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BY RESEL JOY TIANERO
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Thursday, May 11, 2017
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ILOILO City – Free tuition but with conditions?
Militant youth groups denounced what it called a “free tuition hoax” during a protest in front of the Iloilo provincial capitol yesterday.
They specifically targeted the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for coming up with implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the Duterte administration’s free tuition policy. They viewed the IRR as discriminatory.
CHED’s IRR sparked outrage from students decrying the preferential treatment for beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs), and leaving the rest to get benefits “according to their per capita household income.”
“We are disappointed,” said Bryan Bosque, chairperson of Anakbayan-Panay.
December last year, Congress passed a supplemental budget for the for the free tuition policy.
“Nakibot kita nga may conditions na,” said Bosque.
Also joining yesterday’s protest around 10:30 a.m. were the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Kabataan party-list.
Modeled after the University of the Philippines’ (UP) socialized tuition system (STS), protesters claimed the “free tuition” policy will only lead to more commercialization schemes.
Aya Primaylon, LFS-Panay spokesperson, said the IRR will further discriminate against poor students who will have a hard time complying with many requirements just to prove that they are indeed poor.
What they wanted, she said, was “genuine free education.”
Primaylon urged CHED and the Department of Budget and Management to review the IRR.
In Metro Manila, Anakbayan national secretary general Einstein Receides said the UP STS paved the way for the increase of tuition from P40 in 1989 to P1,500 per unit. Today, one in every 10 students apply for loans while and 3 out of 4 appeal for a lower bracketing under UP’s STS.
In 2015 alone, UP amassed P11.4 billion, which exposes the socialized tuition system as big money-making scheme, said Receides.
“The free tuition policy is a hoax that promises free tuition to iskolar ng bayan while implementing a socialized tuition system that actually siphons profits from students,” said Receides./PN
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