The University of the Philippines (UP) System suffered a staggering P2.076-billion budget cut following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signing of the 2025 General Appropriations Act on Dec. 30, 2024.
This is the largest budget slash for the state university in two decades.
The P6.35 trillion national budget was initially set to be enacted into law on Dec. 20, 2024, but Marcos deferred its signing by year-end, citing the need for a “thorough review” of Congress’ proposed allocations.
UP’s 2025 budget stands at P22.69 billion, an 8.38% decrease from last year’s P24.77 billion.
Read: An increase with setbacks: A look into the UP System’s 2024 budget
UP’s locally funded projects are especially affected by a nearly P2.9-billion reduction
While the funds for the Philippine General Hospital, which is covered by UP’s budget, increased from P4.96 billion in 2024 to P5.01 billion in 2025, the allocation for their Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) program dropped to P549.8 million from P633.8 million last year.
The MAIP program provides indigent patients access to health facilities in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and has experienced a continuous decrease in funding, amounting to nearly P300 million since 2023.
Meanwhile, the overall budget for capital outlays (CO) has plunged sharply to P431.52 million — an almost 90% decline from last year’s P3.1 billion.
CO is typically used to maintain, upgrade, and acquire the university’s capital assets, including buildings, facilities, research equipment, and other essential resources.
This marks UP’s lowest budget for CO since 2012, which could significantly affect the completion of the university’s key infrastructure projects.
In 2023, the Commission on Audit’s (COA) Audit Report of the UP system revealed that P2.47 billion worth of infrastructure projects, funded between 2016 and 2021, remain unfinished due to “numerous suspension orders, time extensions, and changes in plans, designs, and specifications.”
Currently, renovations in UP Diliman’s (UPD) Palma Hall, restoration of UP Manila’s Lara Hall, and the completion of dormitories for graduate students in UP Los Baños are some of the university’s pending infrastructure projects.
COA added that UP had P3.34 billion unutilized funds in 2023.
The agency also flagged UP a total of P27.87 billion for deficiencies in investment of allotments, trust funds, and foreign-assisted funds.
These funds were exhausted for Investment Management Agreements and time deposits which COA deemed non-compliant with regulations governing the use of public funds.
COA said the university failed to provide clear details on how the interest income generated from these investments was used. It remains unclear which specific programs, projects, or activities benefited from these funds.
In 2022, the agency had already flagged the university for over P15 billion worth of investments which UP refuted.
“We respectfully disagree with the COA’s statement that there is a lack of transparency in the placement of these funds as these placements have gone through proper and complete documentation and approval,” UP Vice President for Planning and Finance Iryn Balmores said in a press release.
Various groups and economic experts criticized the 2025 national budget for not granting the education sector the highest allocation, despite Malacañang’s assertion that education remains a “top priority” for the Marcos administration.
Under the 1987 constitution, the education sector shall be assigned the highest budgetary priority.
“A fundamental flaw is that the 2025 budget is unconstitutional because it’s the first budget ever that did not allocate the lion’s share to the education sector,” UPD School of Economics assistant professor JC Punongbayan said in an opinion piece.
Despite being not traditionally included, the education sector budget now covers the Philippine Military Academy, Philippine National Police Academy, and National Defense College of the Philippines, among others.