiary education. 

I speak of this particularly in the context of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), which is one of the largest SUCs in the country alongside the University of the Philippines (UP), Mindanao State University (MSU), and Cebu Technological University. It had 57,387 enrolled students in the academic year 2019–2020. Its budget amounted to P2.6 billion in 2022, P2.4 billion in 2023, and P2.9 billion in 2024. 

PUP has been confronted with a number of challenges, including 1) power dynamics between SUCs and the state institutions that regulate them; 2) lack of funding (in most cases, only 48–49% of the proposed SUC budgets are approved for various reasons); 3) the intervention of local government units and other institutions; and 4) its struggle to achieve legitimate autonomy. 

National Polytechnic University

Consequently, PUP administrations have pushed for it to become the National Polytechnic University—a proposal embodied in House Bills No. 8829, 8860, and 9060 and Senate Bills (SB) No. 2448 and 2669. 

Two considerations are foremost in these measures: institutional autonomy, or the university’s freedom to operate without much restraint from other institutions such as the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), and fiscal autonomy, or the university’s independence to allocate and spend its approved budget. These two separate but not unrelated autonomies in the context of higher education should coexist for the university to perform with the best of its budget, its faculty and staff, and its endeavors. 

Currently, only the UP and MSU systems are enjoying these autonomies as both are seen as the national universities in the country. 

As stated in Rule X, section 26 of CHEd Memorandum Order no. 07 s. 2022, or the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997 (RA 8292), “All SUCs shall enjoy academic freedom and institutional autonomy as provided for in Batas Pambansa Blg. 232, and paragraph 2, Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution.” 

However, in practice, regulation is still tight because most of the SUCs must follow CHEd-released guidelines for most of their operations. 

The French sociologist Christine Musselin said modern universities have more formal autonomy, but no practical autonomy in reality. This is regardless of the institutional, fiscal, and instructional autonomy that state institutions are articulating to universities. Institutional autonomy, as articulated in CHEd Memorandum Order no. 07 s. 2022, can be regarded as nothing more than a declaration. 

Controversy

However, the case of PUP’s push to become the National Polytechnic University is not without controversy. Section 10, clause (w) of the SB 2037 states: “Privatize, where most advantageous to the institution, management and non-academic services such as health, food, building or grounds or property maintenance and similar such other objectives.” 

This provision elicited objections within PUP sectors that interpreted it as a move toward commercialization. On one hand, this move is in response to the scant annual budget that falls short of compensation for university personnel. On the other hand, students and progressive groups say it will commercialize campus spaces to the detriment of the personnel’s lives and economic gains.  

These are the challenges that stem from budget constraints and other factors in PUP: 

• The poor condition of classrooms and laboratories.
• The low number of faculty holding permanent positions and the high number of those in part-time positions. (For instance, according to the university’s 2023 annual report, the part-time faculty numbered 1,702 compared to 874 full-time/permanent faculty.) 
• The problem of specializing in programs based on the community context of each campus. (This aspect was brought up in interviews where it was stated that programs offered by a PUP campus should be taken in light of the existing programs offered by a university/college in the same locality.)
• The dependence on partnerships formed with private entities and institutions to ensure that students would have more opportunities for employment, even if the students are still completing their preferred programs. 
• The difficulty in making the university accessible to the poorest of the poor. (Examinees number an average of 130,000 per year but only 10% can be accommodated on P33,000 per capita.) 

Considering the controversy, aside from the expansion of its campuses, one justifiable reason why PUP should be highly considered to become the National Polytechnic University is its structured efforts for human capital development by making higher education accessible, such as: 

• Democratization of the access to free and quality tertiary and technical-vocational education. (Salin-Kaalaman, Education on Wheels, calibrated technical-vocational-to-tertiary linkage programs, the Open University system, and other initiatives provide equitable opportunities to the grassroots to attain degrees. This social mobility and massification effort will result in an empowered and educated populace, including persons deprived of liberty, rehabilitated individuals, and others.) 
• Linkages and partnerships with private entities. (Despite the PUP’s limited budget, entities and organizations are forging partnerships with it. JobStreet Philippines records state that PUP graduates have been top priority for employment in such sectors as human services, business processing outsourcing, engineering and manufacturing, and education, for eight consecutive years.  

• Continued push to raise its standing in world rankings. (PUP maximizes the use of its limited budget, particularly in incentivizing faculty research outputs and its journals such as the Mabini Review, Education Review, and Social Science and Development Review. It held the 5th spot (551–600) in the Quacquarelli Symonds Asian Rankings for 2024 and the 7th spot (541–560) in the same rankings for 2025. This indicates that aside from the UP and MSU systems, the PUP system has entered the world rankings representing SUCs within the top 10 cohort, and proves that its faculty members are now transitioning toward research innovation and publication from its tradition of teaching and instruction.) 

Presidential veto

However, the measure establishing PUP as the National Polytechnic University has been vetoed by the President, with Malacañang releasing a statement that a needs assessment is required.  

The PUP administration envisions its autonomy as an important contribution to national development. For progressive groups and sectors, this is about the lives of students and personnel who will be affected by the sudden commercialization of campus spaces. 

The case of PUP provides a lens through which to understand the misguided state intervention in and regulation of SUCs. Hopefully, the robust initiatives of the university’s administration and its sectors that practice shared governance will ensure that its missions are fulfilled.

Juniesy M. Estanislao is an alumnus of the Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman, where he finished his master’s degree in Philippine Studies in 2024. He teaches at Barangka National High School in Marikina City and concurrently serves as a lecturer in the Department of Filipino, De La Salle University Manila.