DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 16, 2013) – The League of Filipino students has criticized the Commission on Higher Education for its failure to address the unabated increase in tuition fees in the Philippines.
Rendell Ryan Cagula, coordinator for the League of Filipino Students in Davao City, also deplored the statement of CHED Region XII Director Raul Alvarez, who said that students were “barking up the wrong tree” when they appealed to the agency to stop the tuition fee increases.
Alvarez told the students that they should express their dissent to their respective schools.
“This only attests the inutility of CHED that should, as mandated, to regulate the collection of tuition and matriculation fees,” Cagula said.
LFS questions the new CHED Memorandum Order 3 which contains guidelines governing tuition and other fees increases.
“We question this new CMO 3, particularly provision stating the presence of the CHEDRO representative may depend upon the request of the school. The absence of any CHED Representative in the process has allowed the proliferation of ‘bogus’ consultation processes that go under the sleeves of CHED which rely solely on the documents submitted to their office,” said Cagula.
Last March 12, students from various schools in Davao City protested in front of the office of the CHED office and called for a halt on the incessant tuition hikes.
“CHED has taken a grim role in the rising cost of education. The youth remember how CHED allowed over 200 schools to increase collection on tuition fee for the present academic year, and how this has been done unabatedly for years” Cagula said.
Citing the report of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, it said for over a decade, the average tuition rate has increased over 108.35% from P257.41 per unit in 2001 to P536.31 per unit in 2012.
“CHED should take side on this issue and protect the rights the youth to accessible education. However, Alvarez’s statement speaks otherwise,” Cagula said.
LFS said it will carry out bigger rallies to protest CHED’s failure to stop tuition fee hikes.
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