I think this is not the way things should be. If this bill is enacted into Law, UP education may really suffer. We never learn!

Please read on...PDI 22 june 03



UP should have own income, says Drilon

SAYING the University of the Philippines should not have to beg for funds from the national government, Senate President Franklin Drilon Saturday pushed for amending the UP Charter to allow it to generate its own income.

Drilon said the move to change the "terribly outmoded" charter, which had been enacted in 1908, was gaining ground in the Senate after the committee on education unanimously passed Senate Bill 2587, which authorizes the state university to generate income from its idle lands.

In a speech read for him at the Bahay ng Alumni at the UP, where he was conferred the "Most Outstanding Alumnus" award by the UP Alumni Association, Drilon said, "The times call for a review of the charter to ensure that UP will be more responsive and sensitive to the needs of the people in these modern times."

Senator Francis Pangilinan, who chairs the 15-member Senate committee on education, arts and culture, is the principal sponsor of the bill.

UP students and employees said the provision may lead to the "commercialization of education," and eventually to the sale of UP to private companies.