FROM the middle of this week until Friday, various mobi-lizations and community programs will be held in most of the country’s state colleges and universities (SUC/SCU) to protest the dwindling budget allocation to our public tertiary system. It is alarming since in a span of only 12 years, state subsidy has shrunk from around 87.7 percent to only 65.6 percent of the budget of these institutions. It is also worrying since President Benigno Aquino 3rd himself, in his budget message this year, said that his government is “gradually reducing the subsidy to SUCs to push them toward becoming self-sufficient and financially independent, given their ability to raise their income and to utilize it for their programs and projects.”