House panel mulls budget cuts to 3 dep’ts for free tuition standby fund

The House Committee on Appropriations on Thursday said the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) were the top candidates to receive budget cuts in 2018.

"At least for now, we have a standby source of at least P37.5 billion which can be made available through supplemental budget in case we still fall short of the needed funds to support the free college education law," Committee chair and Davao City Representative Karlo Nograles said in a press release.

After a review of their budget spending patterns, Nograles said the three agencies could face budget cuts amounting to at least P37.5 billion.

The amount will serve as a "standby fund" until tuition fees are fully subsidized for 114 State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), 16 Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) accredited by CHED and 122 Technical-Vocational Institutions (TVIs) under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

The agencies were seen to have "low absorptive capacity" and "sluggish" implementation of projects and programs.

The House said the DICT, which requested for a budget of P6.87 billion for 2018, had P2.7 billion in unused appropriations in 2016 and P2.695 billion in 2017.

"These funds will expire on December 31, 2017 and I doubt very much if DICT will be able to utilize these funds before the year ends," Nograles said in the release.

The agrarian reform sector failed to use P6 billion in their 2015 budget, and is currently banking P5 billion allocated in 2016.

"The Department of Transportation, on the other hand, failed to utilize P33 billion in 2015, and again in 2016 they have so far failed to obligate P30 billion of their budget allocation," Nograles added.

Should next year's budget fall short, Nograles said, a total of P5 billion will be shed from the DAR, which asked for P10.3 billion, and from the DOTr, which requested P73.8 billion.

Nograles said he would rather use the agencies' leftover budget to support the law for free tuition and miscellaneous fees for students instead of letting it go to waste.

"At this point in time I am very doubtful they will be able to utilize those funds. So I am looking at considering these funds as savings and writing a supplemental budget to use as standby fund for the free higher education law," the solon was quoted to have said.

Allocations programmed in 2015 have expired and were reverted to the national treasury, while the remaining unused funds allocated in 2016 were likewise set to expire when the year ends.

Prioritizing President Rodrigo Duterte's "Build Build Build" program, the panel has to carved out from budgets of under performing and under-spending agencies to implement the newly signed Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said they will tighten admission policies in state universities now that the house panel identified at least P16 billion in funds that would be sourced from various departments in time for the first semester enrollment next year. — Margaret Claire Layug/BM, GMA News