The Office of the Sectoral Regents stands in solidarity with various sectors and communities in today’s national people’s protest against poverty, corruption, and impunity (January 31, 2025). We raise our voices as one alongside the growing movement demanding accountability from the Marcos Jr. administration, which has callously funneled billions in confidential funds into the pockets of the ruling elite while millions of Filipinos suffer from skyrocketing prices of basic commodities.
Nagkakaisa din ang inyong Student Regent, Staff Regent, at Faculty Regent sa panawagang patalsikin si Vice President Sara Duterte dahil sa walang pakundangang pag-aabuso sa paggasta ng pondo ng bayan sa Office of the Vice President at sa Department of Education. We likewise demand the prosecution of former President Rodrigo Duterte for his brutal and bloody war on drugs and and for his relentless attacks against the political opposition.
We condemn how President Marcos Jr. has drastically cut funding for essential sectors, thereby crippling institutions that provide social services. The Department of Health lost ₱26 billion, while PhilHealth suffered a ₱74 billion reduction. The Department of Education faced a ₱12 billion budget cut, while the Commission on Higher Education had its funding slashed by ₱27 billion. The Department of Agriculture, which should be strengthening local food production, saw a ₱20 billion cut. Even the University of the Philippines, the country’s national university, suffered a ₱2.08 billion reduction—the largest in nine years.
In the face of the underfunding of these vital services, Marcos Jr.’s allies in Congress have inserted millions in discretionary allocations into a budget riddled with at least 14 blank pages, as exposed by Makabayan and other opposition legislators. Exacerbating these matters is the billions of pesos in confidential funds amassed by the Office of the President that can be vulnerable to abuse, especially with the 2025 midterm elections looming.
Despite the publicly projected political power struggles between the Marcos and Duterte camps, Marcos Jr. has refused to support impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte. He has openly dismissed the overwhelming evidence exposing Duterte’s misuse of public funds for dubious expenditures and justice remains elusive for the victims of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs and its vicious persecution of political opponents from 2016 to 2022. Rather than reversing these repressive policies, the Marcos Jr. administration has doubled down on political persecution, launching punitive attacks on democratic rights, academic freedom, and human rights defenders, all while shielding the police, military, and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) from accountability.
In the midst of these blatant abuse of power, we call on the entire University of the Philippines community to rise and resist the worsening state of poverty, corruption, and impunity in the country.
Let us stand together and demand genuine accountability, justice, and democratic rights for all.
MARCOS SINGILIN!
DUTERTE PANAGUTIN!