Legacy of Deceit

(published in the Philippine Collegian's special edition, "Dekada '90." Published I think in 1999, it's a summing up of what the 90's has been for the country and the University. It included the top 10 personalities and top 10 issues. This is about the STFAP. For the complete edition visit: http://www.peyups.com/dekada90/index.khtml )

More than ten years ago, student protesters had warned of the dangers of the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP), President Jose Abueva's brainchild. They had sensed that something was amiss since its implementation. But the creature survived,
nonetheless, despite the protests that have attempted to slay it.

Abueva had a grand mission for the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP), a legacy that has come to be identified with his administration. It would democratize access to UP, he had said. This, while declaring in a tyrant-like manner, in a student protest rally in July 1989, that "negotiations are only for labor and management."

But student protesters at the opposite side of the fence saw it differently. Then USC Chair Teddy Rigoroso denounced the STFAP as "a manifestation of the state's abandonment of education." Various student protests warned of commercialization and privatization of education.

And what they had been saying was proven true all along.

This November, National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP) revealed that the government, under the Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997 (HEMA), was slowly going the path of commercialization as it encouraged state universities and colleges (SCUs) to enter into joint ventures with private companies. Coupled with this was the implementation of an income-generating scheme patterned after UP's STFAP. This, in effect would, virtually free the government from its obligation to provide education and make SCUs self-sufficient.

No other proof could be more convincing than the recent decision of the Senate to cut the UP budget. Sen. John Osmeña, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, slashed the budget of SCUs from P18.16B in 1999 down to P17.5B in the year 2000. For UP, this would mean a P258M reduction in its Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) and capital outlays.

Asked whether the income generated from the STFAP had influenced the Senate to cut UP's budget, Nemenzo flatly denied that there were any income from the STFAP. "Ibinabalik din 'yan sa mga estudyante," Nemenzo said. He conceded, however, that there are indeed savings from the UP budget but declined to disclose the figure. From where the savings came from, he answered with a vague "sa operations ng university."

Still STFAP's role in the budget cut could not be discounted. He was already talking of income when he said last September that he would create a special fund where the net income from the STFAP would be used for improving the facilities instead of using it to augment the university's operating funds.

From UP's experience, it has been gleaned that there are indeed several risks in the program, intrinsic flaws that have not yet been resolved. And those who would be lured into adopting the STFAP risk walking through dangerous paths.

One flaw is the ambiguity in classifying applicants, something which STFAP officials themselves admit. Aside from this, there is also the static re-bracketing system and table of stipends. These two have resulted in the steady decrease of recipients in brackets 1-4, where there are greater subsidies and benefits. In 1989, there was only about 32%, or 4,691 beneficiaries out of the 14,593 students in UP Diliman. Ten years after, this figure has dramatically gone down to a measly 4% of the 43,837 students in 1998-99, while the number of students in bracket 9 has steadily increased.

But despite all these, Nemenzo had an even loftier goal for the STFAP. "The [philosophy] now is no one who passes the UPCAT shall be denied a UP education just because of financial constraints. Kung kailangan niya ng pamasahe from his home province to UP, we should be able to provide him that," he said.

But this remains too good to be true and unless these issues are addressed, the STFAP has yet to prove its worth. For instead of serving the students, it has functioned for the benefit of the government against the backdrop of decreasing number of beneficiaries and valueless stipends.

One can safely say, now, with hindsight, that the danger student leaders before had cautioned us against has its justification.