CAR state-run schools to hike tuition fees by 300%

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — State-run universities and colleges in the Cordillera region plan to increase tuition to P100 per unit and another 20 percent every year thereafter until the tuition rate per unit stands on P300/unit.

The recently approved proposal by the Cordillera Administrative Region Association of State Universities and Colleges (CARASUC) will take effect next school year.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines-Cordillera said, “the continuing decline of subsidy from the national government to the operations of SUCs is the culprit behind the increasing cost of public tertiary education.”

Last year when the CARASUC met, they justified this year’s hikes as “(a) vision of CAR SUCs to provide quality education to its constituents, however, the realization of this vision is facing a dilemma because of the continuing decrease in the MOOE (Maintenance and Other Operating Expenditures) subsidy and no appropriation for capital outlay for SUCs from the national government.”

There has been a P230 million budget cut from the budget of all 112 SUCs in the country for 2012.

 The allocation for Personal Services (PS) has been decreased by P403.3 million despite the supposed automatic increase in PS for each year due to the Salary Standardization Law. Like the previous years, there is no allotment for capital outlay (CO) or the funds for the construction of new facilities.

In the Cordillera region, there is a minimum eight percent cut in the PS. Among the SUCs in the region, an accumulated P79 million is slashed from their total budget.

“This trend merely manifests the orientation of education that Aquino has been pursuing,” Tracy Anne Dumalo, chairman of Anakbayan Cordillera said, adding, “it shows once again that he is no different from the anti-people president he has replaced.”