Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 3) — The government owes state universities and colleges as well as their local counterparts around ₱6 billion under the free tertiary education law due to the rise in the number of enrollees during the academic year 2022-2023.
Sen. Chiz Escudero, chairman of the Committee on Higher, Technical, and Vocational Education, raised this problem during Thursday’s Kapihan sa Senado media forum.
Nagtaas kasi ang enrollment noong natapos ang pandemya, eh, so ‘yung projection ng DBM (Department of Budget and Management), eh, kulang, so may balanse, humigit-kumulang ₱6 billion ang kulang na dapat bayaran diumano sabi ng mga SUCs (state universities and colleges) at LUCs (local) sa DBM,” Escudero said.[Translation: Enrollment rose after the pandemic so the projection of the DBM is insufficient so there’s a balance, around ₱6 billion should be paid, that’s what SUCs and LUCs told DBM.]Basically, ito, roughly 50% of SUCs and LUCs exceeded the budgetary allocation of the number of students covered by free tertiary education, 50% followed the budget,” he said.Escudero said another problem looms now that the education institutions are expected to hike tuition following the end of the moratorium.He already told DBM and the Commission on Higher Education to study what should be done to resolve the issue.Dahil kung magtaas ng tuition ang mga SUCs at LUCs magkakanda-gulo-gulo na naman ‘yung budget na i-a-allocate namin para sa libreng tuition para sa SUCs at LUCs,” he said.[Translation: If SUCs and LUCs will increase tuition, there will be a problem in the budget allocation for the free tuition of SUCs and LUCs.]May cap ba dapat ‘yan o wala? Pwede bang mag-cap ang gobyerno sa babayaran lamang sa kada estudyante? Kung ‘yung itinaas na tuition ng SUCs at LUCs hindi binayaran ng gobyerno sa ilalim ng Free Tertiary Education Act, pwede ba nilang singilin ‘yun sa estudyante?” he asked.
