‘President can condone unpaid college tuition’
ILOILO City – President Rodrigo Duterte can condone the unpaid tuition fees of some 1,000 graduates of the Iskolar sang Quinto (ISQ) program at the Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College (NIPSC).
The provincial government of Iloilo cannot do anything to help the students but the President can, according to Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr.
The government agencies directly concerned were the Commission on Higher Education ( CHED), Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the office of incumbent Cong. Raul Tupas whose elder brother Niel Jr., the former congressman of the Iloilo’s 5th District, started the ISQ.
“Ang mabulig lang namon is persuasion. Wala kami poder sina. This is beyond the ambit of the statutory obligations or
mandate of the provincial government of Iloilo,” said Defensor.
The provincial government, however, can help bring the problem to the President’s attention.
A total of 27,892 students were grantees of the ISQ program and nearly 1,000 of them – already graduates – could not get their transcript of records due to unpaid tuition fees reaching P74.7 million.
This was not students’ fault, stressed the governor.
“Kabay pa makalab-ot ini sa I suggested to (Cong.) Boboy igtalupangod sang Presidente. ( Tupas) audience nga mangayo sya DBM CHED.
kay indi madisponehan President sang kag Pero kon condone ang magdesisyon said Defensor. nga i- n’ya , waay na It is not fair for the students problema,” who were misled into believing their tuitions would be shouldered by the government, he added.
Nag- enroll on the assumption “sila and entitled to the benefits of nga iskolar sila the program nga ginpatigayun former congressman Jun-jun Tupas.
ni But the long Ang problema daw wala and short of this, man ma-releasan…
graduate indi sala sang Defensor said. mga bata nga maka- na Without their transcript sila,” of records some 1,000 ISQ graduates in NIPSC could not apply to take board exams.
suggestion, “Ang akon President and beg the President, tinguhaan niya nga makigkita sa convince the President condone
nga kun pwede ma- na lang na said Defensor./ ang balayran sa eskwelahan,”