PRESS RELEASE
June 13, 2011
MANILA — University students and other youths are bewailing soaring tuition and other fees at the college level a year under the administration of Noynoy Aquino, despite a last year promise by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) that State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) will not hike their tuition rates this year.
Clad in black, students from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of the Philippines, Philippine Normal University, as well as several high schools and private colleges, trooped to the CHED’s national office to blast its pursuance of a ‘pro-commercialization’ policy.
“A year into Noynoy’s office, the Filipino youth is still ‘paying’ for the education policies we have come to associate with former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo” said Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of Anakbayan.
Despite soaring prices of commodities and basic services such as transportation, the CHED allowed 281 universities to hike their tuition this year, including several SUCs such as the Pangasinan State University. Other schools have undertaken ‘creative schemes’ to charge students more, such as the UP’s STFAP.
“We would like to reiterate to the government: commercialization is not wonderful. By allowing schools to treat their tuition rates like the prices of other basic goods, they are effectively cutting off the access of many youths” said Crisostomo.
The head of the CHED, Patricia Licuanan, was recently quoted as saying that ‘commercialization (of education) is wonderful’. The youth leader pointed out however that commercialization, in the form of deregulated tuition and other fees, has resulted in the nationwide tuition average increasing to P501.22 per unit. A 20-unit semester, amounting to P10,024.4, is equivalent to 29 days’ earnings of the average Filipino (P341).
“Under a government that treats education as a commodity, instead of a right, we fear that more education budget cuts and continued deregulation of tuition fees are awaiting the Filipino youth along the ‘Daang Matuwid'” concluded Crisostomo.
Today’s protesters, under the multi-sectoral alliance Ugnayan ng Mamamayan para sa Karapatan sa Edukasyon (UMAKSYON), vowed to escalate their protests up to a nationwide class walkout before Aquino’s State of the Nation Address on July 25. ###
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SIR:
Magandang araw po sir. Sumulat po ako para humingi po sana ng tulong na magka-roon ako ng hanap-buhay. Sana po matulungan ninyo ako.
Ako po si ERNESTO A. SABIDO, binata at kasalukuyan naninirahan dito sa lunsod ng Tuguegarao , Cagayan Valley. Member po ako ng Handicapables Association of Tuguegarao city, suffering from orthopedic impairment due to poliomyelitis. Ito rin po ang dahilan kaya limitado lang ang puwede kong gawin sa paghahanap-buhay. Sa kasalukuyan wala po akong permanenting pinagkaka-kitaan. May earned units po ako ng Master in Business Admin sa University of Cagayan Valley sa tulong na rin ng kapatid ko sa ama pero hindi ko natapos dahil sa kakulangan ng pondo.
Nais ko po sana humingi ng tulong sa inyo na maka-pasok ako sa alin man ahensiya ng gobyerno kung saan po ako kwalipikado at kahit saan po ako ma- assign tatanggapin ko po ang mahalaga may matatag akong hanap-buhay na sasandalan ko at mabuhay ng normal. May civil service eligibility po ako. Nag file po ako ng application sa Human Rights Commission region-2 kay regional Director Atty. Jimmy Baliga this summer lang po.
Nagpapa-salamat po ako at umaasa na sana matutulungan ninyo ako. Alam ko po na nagbibigay po kayo ng tulong sa mga nangangailangan.Tatanawin ko po malaking utang na loob at asahan po na magiging mabuti po akong mamamayan. Pagpalain po kayo ng ating Poong Maykapal.