On January 10, 2014, I attended Kapekonomiya, hosted by the UP School of Economics. This year, they tackled the Land Use Plan of UP Diliman as presented by Prof. Alonzo and Prof. Taguiwalo. They presented contrasting views on the current land use of UP. For Prof. Alonzo, privatization of non-earning services and lands of UP is beneficial and at times, even necessary to prevent the loss of viable UP funds. It is also vital for resource generation, the goal the President himself wants the SUC's to achieve. For Prof. Taguiwalo, there is not enough evidence to show what the university is earning from Ayala Land versus what Ayala Land is earning from us. Thus the benefits of privatization have yet to be seen.

In my opinion, there are several questions that needed to be answered. First, as Prof. Taguiwalo has said, who benefits most from tertiary education? Isn't it the person himself and not society? Thus, it should not really be taken as a responsibility of the government like basic education which enables everyone to be useful members of society. It should be seen as a privilege because honestly, tertiary education is not for everyone. Aside from the fact that many jobs really don't really require tertiary education, the need for "college graduates" have resulted to multiple below standard schools and colleges who in turn produce non-willing, non-competitive graduates. With the huge "college graduate" market, one has to take post-graduate or overseas education in order to stand out.

Next, should SUC's be income generating? Having established that tertiary education is not a responsibility of the government but a privilege given to those deserving of it, should the government force SUC's to provide for themselves? It is not as if the government is hurting for money. As Prof. Taguiwalo has said, this becomes a national issue of budget management. The Philippines has more than enough to provide for the SUC's but instead this budget goes into the luxury lifestyle of the chosen few.

Should we become income generating? Now that's a complicated issue. If we must generate income for our most basic necessities, as a public university, as the flagship University of the Country, then the government is not doing its job but if we generate income for say the improvement of our facilities in order to lean towards being a research university and being globally competitive then yes, it is the time for us to be smarter "business men" when it comes to handling the affairs of our university.