The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) owes state universities and colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs) P6 billion for the academic year 2022-2023, a senator said this Thursday.
According to Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, DBM’s budget projection fell short when the number of enrollees increased after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The SUCs and LUCs, on the other hand, exceeded the budget allocation for free tertiary education or Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UniFAST) when they accepted more students.
“Basically, ito, roughly 50 percent of SUCs and LUCs exceeded the budgetary allocation of the number of students covered by Free Tertiary Education [Act], 50 percent followed the budget,” said Escudero.
“Ipe-penalize ba natin iyong masunurin at hahayaan natin iyong hindi sumunod at babayaran natin na parang wala lang? O tuturuan natin ng kaunting leksyon at aral, na hindi naman puwedeng gawin ‘yan dahil hindi sustainable ‘yan?” the senator asked.
“Hindi pwedeng walang hangganan ang pagpasok ng mga estudyante sa inyong mga eskwelahan dahil lamang mas gusto ninyo na makakuha ng mas malaking alokasyon ng budget mula sa Free Tertiary Education Act,” he added.
According to Escudero, unlike public schools in basic education, students cannot simply accept SUCs and LUCs because they have an entrance exam.
DBM owes P6 billion to state and local universities, colleges: Escudero
He has also instructed the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and DBM to study what to do next at the end of this year’s moratorium for the tuition increase of SUCs and LUCs, per UniFAST.
“Dahil kung magtaas ng tuition ang mga SUCs at LUCs, magkakanda-gulo-gulo na naman ‘yong budget na ia-allocate namin para sa libreng tuition para sa SUCs at LUCs,” said Escudero.
According to the lawmaker, CHED needs an additional P4 billion to fund the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) program, which provides financial assistance to areas that do not have public universities and colleges.
For the year 2023, CHED will not accept new TES applicants due to a lack of budget.
As of the end of March 2023, the total outstanding debt of the National Government (NG) was P13.86 trillion. The net issue of domestic and overseas debt raised NG’s total outstanding debt by P104.15 billion, or 0.8%, from the previous month.
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