25 Lawmakers Want UP Tuition Hike Probed, Halted

House Resolution No. 245 directs the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education to investigate the effects of the recent increase in tuition and other fees at the country’s premier state university.

BY AUBREY MAKILAN
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 33, September 23-29, 2007

At least 25 members of the House of Representatives have demanded an investigation into the recent hike in tuition and other fees at the University of the Philippines (UP), the country’s premier state university. The UP Board of Regents (BOR) approved a 300-percent increase in tuition and miscellaneous fees during its 1,216th meeting on Dec. 15, 2006.

Authored by Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, House Resolution (HR) No. 245 directs the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education to investigate the effects of the recent increase in tuition and other fees at UP.

Casiño said that the increase from P300 to P1,000 ($6.62 to $22.07, based on an exchange rate of P45.31 per US dollar) per unit “has brought about a major contradiction to UP’s role in providing quality, relevant and accessible education to the Filipino youth,” citing unconfirmed reports of a drop of enrolment figures. The increase was imposed in the first semester of Academic Year 2007-2008 for incoming first-year students.

Those who supported HR 245 are Reps. Satur Ocampo (Bayan Muna), Luzviminda Ilagan and Liza Maza (Gabriela Women’s Party), Crispin Beltran (AnakPawis), Ma. Laarni Cayetano (Taguig City-Pateros) , Joel Villanueva (Cibac), Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (Leyte), Guillermo Cua (Coop-Natcco) , Jeffrey Ferrer (Negros Occidental), Arnulfo Fuentebella (Camarines Sur), Ronaldo Zamora (San Juan City), Rene Velarde and William Tieng (Buhay), Marcelino Teodoro (Marikina City), Paul Daza (Northern Samar), Niel Tupas Jr. (Iloilo), Rommel Amatong (Compostela Valley), Mujiv Hataman (Anak Mindanao), Lorenzo Tañada III (Quezon), Antonio Del Rosario (Capiz), Juan Edgardo Angara (Aurora), Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel (Akbayan) and Mary Ann Susano (Quezon City).

Student and youth groups sought Casiño’s help for a House investigation. UP Diliman University Student Council Chair Shahana Abdulwahid earlier said that the UP students’ battle is being fought in all fronts, even in Congress. She said that they intend to gather support from legislators to stop the increase next semester pending a comprehensive review of its effects on enrolment.

At the height of the campaign, the Students and Parents Against the Rising Cost of Education – UP (SPARE-UP) was formed to consolidate their concerns and actions.

HB 245

Citing Art. XIV, Secs. 1 and 2 of the 1987 Constitution, the HR 254 proponents stressed, “The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all” and “the State shall establish, maintain, and support a complete, adequate, and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and society.” These provisions, according to them, are the reason for the establishment of state universities and colleges (SUCs) like UP.

Casiño expressed concern over initial reports gathered by the UP Office of the Student Regent (OSR) and the Philippine Collegian on UP College Admission Test (UPCAT) qualifiers who have decided to enroll in other tertiary schools due to the high tuition at UP.

Based on the reports, he said that UPCAT qualifiers who declined enrollment in UP, also known as no-show rates, were 42 percent in UP Los Baños, 65 percent in UP Iloilo, 48.5 pecent in UP Tacloban and 49 percent in UP Manila ’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Even in the Diliman main campus, he said that there were cases of zero enrolment in some courses in the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) and as much as 50 percent below turn-out of freshmen enrollees in courses like Bachelor in Music and Bachelor in Fine Arts. Even popular courses, he said, like BS Business Administration and BS Business Administration and Accountancy have registered low turn-out rates of 44 percent and 54 percent, respectively.

Casiño also aimed to investigate the UP administration for allegedly not showing "transparency in providing its stakeholders, particularly the Student Regent, student councils, campus journalists and even Congress with the relevant data on the impact of the tuition and other fee increases.”

He said that parents and students are still puzzled on the rationale and process that led to the approval of the tuition increase. “We maintain that UP, as a state university, must maintain its educational standards that are accessible to bright students, regardless of their economic status.”

HR 245 also called for corrective measures, particularly a halt to the implementation of the tuition increase, while the congressional inquiry is ongoing.

More tuition increases

Aside from UP, there were also other schools which have also increased tuition and other fees.

Alvin Peters, National Union of Students in the Philippines secretary-general said that Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST) increased tuition by 566 percent and the University of Northern Philippines in Vigan, Ilocos Sur which increased tuition from P75 to P100 ($1.66 to $2.21) per unit. Peters also recounted a Board of Regents’ proposal to increase tuition at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) from the existing P12 ($0.26) per unit to P100 ($2.21) per unit which was preempted by massive student protests.

“The trend of tuition and other fee increases in SUCs is an aggressive implementation of existing government policies on education,” he said. “What is therefore alarming is how the trend which has been set by the premier state university is becoming more pronounced as it becomes implemented in other SUCs around the country.”

He urged the Congress to reexamine and review existing education government policies such as the Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997 (Republic Act No. 8292), which allows governing boards of SUCs to increase tuition and other fees and enter into joint ventures with private corporations, and the Long Term Higher Education Development Plan 2001-2010, which he said essentially aims to lessen the state’s obligation to subsidize SUCs because these, in the end, “dictate the stepped up trend of commercialization of public higher education and spell the doom for the youth’s access to a college diploma.” Bulatlat