THE Polytechnic University of the Philippines will host the 8-8-8-8 complaint hotline that the government created to entertain the complaints of citizen.
PUP president Emanuel De Guzman said the university will not likely get any financial remuneration for the project but they will accept the invitation to show support for the Duterte administration.
“It might be done in our call center facility. We will be the one to receive, process, evaluate, and throw [the messages] to concerned agencies in the government,” De Guzman told the Manila Standard.
Aside from the 8-8-8-8 hotline, Duterte had earlier ordered the replacement of the 1-1-7 emergency line to 9-1-1 which will be linked to the Nationwide Emergency Response Center.
“I said to them that even though the PUP will not profit, it’s okay,” he said.
The PUP is state university founded on Oct. 19, 1904 as the Manila Business School. It is now the largest university in the country in terms of geographical reach and student population, which has an estimated 80,000 students as of 2015.
The PUP has been supportive of the Duterte administration with De Guzman leading around 5,000 students, faculty members, employees and indisenous people in a solidarity walk during Duterte’s first State of the Nation Address last July 25.
But De Guzman admitted that it is also seeking a higher budget for all state universities and colleges in the country.
“It is a demand for higher budget, but at the same time, we are also proposing to subsidize SUCs to the point that nothing will be paid by students,” he explained.
The university president said they are proposing a P3 million budget “so there will be no more tuition” for PUP students, but maintained that there is still no response from the administration about this concern.
“It is clear in the PUP banner (during the SONA). The PUP community stands for free education,” he said.