Senators back review of free tertiary education

MANILA, Philippines — Senators are supportive of the proposal to review the government’s free college education program, but not the reason of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno to have the scholarships reviewed for “being inefficient and wasteful.”

Sen. Sonny Angara, committee on youth chairman, believes the revisit is necessary to strike a balance and allow more funds to be allocated for students coming from poor families.

“I think we should review it with a view to making richer families pay. Multi-millionaire families should pay tuition so that more resources can go to support poorer families and students,” he said.

But for Sen. Francis Escudero, who chairs the education, arts and culture committee, the review should be focused more on other government programs.

“I don’t understand why Sec. Diokno is so stingy when it comes to investing in our country’s human capital and yet liberal and magnanimous when it comes to flood control, which hasn’t worked,” he countered.

Escudero pointed out that last year, about P181 billion was allocated for flood control “without having an impact on lessening flooding in different parts of the country.”

“If at all, it is this allocation that should be reviewed and revisited,” he stressed.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said the finance chief has a “very valid point” as he pointed out that “free college education should be for those who want to go to college, who have the aptitude to study in college and who can secure a competitive slot in college” as determined through a competitive examination.

Diokno is pushing for a review of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education (UAQTE) law, enacted by the Duterte administration, saying the current system is “unwieldy, inefficient and wasteful.”

Among other things, he wants a national competitive examination to qualify for college tuition subsidy.

But the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) in state universities and colleges or SUCs is opposing the proposal, saying efforts “to scrimp” on tertiary education subsidy appear “contemptuous of our Filipino youth.”

In a statement, ACT-SUCs said Diokno’s statements saying the UAQTE program strains the national budget were alarming, as the budget for the program “only totals… 0.83 percent of the 2023 national budget” and which has granted free college schooling to over two million students in SUCs.