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BY RESEL JOY TIANERO
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Friday, February 24, 2017
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ILOILO City – Students want the government to carry out the free-tuition policy in state universities and colleges (SUCs) regardless of their financial status.
Protesters who joined the National Day of Action for Free Education outside the Iloilo provincial capitol ground on Bonifacio Drive yesterday urged the Duterte administration to implement the policy without conditions.
Anakbayan chairman Bryan Bosque lamented that the free-tuition rule applies only to “poor but deserving students.”
Congress allotted a “supplemental budget” to free “all SUC students” from tuition, but this “conditional provision” will defeat the very essence of the policy, the youth organization leader told Panay News.
Around 300 students from West Visayas State University, University of the Philippines Visayas, and Iloilo Science and Technology University joined the protest.
During deliberations on the 2017 budget in December last year, the Senate realigned P8.3 billion in the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) budget to cover the tuition of SUC students.
“That’s purely for tuition, that’s purely to remove tuition from the student expenses,” CHED chairwoman Patricia Licuanan told the press at the time. “We cannot spend that P8 billion on anything else except to compensate the schools for the fact that they can no longer charge tuition.”
CHED Region 6 chief education program specialist Rex Casiple favors relieving SUC students of tuition. He believes this will help “deserving” high school students continue their college education.
Financial problems prevent “almost one-half of deserving high school graduates” from pursuing college, Casiple told Panay News on Wednesday.
Right now CHED Region 6 is waiting for the implementing guidelines. “[Implementation] might [start] next school year, 2017-2018. Waay pa gani kami sang formula on how to implement,” said Casiple.
CHED is working with other government agencies for the guidelines on how to use the budget, Licuanan said last December.
“Logistically, it will be difficult,” she said. “How do you share, how do you divide up P8 billion with 113 SUCs (and the University of the Philippines)? What formula do you use?” (With PhilStar.com/PN)
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