President inks measure despite concern by budget exec that subsidy is too costly

  MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into a law a bill that provides free tuition for students of the Philippines' 112 state universities and colleges (SUCs). This despite concerns by economic and budget officials that subsidizing tuition in SUCs would be costly. The proposed national budget for next year does not have provisions for free tuition for SUCs but Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra said adjustments can be made during congressional deliberations on the outlay. Guevarra said in a press briefing on Friday that Duterte signed the bill after meeting with lawmakers and economic managers Thursday night in Malacañang. Senators led by Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, who authored the bill, welcomed the signing of the free tuition bill into law. The measure was passed by Congress last May and was transmitted to the Office of the President on July 5. Republic Act (RA) 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act gives full tuition subsidy to students in SUCs, local universities and colleges (LUCs), and state-run technical-vocational schools. Also covered by RA 10931 are "library fees, computer fees, laboratory fees, school ID fees, athletic fees, admission fees, development fees, guidance fees, handbook fees, entrance fees, registration fees, medical and dental fees, cultural and other similar or related fees." The law also gives subsidies or stipend for poor students and establishes a student loan program while students in SUCs and LUCs who can afford to pay for their tuition to choose not to avail of the subsidy through a mechanism to be formulated by the state schools. Guevarra said Duterte believed that the benefits of RA 10931 outweigh the funding challenges mentioned by Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno in a meeting with legislators on Wednesday. Diokno said: "We estimate that the cost of this bill, it will cost us something around 100 billion pesos. The government cannot afford that", adding that only middle and upper-class students would benefit from the scheme because "only 12 percent of the poor" get to study in SUCs and LUCs. But opposition lawmakers said the subsidy will only amount to between 15 and 25 billion pesos. Meanwhile, Diokno said the free tuition will be implemented in the first semester of school year 2018-2019. In a Malacanang press briefing, Diokno said: "The law is forward looking. It cannot be applied retroactively. Hence, in the immediate term we're talking of academic year 2018-2019—strictly speaking, the first semester of academic year 2018-2019." "My immediate concerns are those enrolled in the 114 SUCs. There should be no expansion in student population. The estimate has to be preceded by the number of predetermined student who are chosen, say 'X,' on the basis of a nationwide test administered by the Commission on Higher Education. Unless we know 'X,' we can't give an estimate." He also said adjustments have to be made in the 2018 budget now that the free tuition bill is already a law. 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