[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’ Senators wary of opposition to free college tuition ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
MANILA – Members of the Senate minority bloc commended President Rodrigo Duterte for signing the law granting free tuition in public colleges and universities.
The bloc warned that any opposition – including from government economic managers – may derail the implementation.
Republic Act 10931, or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, provides free tuition and other fees for all students in state universities and colleges, local universities and colleges, and state-run technical-vocational schools.
“We laud the President’s decision to sign the law even when there was some hesitation from his economic managers,” said the bloc.
The challenge is “to ensure that the new law is effectively and completely implemented in 112 state colleges and universities nationwide,” it added.
The cooperation of Duterte’s economic managers is “crucial” in its effective enforcement, and the law – signed on Aug. 3 – may fulfill its promise only with enough and accessible funding, said Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon.
In the current General Appropriations Act, Congress allocated P8.3 billion in the Commission on Higher Education for tuition subsidy.
But the Department of Budget and Management removed provisions on free tertiary education in the proposed 2018 National Expenditures Program that Duterte submitted to Congress during his second State of the Nation Address.
“We hope that the economic managers would not bungle [this],” said the Ilonggo senator.
The bloc – comprising Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Leila de Lima, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Risa Hontiveros – said the executive branch and Congress “must work closely to make tertiary education accessible to all through tuition subsidies and financial assistance.”/PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
