WHY THIS FACULTY REGENT DOES NOT SUPPORT
TUITION FEE INCREASES
by
Roland G. Simbulan
Professor and Faculty Regent
University of the Philippines System
Last March 30, 2006, the
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in an en banc
Resolution No. 208 directed all state colleges and
universities in the country not to increase tuition and
miscellaneous fees for Academic Year 2006-2007. The reason
given in the CHED resolution and subsequent press release
for disallowing tuition fee increases was "to make higher
education more accessible to a greater number of Filipino
college students" in the wake of the spiraling inflation
brought about by the effects of the oil price hikes and the
implementation of the 12% Expanded Value Tax. Because I
believe that U.P. students and their parents are not immune
from these spiraling costs/inflation given as the reason for
the tuition moratorium by CHED and that they must not suffer
the added calvary of tuition fee hikes, I vigorously opposed
the proposed tuition and laboratory fee increase of the
College of Medicine.
I have been made to
understand that U.P. is not under CHED and is exempted from
CHED directives especially in the case of accreditation,
monitoring and evaluation of academic programs. U.P. is one
of the largest beneficiaries of CHED graduate fellowships
and scholarships. Do we apply CHED directives to the
premier state university only when it suits us? CHED is
organically linked with the University of the Philippines
because whoever is the Chair of CHED sits as the presiding
Chair of the U.P. Board of Regents.
In these times of
national economic crisis that is further complicated by a
continuing political standoff, parents and students should
not be further burdened with another round of increases in
tuition, laboratory and miscellaneous fees.
My position however,
is not an absolute rejection of any tuition fee hikes in
the future especially in our graduate programs where most
students are already professionals who are earning income.
Perhaps we should also revisit the Socialized Tuition Fee
Program(STFP) of U.P. so that students from low income
families are not made to pay more just because they use cell
phones. My position is that if you are a U.P. student
coming from a wealth family living in an exclusive enclave
like Forbes, Dasmarinas, Ayala Alabang, to name a few, then
you rightly deserve to pay adjusted tuition comparable to
those paid by students at Ateneo and De La Salle
University. But we should give our people, namely parents
and students, a respite or relief from the spiraling cost of
living that has hard hit most of the nation's poor,
including middle class families. But at the very root of
these "revenue-generating initiatives" including the
"privatization of services" even among government agenices
providing basic social services like education and health,
is the lesser priority given by the state to these basic
social services while the budget for foreign debt service
and the military and police establishments continue to
increase.
Most Filipino families
are already suffering the double whammy of successive oil,
gas, LPG price increases and the inflationary impact of the
expanded value added tax. Because of the wide gap between
the minimum wage and the cost of living, many urban and
rural families are suffering a disparity or income
shortfall. 8 out of 10 families or some 83% of the
country's families are now classified as poor, based on the
January 2006 national average daily cost of living for a
family of six of P 654.96 and the 2003 Family Income and
Expenditures Survey (FIES). The daily minimum wage in
MetroManila is P325 (275 legislated wage plus P 50.
emergency cost of living allowance). If the international
poverty measurement counting those living under $ 2. a day
as poor is used, then over 87% of the country's families are
poor. The impact is so economically traumatic that it is
pushing most and more Filipinos and their children out in
the streets homeless, begging and unemployed.
U.P. officials like to
show statistics before Congress during budgetary hearings
that most U.P. students still come from the nation's poor
and lower middle class. In the case of the U.P. College of
Medicine, the income profile of their students show that 50%
are said to belong to families whose gross incomes
are below P 400,000. a year, according to U.P.
Manila statistics provided to us.
May I also use this
occasion to challenge the Iskolar ng Bayan and the alumni of
the University of the Philippines to selflessly dedicate
their lives and professions in the service of the nation so
that this country and its people can liberate itself from
the morass of mass poverty and social inequality. Once you
graduate from this great University, you should prove that
the Filipino people did not make a mistake in investing
their hard-earned money in your education. Your teachers
and professors too, with their measly salaries and
allowances, have invested a lot for your U.P. education. As
U.P. Diliman Chancellor Sergio Cao stated during the recent
2006 Commencement Exercises, "U.P. did not train you to be
exported abroad." We hope that when the time comes, you
will join the ranks of the excellent liberators of this
country, and not the ranks of its corrupt oppressors who are
a disgrace to our University's values and principles.
The battle against
further tuition fee increases has begun and will continue,
and I hope to have your support for the sake of the Iskolar
ng Bayan. I dread the day when U.P. will become a school
mainly for the children of rich families and will not
anymore be accessible to the nation's poor namely the
peasants, workers, urban poor and our indigenous peoples.
April 28, 2006
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