Tag: free tuition SUCs

Editorial: ‘Pork’ issue raised anew in search for SUC funds [Manila Bulletin]

photo0726-003

From Manila Bulletin: Senator Lacson never accepted his own allotment – it was P200 million for senators and P70 million for congressman – in the old days of PDAF. Some of his colleagues in Congress today may not be ready to carry on without their pork in its new guise and may insist on the “SOP” devised by DBM. Then they must find, somewhere else in the bowels of the appropriation bill, the P25 billion needed for the new program of free college education.

Continue reading “Editorial: ‘Pork’ issue raised anew in search for SUC funds [Manila Bulletin]”

Editoryal: Libreng tuition sa state colleges [Pilipino Star Ngayon]

Mula sa Pilipino Star Ngayon: Maganda ang panukala ni Lacson na kunin sa pork ang pondo. Kaysa naman kurakutin lang ang pork ng mga mambabatas, sa mga state colleges and universities ito gamitin. Gawin na ito para naman makahinga nang maluwag ang mga magulang na kandakuba na sa pagtatrabaho.

Continue reading “Editoryal: Libreng tuition sa state colleges [Pilipino Star Ngayon]”

Panayam ng DZMM | Agosto 9, 2017

Sa panayam ng DZMM, sinagot ni Sen. Lacson ang tanong sa:
– Panukalang manggagaling sa pork barrel ng mambabatas ang pondo para sa libreng matrikula sa SUCs
– May makukunan na pondo para sa libreng matrikula sa SUCs

Quotes from the interview…  Continue reading “Panayam ng DZMM | Agosto 9, 2017”

On Claims that there is No ‘Pork’ in the 2018 National Budget

That’s what the Department of Budget and Management and the House appropriations committee always say before, during and after our budget deliberations.

However, how do they explain:

1) the big lump sums in several agencies like DPWH, DepEd, DA, etc;
2) why legislators in both houses of Congress are being asked to submit lists of their projects just before the period of amendments of the appropriations bill or even before that;
3) the billboards in some jurisdictions/districts where some congressmen boldly claim that ongoing projects are theirs;
4) how would they account or explain the PHP8.3 billion that we discovered and realigned to fund the free tuition of students in state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the 2017 General Appropriations Act?

Let’s be honest to our people and to ourselves.

*****

#PingTweets: Unang pasada pa lang, nalantad na! #NoToPork #FreeTuition

tweet0807-pork

Sa paghanap ng pondo para sa Free Tuition Law

meme0806-tuition-pork

Kailangan uli na halughugin ng Kongreso ang pambansang badyet para mapondohan ang batas na nagtatanggal ng matrikula sa mga estudyante ng SUCs.

Panayam ng DZBB | Agosto 6, 2017

Sa panayam sa DZBB, sinagot ni Sen. Lacson ang tanong sa:
– Sino ang nararapat na makinabang sa batas na nag aalis ng matrikula sa mga SUCs
– Paghanap ng pondo para sa libreng pangmatrikula sa SUC sa 2018
– Kalbaryong utang ng bawa’t Pilipino, pati na ang bagong panganak
– Panawagan sa kasamahan sa Kongreso kontra pork barrel
– Ang ahensyang maaaring lagyan ng pork sa budget

Quotes from the interview…  Continue reading “Panayam ng DZBB | Agosto 6, 2017”

On the Signing into Law of the Bill Granting Free Tuition for SUCs

It only shows where President Duterte’s heart really is. Obviously, he went against the advice of his economic managers.

For one, I know there’s money in the national budget to fund the free tuition law. As what the Senate had collectively accomplished under the 2017 GAA, we managed to realign P8.3 billion from the pork allocations of congressmen to SUCs through the Commission on Higher Education.

That is how we intend to do it again under the proposed 2018 budget.

God bless the Philippines and its deserving students who can’t afford higher education.

*****

Paano Nagkaroon ng Libreng Tuition ang Estudyante sa SUCs sa 2017

Sen. Lacson narrates how the P8.3 billion in ‘pork’ he discovered in the DPWH budget became free tuition in SUCs for 2017…

“During caucuses, kasi mahaba ang caucus namin, marami actually, dahil ang pinaka contentious issue ang P8.3b na nasa NEP, sa ARMM, tinanggal sa GAB sa House of Representatives, nilipat sa DPWH pero ang implementation nananatili sa ARMM… Sabi ko hindi pupwede because we will all be violating the (ARMM) organic act… During one of our caucuses sila nag-suggest na ilagay natin sa SUC para pakinabangan sa free tuition ng deserving college students, mga iskolar ng bayan, mga college scholars.”

*****

Dissenting Vote Against the Ratification of the Bicameral Conference Committee Report on the 2017 National Budget

With a heavy heart and much hesitation, I am voting against the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the 2017 national budget.

I do so for various reasons, the most compelling of which is the continuing presence of pork barrel allocations in the 2017 general appropriations bill yet to be enrolled for the President’s approval.

Save for the P3.6 billion that still remains in the DPWH budget and divided among the 8 legislative districts of the ARMM, after we transferred the P8.3 billion to the SUCs, I need not provide the details of the other pork allocations.  Continue reading “Dissenting Vote Against the Ratification of the Bicameral Conference Committee Report on the 2017 National Budget”