Free tuition for SUCs signed

- President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law the measure seeking to grant free tuition for state universities and colleges (SUCs), Malacañang said Friday.

In a press conference, Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra announced that Duterte signed on ThursDAVAO day, August 3, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act of 2017.

"Since many people have been waiting for the President’s action for the very important enrolled bill, which was passed by Congress last May, entitled Universal Access

to Quality Tertiary Education, I’m pleased to announce that last night, August 3, 2017, the President signed into law the enrolled bill," Guevarra said.

Under the newly signed law, the government will shoulder the tuition fees, miscellaneous and all other mandatory fees of students in SUCS, local universities and colleges and state-run technical-vocational institutions.

Scholarship grants and an improved student loan program will also be granted to students of both public and private college and universities.

The measure, which was approved by Congress in May, reached the President's table on July 5.

Duterte was earlier urged to veto the law. The measure will lapse into law on Saturday, August 5, if he does not act on it.

Guevarra said Duterte took the time to decide because of the bill’s “heavy budgetary implication” but free tertiary education was “a very strong pillar or cornerstone of the President’s social development policy.”

Duterte's economic managers recently expressed concern that the government could not afford to subsidize tuition in SUCs, which was estimated at P100 billion.

Guevarra said Duterte's meeting with his economic managers and several lawmakers on Tuesday night convinced him to pass the measure into law.

"So he [Duterte] weighed everything and came to the conclusion that the long-term benefits that will be derived from a well developed tertiary education on the part of the citizenry will definitely outweigh any short-term budgetary challenges," he said.

Asked how the government would fund the free tuition for SUCs, Guevarra said Official Development Assistance was among the possible sources of funding.

Guevarra added that the government was also expecting that both local and international sectors would help in the first few years for the effective implementation of the law.

"Under the law itself, there are other sources of funding for this SUC free tuition program, and Official Development Assistance is one of the possible sources,” he said.

"We are also hoping that donations both from the local and international sectors will come in to help us over time, especially in the first few years of the implementation of this program," he added.

The signing of the free tuition fee bill into law was welcomed by labor group Associated Labor Unions (ALU), saying children of working parents will be among those who shall directly benefit from the measure.

In a statement, ALU spokesman Alan Tanjusay said they laud the actions of lawmakers and Duterte as this will unburden the students' parents, who are unable to finance the tuition fees of their children.

"This is very good news to poor college and vocational students, who were forced to stop studying because of inadequate daily wage of their working parents and rising cost of living," said Tanjusay.

He added that giving the around 1.2 million college and vocational students from poor families the chance to finish their studies will bode well for the whole family in the future.

"Poor students now have the opportunity to help lift the family out of poverty," said Tanjusay. (With HDT/SunStar Philippines) about possible anticompetitive conduct in various industries to date, three of which had already advanced to a preliminary inquiry and subsequently progressed to full administrative investigation. SunStar Philippines