Refund collected fees

Student leaders call on the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to immediately provide free education and refund all fees collected from students for the second semester of this academic year, pursuant to RA 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.

Around sixty student regents, trustees, councils and leaders from universities all over the country signed a unity statement.

"We call on the Commission on Higher Education to implement free education without further delay by fully terminating the collection of tuition and other school fees," the students said in the statement.

Based on reports gathered by the National Union of Students of the Philippines, a nationwide alliance of student councils, majority of state universities and colleges still charged miscellaneous fees from students for the second semester of Academic Year 2017-2018.

Free education is already overdue. This victory of the decades-long campaign and struggle of the Filipino youth is being tampered by the Duterte administration. Due to his insincerity to make public education more accessible to the youth, Duterte and CHED have been delaying the granting of free education to college students.

Continued collection of fees runs counter to the intent of free education. Worse, this maintains the grand scam in schools, that is, the earning of millions in profits from students through fees.

Steps were taken in both houses of Congress to press CHED to provide free college education immediately. All twenty-three senators signed the Senate resolution seeking for the swift implementation of RA 10931 and refund of collected fees.

In the House of Representatives, Hon. Sarah Elago of Kabataan Partylist filed House Resolution 1744 with the same intention.

In a luncheon meeting of free education advocates on February 20, student leaders from UP Diliman, UP Manila, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Technological University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University and University of Santo Tomas met with Senators Bam Aquino and Win Gatchalian, and representatives of other senators to forge unity in calling for the swift implementation of the free college education law.

Raoul Manuel Deputy Secretary General National Union of Students of the Philippines