State universities and colleges, and their local government-funded counterparts, should be empowered to take in more students, Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Prospero de Vera III said on Thursday.

In an interview with Daily Tribune, De Vera pointed out that public higher education institutions, or HEIs, can provide more Filipinos with a tertiary education if given the much-needed support.

De Vera said SUCS across the country can only accommodate less than half of the students qualified to be government scholars due to lack of facilities, among other things.

He noted that at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, or PUP, the admission rate vis-à-vis the number of applicants for free higher education has been only 15 to 20 percent against about 50 percent at other SUCs.

"That means many people want to study, but the schools cannot accept them due to limited capacity. The participation rate would increase if we built more school infrastructure and facilities," De Vera said.

A University of the Philippines official, who requested anonymity to be able to speak freely, said the same holds for most SUCs that cannot take in all those who pass their admission tests.

"Not only buildings or structures like laboratories, but also the number of teaching staff must be increased along with the number of students trying to avail themselves of a free college education," the official said.

"So, the government must invest more in education instead of defunding our scholars. Let's not allow our students to be failed by the quota system being forced on SUCs because of funding limitations," the UP executive said.

Mass migration

De Vera said other SUCs are in the same boat, citing Western Visayas State University, Visayas State University, Caraga State University and Mariano Marcos State University.

"Many of the applicants pass the exam, but the capacities of the schools allow them to accept only so much," De Vera said, explaining that there has been a mass migration of students from private HEIs to SUCs since the pandemic.

But even before the pandemic, the passage in 2017 of Republic Act 10931, or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education, had encouraged many families to send their kids to public universities and colleges.

De Vera said from 2018 to the present, over two million students have benefited from RA 10931.

Not sustainable?

Considered a legacy program of the Duterte administration, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno has been seeking the repeal or amendment of RA 10931, saying that the free tuition program is not sustainable.

Diokno, it may be recalled, as secretary of Budget and Management, also opposed the signing of RA 10931, but he was bluntly told by the tough-talking then-President Rodrigo Duterte to toe the government line and to look for funding for the program.

The two million students who did not have to pay tuition and miscellaneous fees for academic years 2018-2019 and 2021-2022 were spread across 220 public higher education institutions.

Many local government units are thus contemplating establishing their own colleges for their constituents, De Vera said.

"That's what we need to focus on now. How do you increase capacity — either through building more infrastructure or developing distance learning," he said.

In defense of free higher education, De Vera said the participation rate, or those who are able to go to college, has been rising each year. Participation rate refers to the percentage of university-aged individuals enrolled in HEIs.

"Before the free higher education, the participation rate was only 30 to 33 percent, but now it has reached 41 percent," he said.

On average, about P26 billion is allotted for free higher education in the national budget each fiscal year. The amount does not include tuition reimbursement and other fees handed by the Department of Budget and Management directly to SUCs.

A World Bank study has shown that every dollar spent on education can be considered a tenfold investment in the future of scholars.

No rise in subsidy fund

De Vera lamented that the budget for the Tertiary Education Subsidy has stayed the same because there are restrictions on the funding.

"What we did was reduce the TES grant to be able to cover more grantees. But there will be fewer TES grantees starting this school year because the fund is insufficient," he said.

If only because many grantees have already graduated, each TES grantee will receive P20,000, he said.

Previously, each TES grantee in state universities and colleges was given P40,000, while those in private universities received P60,000.

The call for additional support for SUCs came amid the millions of pesos that found their way into the National Expenditure Program for so-called "intelligence" or "confidential" funds.

De Vera came under fire from Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin during the deliberation for the budget of CHEd over claimed "non-essential" expenditures by the agency.

"We use billions here to make guidelines, trips, visitors, research, and performance evaluation. Do we really need this huge expense?" Garin asked De Vera.

The CHEd, according to Garin, must set aside its wants and needs, given that many students face financial difficulties.

"The only thing we notice is that CHEd always says how much the students need [but]. apparently, you are not that keen on directly giving assistance to our students," she said.

In 2023, CHEd proposed a budget of P30.7 billion, with P29.3 billion or 98.5 percent designated for funding scholarships through the Higher Education Development Program.

While the agency's projected budget for 2024 climbed to P31 billion, the funding for HEDP got a slight cut at P29 billion.

CHEd faced backlash from lawmakers during the budget hearing, including its unpaid debt to private schools. Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza sought to subject the CHEd to a special audit. with Edjen Oliquino @tribunephl_eao