PUP students rally vs 'illegal' fees

MANILA, Philippines - Students of the state-run Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) held a rally at their main campus in Manila yesterday, the first day of enrollment for incoming first year students, to protest the imposition of new and allegedly illegal miscellaneous fees.

Student regent Rommel Aguilar said an estimated 10,000 students will be affected by the new miscellaneous fees that were imposed reportedly without consulting students and parents – a physical education uniform fee of P350, a P150 medical exam fee, and a P35 accident insurance fee, amounting to a total of P535.

Aguilar stressed that all fee increases or the introduction of new fees in state universities or colleges (SUCs) must first be approved by their own Board of Regents. He stressed that none of the abovementioned fees have been approved by the PUP BOR.

According to the student leader, the fees would affect poor students and their parents.

“Every year, at least 32,000 high school graduates apply to PUP. The university is only able to accommodate at least 7,000 to 8,000 students due to lack of budget,” Aguilar said. “PUP is the country’s largest state university, hosting 68,000 students nationwide, most of them coming from low-income families.”

Aguilar slammed the Commission of Higher Education (CHED) and the Aquino administration for approving more than 400 tuition increase applications for this year and another budget cut for SUCs, respectively.

Abigail Lesaca, CHED information officer, however, denied there were already 400 or more colleges and universities that submitted their petitions for tuition hikes and which were approved by CHED regional offices.

Lesaca said all CHED regional offices have yet to submit all the lists of schools that had submitted such petitions.