The “budget cut” for the University of the Philippines (UP) in the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) will not affect the number of enrollees it can accommodate, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
DBM Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman made the assurance amid the “seeming” P2.93 billion reduction in UP’s proposed P22.59 billion budget in the 2024 NEP as compared to the current year, where it received P25.52 billion under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
She explained UP usually gets a higher funding during budget deliberations in Congress for its infrastructure projects, which is carried over to the GAA.
“I was able to get the projects covered by the [Congressional] amendments and most of them are for the completion of existing infrastructure projects, which will be completed in 2023. So we don’t need the funding for 2024 anymore,” Pangandaman said in a press briefing in Malacañang last Thursday.
DBM also took note of the low absorptive capacity of UP, which is 69.48 percent as of end-2022 for its 2024 NEP allocation.
Despite the lower proposed budget for UP next year, DBM assured the education sector will still get the highest budget next year with a total proposed budget of P924.7 billion–3.3 percent higher compared to the P895.2 billion budget for 2023.