PRIOR TO the approval of its approximate Php 2 million first-semester budget on October 28, the Sanggunian revised budget allocations to prioritize student subsidies, advocacy events, and other student-centered initiatives. 

Coordinating Unit for Budget and Management Coordinator John Victor Detablan explained that the adjusted budget prioritizes essential over supplementary expenses. Apart from this, he stressed the need for changes in the current budgeting system to ensure the Sanggunian remains fiscally responsible.  

Reassessing priorities

Amid efforts to manage limited resources, Detablan argued that the effectiveness of the budget allocation depends less on size and more on the commitment to carry out projects.

“[I]t boils down to the execution of the projects. If a project is not executed, then no budget would be used for it,” Detablan explained. He further emphasized the importance of trusting each Sanggunian unit’s decisions, noting that they know their constituents best.

To boost transparency, Detablan underscored the need to develop a budgeting system that can evaluate the necessity of the funding requests across all Sanggunian projects. 

In evaluating budget requests, he further emphasized that the Sanggunian must have clear and measurable metrics to ensure that limited funds are maximized and that the student government’s projects remain efficient and responsive to student needs.

Expounding on the Sanggunian’s ongoing efforts, Dr. Rosita G. Leong School of Social Sciences (RGLSOSS) Representative Giorgia Orda noted that the student government is working to address the backlog of subsidies from previous terms through the proposed Budget Minimums Adjustments Act.

This Act seeks to set a fixed aggregated minimum allocation for subsidy programs and facilitate the timely release of pending funds. Unlike previous laws that set separate mandatory minimums for each subsidy, the proposal consolidates them under a total amount of Php 500,000 for all Mental Health Subsidy (MHS), Sanggunian Academic Subsidy (SAS), and Resource Partnership Program (RPP) appropriations.

As of writing, there are no updates regarding the Act, following its first reading on August 12. However, Orda shared that, if passed, the Act would enable the Sanggunian to prioritize the disbursement of backlogged student subsidies.

Reframing systems

As the school Sanggunians adjusted their budget frameworks, both the RGLSOSS and School of Science and Engineering (SOSE) Sanggunians reconfigured their funding allocation to ensure more efficient and equitable fund distribution. 

Following the underutilization of last year’s budget, Orda said the RGLSOSS Sanggunian based this semester’s budget allocations on past spending.

She further explained that the RGLSOSS Sanggunian cut funds from internal events, including general assemblies, and reallocated these toward projects that benefit students, such as the Resource Partnership Program.

Due to budget adjustments, Orda remarked that a deeper evaluation of which projects effectively serve the student body was necessary, explaining that the semester’s budget was then tailored to initiatives that showed the “most value to the students.”

Similarly, SOSE Finance Head Anthony Deocadiz Jr. stated that they also recalibrated their projects to ensure that the Student Academic Subsidy (SAS), the school’s biggest initiative, would be least affected by the budget cuts. 

He stressed that further cuts to the SAS budget could leave students struggling financially, particularly for those who rely on subsidies as a key source of funding. In line with this, Detablan mentioned that the SOSE Sanggunian will prioritize thesis projects that “bridge science to the outside.”

In hopes of assessing their initiatives, Deocadiz Jr. outlined how the SOSE Sanggunian intends to maintain evaluation forms after each project to measure their tangible impact and to identify shortcomings in future implementations.

Priorities and perceptions

As the Sanggunian continues to develop initiatives that address constituent needs, Sophia* argued that prioritizing quality over quantity should remain a key aspect in program implementation. 

She stated that while the initiative and projects themselves may be excellent, the effectiveness and execution are constrained by their funding. 

Given these limitations, Sophia stressed that for students to maintain confidence in Sanggunian projects, the undergraduate community must feel that their voices are heard in decisions that concern them.

On the Sanggunian’s end, Orda acknowledged the difficulty in aligning initiatives with student needs. 

“[We] always keep the student body in mind in everything that we do, but […] we won’t really [know] what the student body needs until after the project is over,” she explained.

Nonetheless, with hopes of greater budget efficiency in the coming terms, Detablan expressed optimism that the Sanggunian will continue to “champion services” they can provide to the student body. 

*Editor’s Note: The name of the interviewee has been changed to protect their identity and privacy.