President Rodrigo Duterte has already signed into law the bill providing free tuition for state universities and colleges (SUCs), Malacanang said Friday.
Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra made the announcement despite the staunch opposition from economic managers, saying that it might be too costly for the government.
"Free tuition for SUCs is a strong indication of the President's social policy. The long term benefits for tertiary education for the citizenry will outweigh any shorterm budgetary requirements [that we will have.] If there is a will, there is a way," Guevarra told reporters during the Bangon Marawi forum at Conrad Hotel.
"Under that bill, which is now a Republic Act, Congress has to find a way to fund free SUC education — that is for them to find out," he added.
Other school fees however, will not be covered by the bill, Guevarra said.
Both houses of Congress ratified the final version of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act in May, which will provide full tuition subsidy for students in 112 SUCs, local universities and colleges, and state-run technical-vocational schools. The bill meanwhile, was submitted for President Duterte's signature last July 5 and was endorsed as an enrolled bill.
Unlike the 2017 budget, the proposed 2018 national budget does not have the P8 billion allocated for free higher education in SUCs.
Guevarra said that a "reallocation" maybe done to fund the bill — sources may include official devt assistance, donations and local international funding.
Subsidies for higher education would likewise be taken from the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFast), he added.
Economic managers earlier said that subsidizing tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs) will be too costly, adding that the government cannot afford the budget requirements of the tuition bill.
"It was not in the 2018 budget of the President. In the absence of any law, we cannot appropriate money for free tuition," Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said during the House Committee on Appropriations hearing.
CHED Commissioner Prospero de Vera however, dismissed the claim of the DBM that it would be difficult to absorb the P100-billion budget allocation to foot the free college education of SUCs students.
By ChEd's appreciation, the bill, if enacted into law, would only need a P34.1-billion budget.
“Based on our estimate, the four core parts of the law, if implemented, would entail an additional budget of P34.1 billion, and not P100 billion,” he said.
