Youth Partylist scores CHED-COCOPEA-Malacanang conspiracy to remove tuition cap
Students call for moratorium on tuition and other fee increases
The Kabataan Partylist and the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) today condemned what it called a “grand conspiracy” of officials of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to suspend the implementation of CHED memorandum order no. 14 and subsequent amendments CMO 42 and CMO 7 which provide for a cap on tuition and other fee increases based on the prevailing national inflation rate.
“CHED Chairman Carlito Puno’s unilateral and shameless act shows the commission’s subservience and capitulation to strong pressure from school owners even at the expense of students. This only proves that CHED is toothless and merely functions as a rubber stamp for school owners’ business interests,” Kabataan Partylist president Raymond Palatino pointed out.
“Puno’s unilateral move is a ‘policy regression’ which effectively revokes hard-won amendments to CHED’s policy on tuition hikes that seek to regulate the unabated school fee hikes since the implementation of the original CHED memorandum 13 in 1998.”
Palatino said the timing of the release of Puno’s memorandum last February 20 is questionable as it came out in the middle of tuition consultations in various private schools which are set to end on February 28.
He said the suspension of CMO 14 came after COCOPEA’s meeting with President Arroyo a week before February 20.
He added Kabataan Partylist and NUSP were able to get a copy of COCOPEA’s advisory to its members, also dated February 20, which states the following:
“Please be advised that after a meeting COCOPEA had with president Macapagal-Arroyo last week, the President took the initiative to order the creation of a review team…The review will also cover CHED memorandum orders no. 7, series of 2007; no. 42, series of 2006; and no. 14, series of 2005. Hence, the suspension of these CMOs.”
“This proves that Arroyo had a hand in the suspension of CMO 14 few days before the end of the consultations for tuition and other fee increase proposals.”
Palatino warned that the suspension of CMO 14 and the re-implementation of CMO 14 will not only sow confusion among students but can and in fact is now being used by school owners to increase tuition beyond the inflation rate.
He said the re-implementation of CMO 13 effectively removes the cap on tuition hikes based on the national inflation rate and the inclusion of miscellaneous fees among the items that require student consultation.
He added that Kabataan Partylist and NUSP already received reports from the student councils and organizations in University of the East (UE), Trinity University of Asia and Philippine School for Business and the Arts (PSBA) that their school administrators, after the release of Puno’s memorandum, are now proposing a bigger percentage rate for tuition and miscellaneous fee hikes that is beyond the inflation rate.
“We can’t help but compare these shameless efforts of school owners such as the COCOPEA to the audacious move made by big pharmaceuticals
to block the passage of the cheaper medicine bill. Unfortunately, Arroyo and CHED appear to be willing accomplices to this grand scheme to rake in bigger profits out of students’ pockets.”
Palatino pushed for a freeze on all tuition and other fee hike proposals for the coming school year pending the release of the findings of the commission on the CMO 14 review.
“The government should implement a moratorium on tuition and other fee hikes to avoid a repeat of the collection of illegal tuition and miscellaneous fee increases last year. Private schools and CHED should first settle the issues over the illegal implementation of tuition and other fee hikes this school year under the agency’s memorandum order no. 14 before approving proposals for another round of school fee increases. Implementing an obsolete CMO 13 will only make matters worse.”
“If the Arroyo government said it can lower the electricity rate, why can’t it do the same for tuition and other fee increases?”
Meanwhile, Palatino called on senatorial aspirants to join the students’ clamor for an end to unabated tuition and other fee increases and an immediate investigation on the suspension of CMO 14.
“This will be the best opportunity for them to prove to us that they are really for the youth and they are running to defend and uphold the interest of young Filipinos particularly to education.”
Last February 20, CHED Chairman Carlito Puno released a new memorandum informing all higher education institutions that CMO 14 and all amendments thereto have been suspended “pending review by the commission.” In lieu of CMO 14, the memo provides that CMO 13 is to be used for all tuition increase proposals for AY 2007-2008.